Max Sherman (Ontario politician)
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Max Sherman (died February 28, 2010) was a businessperson and politician in Brantford, Ontario, Canada. He was the city's mayor for two years and served a total of thirty-one years on the Brantford City Council.
Max Sherman was born in Toronto, the son of Ben Sherman, who owned and operated Sherman's Hardware for many years. The younger Sherman planned to open his own hardware store in the city, but was diagnosed with tuberculosis only three days before the store's scheduled launch in 1938. As a result, he spent ten months recovering at the Brantford Sanatorium.[1] He later recounted that his doctor told him, "You can open your business in three days and die or go to the San, get cured and have a chance at a long, healthy life." Reflecting on the situation at age eighty-nine, he said that moving to Brantford was the right choice.[2]
He was active in Brantford's Jewish community, serving as master of ceremonies at the opening of a new synagogue building in 1948 and chairing B'nai Brith Canada's Brantford lodge (which closed in 1974). He was refused admission into the Brantford chapter of an international service organization in the 1950s because of anti-Semitism, though he chose not to publicize the matter at the time. Many years later, he said that popular opinions had changed significantly in his lifetime and described Brantford as "a good town to live in."[3]