Canada Virtual Jewish History Tour
Canada is a country in the northern half of North America and a member of the British Commonwealth. Jews first settled in the Canadian territory in the late 18th century. Today, Canada’s Jewish population is approximately 398,000, making it the fourth-largest Jewish community in the world. This Diaspora has been shaped by features distinctive to the Canadian nation: the French-English duality, the relatively small immigration of German Jews, and proportionally much larger emigration from Eastern Europe. In addition, Canada’s Jews have never been subject to a unified, overriding, and jealous Canadian nationalism, which has facilitated the maintenance of a strong sense of Canadian Jewish identity. While American Jewry yearned for integration into the mainstream of the great republic, Canadians expressed their Jewishness in a country that had no coherent self-definition – except perhaps the solitudes and tensions of duality, the limitations and challenges of northernness, and the colonial-mindedness of borrowed glory. While in the United States, Irving Berlin wrote “God Bless America,” in Canada, the quintessential Jewish literary figure, Abraham Moses Klein, wrote poems of anguish expressing longing for the redemption of the Jewish soul lost in a sea of modernity. A distinctive geography, history, population, and development patterns dictated the formative context of Canadian Jewish history and the personality of its community.
Early History Early HistoryIn 1608, Samuel de Champlain founded the French colony of New France, which is now located in what is now the province of Quebec. The region was settled by strict Roman Catholics, who, under Cardinal Richelieu’s decree of 1627, were prohibited from settling non-Catholics in the new French territory. Joseph de la Penha, a Dutch Jewish merchant, was granted the territory of Labrador by England’s King William III in 1697, possibly because one of de la Penha’s captains had discovered the area. In 1732, a young Jew named Ferdinande Jacobs was employed as an apprentice by the Hudson Bay Company. He became chief factor at Fort Prince of Wales and at York Factory before returning to England in 1775. Like many other white traders, he took an Indian “wife” and fathered some children. Aside from the stories of the famous stowaway to New France, Esther Brandeau, in 1738, and the Dutch Jew who converted upon reaching Louisbourg, Jews traded to the French colonies in the Americas, including New France and Acadia. Between 1744 and 1759, Abraham Gradis of Bordeaux conducted a considerable trade with New France, much of it in conjunction with the Intendant, François Bigot. There may also have been a few Marranos among the French merchants living in Quebec and Louisbourg during the French regime. There were also Sephardi traders, with names such as Moresca, Fonseca, Cordova, and Miranda, who had accompanied the invading British troops to the north in 1759 and 1760. It was not until 1760, during the French and Indian War, that the first group of Jews, who were soldiers in the British army, set foot in Canada. The first Jewish settlement was established in that same year, comprising Jewish officers, soldiers, merchants, and fur traders. After the British gained control of Montreal on September 8, 1760, a small Jewish population remained there. When 15 Jews gathered to organize Canada’s first congregation, Shearith Israel, in Montreal on December 30, 1768, they were continuing a North American Jewish communal tradition that had begun in New Amsterdam 114 years earlier. The Montreal congregation took its name from New York City’s major synagogue. Although oriented for many years toward London for religious personnel and guidance, the Montreal congregation continued its strong connection to the Jewish communities in New York and Philadelphia. While most congregants were Ashkenazim, they followed the Sephardi order of prayer, which was an integral part of early American Jewish culture. There was some Jewish contact with the British colonies in Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. The New York merchant Jacob Franks dealt in tea, shipping some to Newfoundland and some through Cape Breton in the early 1740s. In 1748, the executive of London’s Spanish and Portuguese synagogue, which was then seeking a refuge for the city’s Jewish poor, considered founding a Jewish colony in Nova Scotia. Nothing ever came of it. Some Jewish traders arrived in Halifax shortly after it was founded in 1749, as a British naval and military base. By the 1750s, there were many Jews among the army and navy purveyors, as well as the merchants who supplied the growing local civilian population. Land was acquired for a cemetery. The Jewish presence here continued into the 1760s, but gradually died out, and the cemetery land was appropriated for a provincial workhouse. With the lifting of the decree of 1627, after the surrender of all of New France under the Treaty of Paris in 1763, small numbers of Jews began to arrive from the Thirteen Colonies, England, the Netherlands, and Germany. On June 5, 1832, Canadian Jews gained full rights as British subjects, including the right to sit in Parliament and hold public office. The 19th CenturyIt fell to Ezekiel Hart, the second son of Aaron Hart, to become a casualty in the developing clash between English and French. In 1804, he won election to a seat in the Assembly of Lower Canada. His opponents publicly asserted that Hart could not be sworn in because he was a Jew. The Assembly formed a special committee to consider the matter and recommended that he be expelled. The Assembly passed this resolution, and Hart was thereby banned. Elected again in the ensuing by-election, Hart was expelled a second time, and he gave up the fight. Officially, Jews were now second-class citizens in Lower Canada. They were ineligible for membership in the Assembly and legally unfit to hold any civil, judicial, or military office. This ban was removed in March 1831 through legislation supported by eminent reformers Louis-Joseph Papineau and Denis-Benjamin Viger. It became law in 1832, and after a challenge, it was confirmed in 1834 by a special committee of the Assembly. The Jewish population of Canada rose slowly but steadily throughout the 19th century. In the 1840s, Jews from Western and Central Europe established small communities in Hamilton, Kingston, and Toronto. Jewish communities were established in Halifax and Saint John in the late 19th century. As Montreal, the hub of Canada’s import-export trade, prospered, so did Montreal’s Jews. In 1847, Abraham de Sola arrived from London to become their spiritual leader. For the next 35 years, he served as the community’s religious leader while enjoying considerable eminence in the wider community. He was appointed to the faculty at McGill College and participated in local scientific and numismatic societies. He wrote extensively on questions of science and religion, as well as Jewish history. He maintained contacts with the Jewish intellectual and social environment that stretched from London to Philadelphia. He took, as well, an interest in the persecuted Jews in Persia, charities in Palestine, and the threats to traditional Judaism from reformers in Germany and especially America. Although still small in size, the Montreal Jewish community experienced significant growth during de Sola's ministry, largely due to immigration. It now encompassed increasing numbers of English, German, Alsatian, and Polish Jews following the Ashkenazi traditions common throughout Central and Eastern Europe. They formed an Ashkenazi congregation in 1846, and a Hebrew Benevolent Society was started in 1847 to assist new immigrants. The Jews of both congregations were mostly petty merchants, and with few exceptions, they were involved in Montreal’s burgeoning financial, transportation, and manufacturing sectors, which dominated the national economy. The same was true of the smaller Jewish communities taking shape in Toronto, Hamilton, and Victoria. Jews began as marginal men, mainly engaged in the petty commerce of jewelry, fancy goods, tobacco, dry goods, and inexpensive clothing, much of which was sold to upcountry storekeepers. In Victoria, the Jews also conducted a lively trade with the interior, gold-mining camps. The sale of clothing, both wholesale and retail, provided a major springboard for later Jewish entry into what was by 1871 one of the leading industries in major Canadian cities – the manufacture of men’s and boys' apparel. Tobacco merchandising gave Jews another significant manufacturing opportunity in Canada. The 1871 census reported that, in total, 1,115 Jews lived in Canada, with 409 residing in Montreal, 157 in Toronto, 131 in Hamilton, and the remainder scattered along the St. Lawrence River. The gold rush on the West Coast brought small numbers of Jewish traders, merchants, and wholesalers from California, England, New Zealand, and Australia to Vancouver. In 1886, Vancouver became the terminus of the Canadian Pacific Railroad, attracting a handful of Jews who recognized the potential for business in the region. Also, in the 1880s, large numbers of Eastern European Jews escaping the pogroms of czarist Russia sought refuge in Canada. Toward MaturityUntil the late 1890s, individual Jewish communities had existed in isolation from one another. Organized assistance to immigrants arriving in Montreal in 1882 marked the beginning of coordinated philanthropic activity in Montreal, Toronto, and Winnipeg. But pressures for coordination emerged in the late 19th century to respond to the rise in immigration of destitute and persecuted Eastern European Jews. Between 1880 and 1900, Canada welcomed about 10,000 Jewish immigrants. Between 1881 and 1901, Canada’s Jewish population exploded from less than 2,500 to more than 16,000. The Jewish population increased more than 14 times faster than the total national population in those two decades. The resident Jewish community was overwhelmed by the challenge of assisting the destitute and sick due to the influx of the 1880s and 1890s. They appealed to Western European and British Jewish organizations to stop sending more immigrants and help support those who had already arrived. While financial assistance came from agencies such as London’s Mansion House Committee and the Jewish Colonization Association, it was never sufficient to meet local needs. The new arrivals brought other problems besides poverty. The vast majority of Russian, Austro-Hungarian, and Romanian Jews who came in the 1880s and 1890s did not possess the adaptive language or commercial skills of the previous British and German settlers. With the vast open spaces of Canada’s western plains, Jewish agricultural settlement was encouraged. Alexander Galt, a leading Canadian government official, was interested in promoting immigration to the Prairies; in 1882, he proposed the migration of “agricultural Jews to our North West.” These efforts resulted in the establishment of 28 families in a colony of about 9,000 acres near Moosomin in 1884. London’s Mansion House committee provided each family with loans to buy cattle, implements, and food. Two years later, five Jewish families had settled near Wapella, including Ekiel Bronfman, the founder of what was to become a prominent family. There were many more Jewish farm colony experiments on the Prairies in subsequent years, some of them moderately successful and others of only fleeting duration. The lure of the open plains as a place for the rehabilitation of Eastern European Jews continued to interest many. However, the Jewish Colonization Association’s Paris officials were less sanguine about Canada than they were about Argentina. Most Jews, in short, did not move to rural areas. Montreal Jewry was nevertheless severely strained by its staggering rate of growth during these years. While the city’s total metropolitan population grew by some 55% in the 1880s and by 25% in the 1890s, the city’s Jewish population rose by an average of nearly 300% in the same period. In the late 19th century, out in the west, Victoria’s population had already peaked in size, and Jews in London, Ontario, Saint John, New Brunswick, and Halifax, Nova Scotia, were by the 1880s numerous enough to enjoy regular minyanim. Toronto’s Jewish population grew by slightly more than 100% during the 1890s, Hamilton’s by 50%, and Winnipeg’s by about 90%. Ottawa’s Jewish population, on the other hand, rose by 800% during the 1890s; both Windsor, Ontario, and Saint John, New Brunswick, grew by over 900%, and Quebec City by 600%. By 1900, all of these cities and towns, as well as Halifax, London, and Vancouver, possessed synagogues. In Winnipeg, the tiny Jewish community, which consisted of only a handful of Jews in 1881, grew to more than a thousand by the turn of the century, with two active synagogues. Toronto’s first congregation, Holy Blossom, was formed in 1856 and was housed in a modest new building as of 1875. However, the new immigrants of the 1880s and 1890s were not easily integrated into Holy Blossom, especially after the congregation opened its magnificent new building on Bond Street in 1898. The congregation incorporated elements of Reform into the services at the new synagogue, including prayers in English, mixed seating, organ music, and a choir. In Montreal, on the other hand, both major synagogues were decidedly Orthodox, and the Reform group was very small. Yet these distinctions in liturgy and ritual observance were of less importance in dividing Toronto’s older and newer sub-communities than the social and cultural barriers between them. Sigmund *Samuel, the son of a well-to-do hardware merchant who had been the "moving spirit" in building the Richmond Street synagogue, completed his secular education at the elite Upper Canada College and the Toronto Model School. At the same time, his formal pre-bar mitzvah Jewish tutoring was limited to after-school hours. Although he experienced some anti-Jewish discrimination, Samuel became wealthy and circulated comfortably in Toronto’s elite circles. Other Toronto Jews were so assimilated that the new Jewish immigrants regarded them as Gentiles. As a result, Eastern European Jews established their own synagogues and developed their own organizational structures. The cleavages between uptown and downtown Jews widened. Not only was the Jewish community divided, but it faced a divided Canada. The "sense of mission" among many Anglophone intellectuals was offset by the emergence in French Canada of a national ideology combining ultramontanism, messianism, and anti-statism. At the same time, many Canadian Jews understood that, while part of "Amerika," Canada was a unique society. It was not as secular, as democratic, as nationalistic, as liberal a nation – at least theoretically – as the real "Amerika," even though Canada held out the same promise of freedom from persecution, and of a better material life for them and their children. It must have seemed a paradox to the Jews settling in Canada that they had arrived in a country where a major province like Quebec should be reminiscent of Eastern Europe, with its masses of poor "peasants," its extensive system of Roman Catholic religious institutions, and a ubiquitous state-recognized clergy. By 1900, Canada’s Jewish community had grown and changed considerably from its earliest days. With its sizable numbers of Romanians, Russians, and Poles, it was more diverse, and a distinctly Eastern European flavor was present. A distinct class structure had emerged, tending to sharpen differences among Jews. Workers in tailoring shops and clothing factories, machinists in railroad yards, tradesmen, peddlers, and small storekeepers had different economic agendas than the newly wealthy owners of substantial real estate, clothing manufacturers, contractors, and proprietors of large businesses. By 1901, Jewish communities had emerged throughout Canada. Montreal still maintained the largest Jewish population, with 6,975, followed by Toronto, with 3,103. Winnipeg had 1,164 Jews, Vancouver had 224, and Nova Scotia had 152. Between 1901 and 1911, 52,484 Jewish immigrants arrived in Canada, settling across the country from coast to coast. Rise of an Ethnic EconomySome of these immigrants took to peddling, a form of penny capitalism that their predecessors had pursued. In Montreal, the Baron de Hirsch Institute provided small start-up loans for these peddlers. Other forms of small-scale commerce also abounded: clothing, confectionery, fish and grocery stores, kosher bakeries, and butcher shops. Some men were employed within the Jewish community as ritual slaughterers, teachers, or rabbis. These and others in the service sector, many of whom were self-employed, constituted as much as 30% of the Jewish gainfully employed, approximately the same level achieved in Russia in the 1890s. Many Jews were drawn to the booming ready-made clothing industry. Protected by high tariffs and stimulated by rising demand in the St. Lawrence Valley and in the more distant hinterlands, the industry’s output doubled in the 1870s and doubled again in the 1880s. By 1900, clothing production was the province’s second-largest industry. Many Jews found easy entry into the clothing industry, which responded to its low capital requirements and the constant demand for seasonal labor in factories or home workshops. By the 1880s, a new class of Jewish clothing manufacturers also emerged. Served by several railway systems that reached into the interior and all the way to Vancouver, clothing production mushroomed in Montreal, Toronto, and Hamilton. The lesson that most of their Jewish employers had become successful manufacturers or contractors was not lost on immigrants, and this role model was emulated time and again in subsequent years. Many Jews were willing to work in this industry, at least temporarily, and to endure the low wage rates, seasonal unemployment, and miserable conditions. The sweatshops where they worked attracted notoriety and public outrage during federal government investigations. Reports by provincial factory inspectors on the existence of sweatshops in the Montreal clothing industry received full exposure in the Jewish Times, which revealed appalling conditions and called upon the “Baron de Hirsch” to start a program training Jewish immigrants in other trades. Jewish immigration rose between 1901 and 1922 to levels that have never been equaled since. Most Jewish immigrants were concentrated in metropolitan centers. Between 1901 and 1911, Montreal’s Jewish population grew by more than 400%, while Toronto’s increased by nearly 600%, although the growth rates between 1911 and 1921 were a much more modest 60% and 70%, respectively. The Ottawa and Hamilton communities also grew dramatically during these decades, increasing by about 400% from 1901 to 1911, and by 70% and 50%, respectively. The most notable expansion between 1901 and 1911 occurred in the West, where Winnipeg’s Jewish community experienced a staggering 800% increase, and Vancouver’s nearly 500%. Meanwhile, smaller centers in western Canada, such as Calgary, Edmonton, Regina, and Saskatoon, grew rapidly. Rare was the small town of booming western Canada that did not have one or two Jewish families by the early 1920s. Small Town JewriesThe dispersion of the Jewish population outside metropolitan centers and secondary cities was also occurring in central Canada, particularly in southwestern and northern Ontario, as well as the Maritimes. By the outbreak of World War I, many of these small communities boasted a synagogue. Jewish concentrations in the Maritime provinces also increased. The importance of this sprinkling of small Jewish communities across Canada does not lie so much in the numbers involved. They were, after all, not large enough to indicate a significant demographic shift away from the metropolitan centers. The point about Jewish communities in Glace Bay, Brantford, and Moose Jaw, to take regional examples, is that they represent another dimension of the Canadian Jewish experience. Jewish life in these places differed significantly from life in Montreal, Toronto, and Winnipeg, where Jews constituted a substantial minority in neighborhoods, schools, and workplaces. Small-town Jews had little such built-in community. There were too few Jews to form a distinctive neighborhood, and because they were almost entirely small-scale businessmen — storekeepers, peddlers, or junk collectors —they dealt daily with non-Jews. They lived among them, and their children were often the only non-Christians in the public schools they attended. On the cultural frontier between the Jewish and non-Jewish worlds, they were more directly exposed, on the one hand, to influences which drew them away from their identity as Jews, and on the other, to the need to explain and defend that identity on an almost daily basis. The small-town Jew did not enjoy the luxuries of landsmanschaften, political clubs, and other forms of cultural expression that were emerging strongly in large centers. The forms of local association were often limited to the local synagogue, the B’nai B’rith lodge, and, for women, Hadassah and the synagogue Ladies’ Auxiliary. For the youth, after 1917, there was usually a branch of Young Judaea. Jewish cultural life was also influenced by Yiddish newspapers and magazines from New York, Toronto, and Montreal, as well as by occasional speakers, often Zionist fundraisers. Small-town Jews huddled close to each other for mutual support. Here, nothing could be taken for granted. Unlike metropolitan centers, small towns had little to no Jewish working class. Most Jews were storekeepers, usually selling men’s or women’s clothing, furniture, or shoes. Others might operate a grocery, a theater, a flour mill, a candy store, or a dry cleaning shop. Some of these Jews began as peddlers, selling merchandise from small carts or buggies from farm to farm in rural areas, or along the streets in towns and villages, securing the merchandise on credit from wholesalers in Toronto, Montreal, or Winnipeg. In a few years, one might then open a small store. Instead of cash, some peddlers would accept livestock or produce as payment, while others would take any scrap metal, hides, or furs that farmers had for barter. Thus, small-town Jewish commerce typically began on a partially rural basis, with the peddler providing an exchange, not simply selling merchandise in return for cash. Those seeking scrap metals, for example, often offered new kitchen utensils to farmers in exchange for cast-off implements. Such metals would be hauled back to the peddler’s yard, knocked apart with sledgehammers, thrown into piles, and sold off to brokers who bought the lot to feed the steel mills in Hamilton, Sydney, and Sault Ste. Marie. Others collected rags, cleaned and shredded them, and sold off the product as “shoddy” to mills. Some dealt in hides and furs, which they assembled, cleaned, sorted, and sold to brokers from the city. Western ColoniesThe Western farm colonies, primarily located in Saskatchewan, emerged in the early 20th century. Mainly under the direct management of the Jewish Colonization Association, the settlement projects there were professionally managed and better financed. But their fortunes were in decline. By 1931, of all Jews who had settled on the Prairies, more than 60 percent were no longer living on farms. In 1921, only one in four Jews living in rural areas was directly engaged in agriculture, forestry, or mining. There were 700 Jewish farm families in all of Canada in 1921, the peak year of the colonization movement, most of them in Western Canada. However, the farm population dropped significantly over the next decade, and by 1931, the entire Jewish agrarian experiment was in serious trouble. Within ten years, the Depression all but wiped out the colonies, although a few families managed to hold on for another generation. There were some exceptions, but the farming movement had failed to generate a significant Jewish rural life in Canada. Like the settlement schemes fostered by the ICA in Argentina, the Canadian Jewish colonies suffered from confusing changes in management and perhaps from an overdependence on the ICA. Meanwhile, restrictions on immigration introduced in the mid-1920s severely curtailed the recruitment of new settlers. While all of these factors were, no doubt, important in the ultimate failure of the colonies, it is clear that – in contrast to colonies established by Mennonites and Hutterites – most Jews showed a low commitment to the agricultural way of life and gravitated to the major urban centers. Indeed, none of these Jewish settlements demonstrated the strong social ideals that underpinned the kibbutz movement in Palestine. Urban Social Problems and AdjustmentPoverty, sickness, and burial were the most serious problems in metropolitan centers. In Montreal, the Baron de Hirsch Institute and its associated charity were extremely busy after 1900, offering assistance to those in need. There were so many burials of Jewish indigents (including 139 children) in 1908, for example, that local cemeteries ran out of space. Because the Institute’s doctors’ caseload tripled between 1907 and 1913, the Herzl Health Clinic was established to cope with the increasing number of sick patients, many of whom were afflicted with tuberculosis. Mount Sinai Sanatorium was established in the Laurentian highlands near Ste.-Agathe, while, for the growing numbers of children needing care, an orphanage was built in the city's western suburbs. Mutual benefit societies flourished. In Toronto in the early 1900s, they helped to lessen the pain “of alienation, loneliness and rootlessness in a strange new country,” as well as the economic problems of adjustment. The members were mostly those who could not afford synagogue membership or were secularists. Three types of mutual benefit societies existed in Toronto: the non-partisan and ethnically mixed, the left-wing, and the landsmanschaften, whose members were all from the same area of Europe. Altogether, there were 30 mutual benefit organizations in the city by 1925: ten landsmanschaften, eight ethically mixed societies, and 12 branches of the left-wing Arbeiter Ring (Workmen’s Circle), each of them with memberships ranging from 80 to 500. There was also a decided working-class orientation to these associations, even those that were not labor-oriented Workmen’s Circle lodges: the Pride of Israel and the Judaean Benevolent and Friendly Society “often gave assistance to striking workers.” Member benefits typically included payments for illnesses (excluding those caused by “immoral actions”) and visits to family doctors, as well as free burial in the society’s cemetery. Many also provided small loans at low interest. The annual price of this protection cost each member as much as two weeks’ wages. Just as significant were the social and psychological benefits provided by the landsmanschaften. Members could share nostalgic reminiscences about Czestochowa, Miedzyrzec, Ostrow, or other Polish towns and cities from which Jews came to Toronto. The Workmen’s Circle lodges provided left-wing ideology that stressed Jewish cultural autonomism, a comfort both to working men in an exploitative economic climate and to Yiddish speakers. To those without the protection of such associations, cash, coal, food, bedding, and cooking utensils were distributed by the Toronto Hebrew Ladies' Aid; similar organizations sprang up for specific congregations, along with charities offering maternity care, childcare, and other social assistance needs. In 1909, the Jewish dispensary was established to provide the poor with medicines and medical advice. An orphanage was established in 1910, and an old-age home in 1913. In Winnipeg, beginning in 1884, the Hebrew Benevolent Society provided relief to the needy, employment to the unemployed, railroad tickets to those intending to resettle elsewhere, assistance to farm colonies, and support for other communal endeavors. In 1909, it was reorganized as the United Hebrew Charities. Differences of opinion over priorities between the poorer and more numerous Jews of the north end and those of the prosperous south side were resolved by an amalgamated organization called the United Relief of Winnipeg in 1914. Two orphanages were established by 1917, and in 1919, the Jewish Old Folks Home of Western Canada was founded. As in Toronto, landsmanschaften, fraternal orders, and mutual benefit societies in Winnipeg provided material support and a "wraparound culture" of social and cultural activities that involved their members in regular, almost familial association. In major Canadian cities, lending societies serving the entire community, such as the Montreal Association of Hebrew Free Loan, provided a boost to Jewish penny capitalism. In 1918, of the more than 1,000 applicants, 31 were classified as ritual slaughterers, Hebrew teachers, or Jewish booksellers; 24 as merchants or manufacturers; 46 as peddlers (jewelry, eyeglasses, dry goods, tea, coffee, etc.); 21 as shopowners (plumbing, blacksmith, tinsmith, upholstering, and cooperage); and 25 as agents for other businesses. Other occupations included 16 farmers; 11 contractors (building, electrical, painting, carpentry); 38 custom tailors, tailor shop owners, or contractors; and 44 milk, bread, fruit, or ginger-ale peddlers. There were 47 shoe-repair store owners; 77 country, junk, rag, second-hand clothing, furniture, and fur peddlers; 54 small proprietors; 345 working men; and 239 store owners (jewelry, drugs, clothing, dry goods, hardware, shoes, fruit, grocery, second-hand goods, butcher, bread, and barber shop). While most of these loans were for business purposes, 38 were for remittances to Europe, and five were “to marry off a daughter.” *Sin was also of concern. Rumors of “white slave” trade into North and South America led Lillian Freiman of Ottawa to voice deep concern in an address to Hadassah members over the fate of orphaned Jewish girls in Eastern Europe who were being lured to South America "into a future worse than death [by] … human vultures." While only a small part of this traffic appears to have extended into Canada, the "Baron de Hirsch" took notice of the danger and cooperated with international organizations and the National Council of Jewish Women in attempting to arrest its spread. From time to time, Montreal was alleged to be a site of some of this activity, and Vancouver a way-station on the Pacific. In 1908 Toronto newspapers reported the arrest and deportation to the United States of two local Jews, well known to the Chicago police as brothel keepers, and wanted on charges of white slavery. The 1915 Toronto Social Survey Commission noted that Jewish pimps were active in Jewish neighborhoods, probably servicing mainly a Jewish clientele, and there were allegations that many of the city's bootleggers were Jews. The fact that some prominent Montreal Jews – like Samuel Schwartz and Rabbi Nathan *Gordon – took part in campaigns to suppress corruption and vice, including rampant prostitution, reflected their progressive and reformist impulses, and, possibly, a sense of guilt over Jewish participation in such crimes. In Canada the "world of our mothers" also began to change. The first generation of Jewish women immigrants from Central Europe were influenced by social reform ideas then current among their non-Jewish contemporaries, and looked to "deliver Jewish women from their second bondage of ignorance and misery." Some organized aid committees and, later, the National Council of Jewish Women. East European women who arrived later formed the Hadassah organization in 1917 for the welfare of women and children in Palestine. But the Jewish women of the third wave of immigration, during the years of mass immigration after 1900, often found work in factories. Because of their lack of familiarity with the English language, they avoided joining Hadassah. They gravitated towards socialist organizations, like the Labor Zionists, the Social Democratic Party, and the Workmen's Circle. Despite gender barriers set up against them by the Jewish unions, "Jewish women played an important part within the Jewish labour movement … [with] militancy and class consciousness …." North American social and economic conditions were inducing different segments of Jewish society to conform to new norms, which were changing the role of women within the community. The Rise of AntisemitismPublic reaction to the increasing number of Jews in Montreal during the 1880s and 1890s was generally accepting, evoking no alarm or animosity from the major urban newspapers. An exception was Quebec’s La Vérité, which published anti-Semitic articles in the early 1880s (most of which were drawn from militant ultramontane publications in France) and screeds favorable to Édouard Drumont’s diatribe, La France juive, as well as to other French anti-Semitic publications. La Vérité’s editor urged its readers “to be on guard against the Jews, to prevent them from establishing themselves here…. The Jews are a curse, a curse from God.” These outbursts encouraged other French Canadian anti-Semites. Many anti-Semitic articles were published during the first stage of the Dreyfus affair. But the major French newspapers in Quebec remained neutral. The most avowedly anti-Semitic of major Montreal newspapers of the 1890s was not a French publication but the daily serving the city’s English-speaking Catholics. The True Witness and Daily Chronicle carried intensely partisan material during both Dreyfus trials, unabashedly siding with the French anti-Dreyfusards. Meanwhile, in Toronto, Goldwin Smith, a leading intellectual of his day, became Canada’s best-known Jew-hater. Widely believed to be a liberal spirit, Smith was so virulent an anti-Semite that he gained notoriety for it throughout the English-speaking world. He claimed that the cause of the Boer War was Britain’s demand that the franchise be extended to “the Jews and gamblers of Johannesburg”; that Jews were gaining greater control over the world’s press and influencing public opinion; that “the Jews have one code of ethics for themselves, another for the Gentile”; that Disraeli was a “contemptible trickster and adventurer, who could not help himself because he was a Jew. Jews are no good anyhow,” “the Jew is a Russophobe,” and so on. Despite a growing atmosphere of Canadian racial prejudice, Jews sometimes fared better in the racial sweepstakes than other immigrant groups. Methodist minister and Social Gospeller J.S. Woodsworth, whose book about immigrants, Strangers within Our Gates, was suffused by the racism characteristic of some turn-of-the-century social commentators, in fact seems to have regarded Jews as more adaptable, assimilable, and culturally suitable to Canada than Ukrainians, Italians, Chinese, or blacks. The Winnipeg General Strike of 1919 witnessed more anti-Ukrainian than anti-Jewish sentiment, despite the fact that the strike probably had as much support among the Jewish working class as among Ukrainians, and the fact that Abraham Heaps – an English Jew – was among its major leaders. Jews remained, nevertheless, prime targets of prejudice. In 1904, the Lord’s Day Alliance, an organization devoted to protecting the sanctity of the Sabbath, viciously attacked Orthodox Jews who had complained about Sunday observance laws, stating that they “had sought out our land FOR THEIR OWN GOOD” and should conform to Canada’s “civil customs.” Reverend S.D. Chown, head of the Canadian Methodist Church in the early 1900s, called Jews parasites in the national bloodstream, and another influential clergyman pointed out that “Jews have much to do with commercialized vice.” As late as 1920, Dr. C.K. Clarke, Canada’s leading psychiatrist, argued strenuously against allowing the immigration of refugee Jewish children from the Ukrainian famine because they “belong to a very neurotic race.” University academics were also given to anti-Semitism. In 1919, Dr. R. Bruce Taylor, principal of Queen’s University, rejoiced in the fact that there were only five Jews at Queen’s, explaining: “The presence of many Jews tended to lower the tone of Canadian Universities.” Dean Moyse of McGill reportedly resented the presence of Russian Jews in his English classes because they “were not even conversant with Shakespeare.” At McGill, steps were taken to reduce the number of Jews. While they constituted 25% of arts students, 15% of medical students, and 40% of law students in 1920, university officials began to impose stiff quotas that would severely reduce those percentages during the interwar years. Meanwhile, the early 20th century witnessed a rise in French Canadian anti-Semitism as well. The Catholic Church, strongly ultramontane in spirit and drawing inspiration from Rome and France, perceived Jews as dangerous aliens. Accused of being allied with the anti-clericals, socialists, and freemasons, they were seen as threats to the preservation of a Catholic Quebec, while some young nationalists viewed them, along with the English, as an entirely foreign and dangerously disruptive element. As the “spearhead” of modern capitalism, the Jews were perceived as exploiters and destroyers of the purity and sacredness of Quebec’s rural way of life. Leading intellectual and newspaper editor Henri Bourassa had only contempt for the poor ghetto-dwellers in Montreal’s Jewish quarter. In his remarks to the House of Commons on the proposed Lord’s Day legislation in 1906, he dismissed the effect on observant Jews, condemning provisions of the bill which would exempt Jews, as these were added, “pandering to the Jewish vote.” To Bourassa, Jews were “vampires on the community instead of being contributors to the general welfare of the people” and were “detrimental to the public welfare.” Jewish-Protestant relations fared only somewhat better. In Quebec, education was divided along confessional lines. In 1894, the Protestant School Board of Montreal assumed responsibility for providing elementary education to the city’s increasing number of Jewish immigrant children. In return, it received school taxes collected on Jewish-owned property. The Board also agreed to pay a salary of $800 annually to a teacher who would provide religious and Hebrew-language instruction to the Jewish pupils. But the Protestants felt aggrieved. Few Jews owned land, and the costs to the Board seemed to outweigh the benefits. In 1901, the Board denied a scholarship to a Jewish child. It should be noted, however, that Jewish children were never actually barred from Protestant schools. Nor were they forced to accept instruction in the Christian faith, nor were they penalized for excusing themselves during religious instruction. While they were, in specific ways, made to feel unwelcome, and while Jewish teachers were not employed, all Jewish pupils seeking admission were accepted, received instruction, and enjoyed other facilities. For all the ill-feeling over the school question, Jews reacted most assertively to the open support that at least some segments of the Quebec Catholic community gave to the most obscene medieval myths and superstitions about Jews. In the early 1900s, a rising tide of anti-Semitic propaganda pervaded many of Quebec’s nationalist and clerical newspapers. A major complaint was the increasing number of Jewish purchases of houses and businesses in areas where both communities lived side by side. After 1910, much of this hate literature circulated in the clubs of the newly organized Association canadienne de la jeunesse catholique, an organization of French Canadian youth for nationalist and religious action. On March 30, 1910, a Quebec City notary, Joseph Edouard Plamondon, delivered a lecture at the local club of Jeunesse catholique, advancing some of the foulest lies about Judaism, including ritual murder. Jews did not believe that Russian-style pogroms would occur in Canada. Still, they feared that the repetition of such horrendous lies could reinvigorate deep-seated Christian anti-Semitism and might lead to highly unpleasant manifestations. One rabbi wired the federal minister of justice asking him to “direct [the] attorney general of Quebec to stop anti-Semitic agitation and [calls] for massacre against the Jews of Quebec.” Continuing hysterically, the rabbi warned that “large meetings to plan riots against Jews [will] take place Wednesday night [in] Quebec city.” The Jewish community sued Plamondon for libel. On the whole, however, the Jews recognized that the existence of these and other manifestations of anti-Semitism, however nasty and frightening they might be, was only a pale shadow of what they experienced in Europe. Despite anti-Semitism, Jewish men (and a few women) attended universities, Jewish storekeepers and peddlers plied their trade, Jewish workers labored alongside non-Jews and walked the same picket lines, and Jewish householders shared neighborhoods with Christians. The Dominion of Canada allowed for these and other possibilities, bringing the blessings of peace, freedom, and opportunity. Between the WarsDuring World War I, records show that 100 Jewish officers and 4,600 soldiers served in the Canadian army. At least 100 died, and 84 were decorated servicemen. However, these records are incomplete, and the number of Jews in the armed forces is thought to be much higher. At the end of World War I, in 1919, the Canadian Jewish Congress was founded to assist Eastern European Jews in Canada. During its first few years, the organization unified Canadian Jewry and established the Jewish Immigrant Aid Society. The CJC was inactive from the mid-1920s until the Nazis came to power. During the 1930s, the Congress fought against Nazi propaganda, raised funds for the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, and worked to bring Eastern European Jews to Canada. Its efforts preceding and during World War II led to its recognition as the official representative organization of Canadian Jews. The combination of the end of the war and the establishment of the quota system restricting immigration into the United States led to an influx of Jewish immigrants into Canada. However, the relaxed Canadian immigration regulations did not last long. With Hitler’s rise to power, thousands of Eastern European Jews sought refuge in Canada but were denied entry. Two orders-in-council were enacted at this time. First, in 1930, the Canadian government barred all immigration from Europe except for those with sufficient funds to support themselves on farms and those with immediate family already in the country. The second order arrived the following year, accompanied by a further set of restrictions. Only British and American citizens with independent means or who were in the farming, mining, lumbering, or logging industries were considered for residency. These anti-immigration policies reflected the mood of the country. Xenophobia and anti-Semitism were rampant, with unemployment and poverty on the rise during the Depression. Taking in refugees increased competition for the already scarce number of jobs. In addition, French newspapers and publications attacked Judaism and protested the admittance of Jewish refugees into Canada. Prime Minister W. L. Mackenzie King was sympathetic to the plight of the Jews but was constrained by the widespread opposition to immigration of any kind. In the face of such resistance, the Canadian immigration policy remained stringent. Between 1921 and 1931, only 15,800 Jewish immigrants were permitted to enter Canada.
On May 15, 1939, the St. Louis, a steamship carrying 907 German Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany, set sail from Hamburg, Germany, for Havana, Cuba. However, on May 30, when it reached the Havana port, the Cuban government refused to recognize the passengers’ entrance visas, and none was allowed to disembark. No other Latin American country would admit the refugees, and the St. Louis had to leave port. Canada and the United States were the Jews’ last hope, but Mackenzie King ignored the protests of Canadian Jewish organizations and said the crisis was not a “Canadian problem.” Frederick Charles Blair, the director of the Immigration Branch of the Department of Mines and Resources, was quoted as saying, “No country could open its doors wide enough to take in the hundreds of thousands of Jewish people who want to leave Europe: the line must be drawn somewhere.” Canada only took in 8,000, or one percent of the 811,000 Jewish refugees admitted into countries across the world. Mackenzie adopted the policy of “none is too many” regarding the immigration of European Jewry seeking refuge from the Nazis. In 1940, Great Britain sent several boatloads of prisoners to its colonies to hold as enemy spies. Unfortunately, around 7,000 Jewish refugees were mistakenly added to these manifests, and Canada imprisoned them all the same. The prisoners were held in eight camps across the country, at least two of which housed the Jews together with Nazi prisoners. Though Britain alerted Canada of the mistaken manifests, it took the country nearly three years to free the Jewish refugees. The British even sent a high-ranking diplomat, Alexander Paterson, to assure the Canadian government that the Jews posed no security risk. Paterson ended up spending more than eight months in Canada and eventually cleared many of the prisoners individually. By 1943, the last of the prisoner refugees had been released - many even made significant contributions to Canada later in life, including two Nobel Prize winners. During & After World War IICanada entered into World War II on September 10, 1939. Approximately 17,000 Jews enlisted in the Canadian armed forces, which constituted more than one-fifth of the entire Jewish male population in the country. Of these men, 10,440 served in the Army, 5,870 in the Air Force, and 570 in the Navy. The war claimed the lives of 421 Jews, and 1,971 Jewish soldiers received military awards. Saskatchewan Jews were among the first to volunteer during both World War I and II, and many lost their lives in the European trenches. The province honored those who sacrificed their lives, including several Jewish heroes, by naming several lakes and mountains of the vast northern region after them. After the war, the Canadian government instituted anti-discrimination laws and eased immigration regulations. The CJC worked to bring displaced persons to Canada, and between 1941 and 1951, 16,275 Jews immigrated to the country. Post-World War II immigration had a major impact on the composition of the Canadian Jewish population. The 1956 Hungarian uprising sent 4,500 Jewish refugees into the country, where they congregated in Toronto. It is estimated that between 1946 and 1960, 46,000 Jewish immigrants were admitted into Canada. Post-war immigration to Canada constituted a much higher percentage of the Canadian Jewish population than that of the United States. By 1990, Holocaust survivors and their descendants made up around eight percent of the U.S. Jewish population while, in Canada, they constituted between 30 and 40 percent of the Jewish community. Contemporary CanadaJews from various Eastern European countries, the former Soviet Union, Israel, and South Africa immigrated to Canada. During the 20th century, approximately 25,000 Sephardic Jews from Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, and Lebanon settled in Montreal and Toronto. Their Sephardic tradition added a new element to the composition of Canadian Jewry. In the 1970s, the rise of Quebec’s separatist movement and French Language Regulations prompted Montreal's predominantly English-speaking Jewish population to move to other English-speaking regions of Canada. After the Parti Quebecois won the provincial election of 1976, a mass migration of 20,000 to 30,000 Jews, particularly young adults, left Quebec. The separatist movement was seen as a threat to the Canadian Jewish community, as an independent Quebec would economically and geographically uproot many of the 100,000 Jews in Montreal and divide and weaken the national community. Due to this widespread exodus, Toronto assumed Montreal’s position as the center of Canadian Jewish activity. After the Liberal Party regained control of Quebec in 1985, and a nationwide economic recession lessened the appeal of the rest of Canada, the Jewish population of Quebec stabilized. Today, the size of the Canadian Jewish community is estimated to be between 340,000 and 380,000, a little more than one percent of the total population of 31.3 million. Most Canadian Jews reside in Ontario and Quebec, followed by Manitoba, British Columbia, and Alberta. Approximately 180,000 Jews live in Toronto, 93,000 in Montreal, 22,600 in Vancouver, 14,800 in Winnipeg, 13,500 in Ottawa, 8,000 in Calgary, and 5,000 in both Edmonton and Hamilton. By the 1990s, Canada had become the fourth-largest Diaspora community. The B’nai Brith Canada and the Council for Israel and Jewish Advocacy (CIJA) are the two main Jewish advocacy organizations. CIJA oversees the activities of the Canadian Jewish Congress, the Canada-Israel Committee, and National Jewish Campus Life. B’nai Brith’s independent parallel structure includes the League for Human Rights, the Canada Israel Public Affairs Committee (CIPAC), and the Campus Action Initiative. There are about twenty newspapers and journals, including the Jewish Tribune and the Canadian Jewish News, published by the Canadian Jewish community. Approximately 12,000 Jewish children attend Jewish day schools, and thousands more attend synagogue-affiliated after-school programs. After the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) revoked the Ne’eman Foundation’s charitable status in August 2023, it directed donors to a new charity, the Emunim Fund. Six weeks later, the CRA suspended Emunim for one year, raising concerns within Canada’s Jewish communities. The Ne’eman Foundation was accused of using Emunim to sidestep its revocation. The CRA recently revoked the Jewish National Fund (JNF) Canada’s status, drawing criticism from pro-Israel groups. Activist groups like Independent Jewish Voices supported the CRA’s actions, citing the funds’ support of Israeli military projects in disputed territories. The revocations have divided Canadian Jews, with some feeling targeted. Pro-Palestinian activists, however, view the actions as overdue. Jewish organizations, including the JNF and Ne’eman Foundation, have condemned the CRA’s decisions as biased. Charity lawyer Mark Blumberg believes the impact on Israel-related philanthropy will be limited, as JNF Canada’s donations represent a small fraction of overall contributions to Israel. Relations with IsraelCanada’s relationship with Israel began in 1947 when Canada was represented on the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP). Canada and 32 other countries voted in favor of a Jewish state, thus beginning a longstanding relationship with Israel based on a shared commitment to democratic values, understanding, and mutual respect. Canada delayed granting de facto recognition to Israel until December 1948. Finally, it gave full de jure recognition to the new nation on May 11, 1949, only after it was admitted into the UN. Avraham Harman became Israel’s first Consul General in Canada a week later. In September 1953, the Canadian Embassy opened in Tel Aviv, and Michael Comay was appointed as the Israeli Ambassador to Canada. However, a non-resident Canadian Ambassador to Israel was not appointed until 1958. Trade relations between the two countries soon developed. Canada exports agricultural products and raw materials to Israel, which, in turn, exports diamonds, textiles, clothing, and food products to Canada. In May 1961, David Ben-Gurion became the first Israeli Prime Minister to visit Canada, and since then, officials from both countries have visited each other frequently. In 1957, after the Sinai Campaign, Lester Pearson, the Canadian Secretary of State for External Affairs, received the Nobel Peace Prize for his proposal that UN troops be stationed in the disputed territory. Canadian troops were part of the United Nations Emergency Forces (UNEF) that kept the peace in Sinai and the Gaza Strip. The Canadian government has consistently supported every step the UN has taken in its effort to find a solution to the Arab-Israel conflict. After 1967, members of the separatist Quebec movement sided with the Arabs in the conflict, and Canada has frequently been at odds with the Israeli government. Relations between the Jewish Community and the Canadian government became strained after the first intifada began in 1987. The conflict undermined public support for Israel, and certain Israeli policies divided the Jewish community, making it difficult for Jewish organizations to present a unified front in discussions with the government. When Iraqi missiles struck Israel during the 1991 Gulf War, public opinion shifted overwhelmingly in favor of Israel. But, in 1992, when Ottawa hosted a series of multilateral peace negotiations on the topic of refugees, Israel took issue with the Palestinian representation and refused to participate. In November 1995, a Canadian Federal Court decision stated that Jews from any country could not claim refugee status in Canada because they had automatic citizenship in Israel. Canada and Israel signed a Free Trade Agreement in Toronto during Minister of Industry and Trade Natan Sharansky’s visit on July 31, 1996. Both governments approved the final text in early 1997. In January 2011, Canada and Israel signed an umbrella pact for defense and military cooperation, which was strengthened that November in light of the turmoil in the Arab world created by the “Arab Spring.” Canadian Defense Minister Peter MacKay and Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak signed several memoranda of understanding to facilitate information and intelligence sharing as well as cooperative arrangements for the development and sale of military technologies. “Israel needs strong reliable partners, of which Canada is certainly one. I would argue they could not find a more supportive country on the planet and partner in efforts to bring about stability in the region,” MacKay told the Foreign Press. “And so this is a very unique and valued opportunity to find the ground in which Canada can support (Israel) in a meaningful way.” Canadian and Israeli officials signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on January 21, 2014, to “deepen their relationship by enhancing their bilateral engagement and cooperation across the widest possible spectrum.” Citing their history of cooperation and Canada’s strong commitment to the survival of the Jewish state, the two countries established a “strategic partnership” by signing this MOU. The agreement called for increased security consultations and cooperation, frequent intergovernmental meetings, cooperation in joint research and development projects, and strengthening of counter-terrorism collaboration. The MOU also provided for negotiations to expand the Canada-Israel Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). In January 2015, Israeli and Canadian officials signed a Memorandum of Understanding between the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the State of Israel regarding Public Diplomacy Cooperation. The Canadian government is committed to working with Israel to oppose efforts to single out or isolate Israel. To do this, the governments of the two countries agreed to develop a “coordinated, public diplomacy initiative both bilaterally and in international and multilateral fora to oppose boycotts of Israel, its institutions, and its people,” publicly express their opposition to any who would call into question Israel’s right to exist, and engage in consultations to advocate for Israel. During his January 2015 trip to Israel, Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird reiterated Canada’s commitment to Israel’s peace and security. “The way to accomplish a Palestinian state,” he said, “is dialogue with Israel and not taking unilateral action” in reference to the Palestinians’ “huge mistake” of bringing war crimes charges against Israel in the International Criminal Court. Baird visited Ramallah on January 18, 2015, where he was subjected to protestors throwing rocks, eggs, and shoes at him. PLO official Saeb Erekat published a statement while Baird was visiting that denounced his support of Israel and urged him to apologize to the Palestinians. Baird responded that he was waiting for an apology from Erekat for claiming that Israeli settlement building in the West Bank counts as terrorism, similar to that practiced by the Islamic State. On July 30, 2015, Canadian officials announced a deal with Israel for the purchase of Iron Dome radar technology, as Canadian Defense Minister Jason Kenney stated, “Our troops deserve the best.” In one of the more unusual exchanges, a Canadian herd of “biblical sheep” was approved for import to Israel in February 2016, following initial skepticism from the Israeli Agriculture Ministry. According to the Bible, the ancient Israelite Jacob was given a flock of black and white speckled sheep as payment, a breed today known as Jacob Sheep. Today, these sheep are considered threatened; there are only about 5,000 left in the world, and none are left in Israel. Canadian breeders began an effort to reintroduce the sheep to Israel in 2014. Still, the plan initially did not gain much traction because Canada is not on the Israel Agriculture Ministry’s list for approved sheep imports. The Ministry reversed its objection, allowing the Jacob sheep to be brought to Israel in December 2016. The mayors of Toronto and Montreal visited Israel in November 2016, along with 120 representatives from local Canadian businesses and governments. Toronto Mayor John Tory offered his optimistic opinion that the BDS movement had lost momentum in Canada and that its influence had waned on Canadian college campuses. Relations were briefly strained when the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) notified Canadian sacramental wine vendors in July 2017 that they should not label wines manufactured in the West Bank as products of Israel. This prompted the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO) to send a letter on July 11 to the vendors, stating that any products from “occupied regions” labeled as products of Israel would not be acceptable and would be considered misleading. Following backlash from Israel and its Canadian supporters, the CFIA stated that a new employee had made an error that led to the misunderstanding. The agency subsequently stated that Israeli wines adhered to the terms of the Canada-Israel Free Trade Agreement and that no changes should be made to the labeling. Canadian International Trade Minister François-Phillippe Champagne and Israeli Economy Minister Eli Cohen signed an updated free trade agreement between their respective countries on May 29, 2018. The new deal eliminated excess duties on thousands of products, including fresh fruit and canned goods. Trade is also promoted by the Export Development Corporation (EDC), which offers lines of credit for buyer credit financing in Israel. Canadian exporters looking to sell goods or services in Israel can benefit from the full range of EDC's financial and risk management services. In July 2018, the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) announced a $2 million investment in the cybersecurity research center at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel. This funding will support the development of artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques in the banking industry. On July 26, 2024, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand issued a joint statement calling for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza, condemning Hamas for its actions on October 7, and urging it to release hostages. They stressed the need for Israel to protect Palestinian civilians and heed international concerns, including responding to the ICJ’s advisory opinion and ensuring accountability for violence by extremist settlers. The countries supported a ceasefire deal endorsed by the UN Security Council and advocated for a two-state solution. They also expressed grave concerns over regional escalation, condemned Iran, Hezbollah, and the Houthis for their destabilizing actions and attacks on Israel, and emphasized the importance of diplomatic efforts to prevent wider conflict. Mark Carney was elected prime minister on March 9, 2025. Netanyahu was one of the only Western leaders who never called to congratulate him. Hence, their relationship has been strained from the outset. On June 10, 2025, the foreign ministers of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Norway, and the United Kingdom jointly announced sanctions and other measures targeting Israeli ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich for allegedly inciting violence against Palestinians in the West Bank. The statement condemned their extremist rhetoric, which calls for the forced displacement of Palestinians and settlement expansion, as undermining the two-state solution and fueling human rights abuses. While affirming continued support for Israel’s security and condemning Hamas’s October 7 attacks, the ministers emphasized that the measures are aimed at individuals threatening regional stability and called on Israel to fulfill its international obligations. The following month, Canada announced it would recognize a Palestinian state in September, contingent on the Palestinian Authority’s implementation of democratic reforms. The move has drawn sharp condemnation from Israel and the United States, with Israeli officials accusing Carney of rewarding terrorism and undermining prospects for peace. Washington echoed the criticism, warning that unilateral recognition could derail ongoing negotiations for a ceasefire and hostage release, and jeopardize international efforts to reconstruct Gaza under a reformed Palestinian Authority. On September 21, 2025, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced in a statement that Canada formally recognized the State of Palestine. The decision was part of a coordinated declaration alongside the United Kingdom and Australia to build momentum for a two-state solution. Carney underscored Canada’s commitment to peace and recognition of Palestinian statehood. The joint move highlighted international pressure on Israel and the Palestinian Authority to advance negotiations, with Canada explicitly tying its action to a broader peace framework. In 2018, it was estimated that approximately 15,000 to 20,000 Canadians reside in Israel. Anti-SemitismOrganized anti-Semitism did not surface in Canada until the 1920s and 1930s when the Ku Klux Klan, Western Guard, and Aryan Nations formed. These hate groups promoted intolerance of Jews, Catholics, and Blacks. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, the rise of Nazism and xenophobic sentiments were prevalent. In recent years, there have been a couple of cases of anti-Semitism covered heavily in the Canadian media. In the 1970s and early 1980s, Ernst Zundel, a German immigrant running a printing business in Toronto, was charged with internationally distributing anti-Semitic hate propaganda denying the Holocaust. Zundel attempted to create a global network of neo-Nazis through his website and writings. He was accused of being a threat to national security and deported to Germany, where he was charged with incitement of Holocaust denial. On February 15, 2007, he was convicted and sentenced to the maximum term of five years in prison. He was released on March 1, 2010.[ In 1984, James Keegstra, a high school social studies teacher and mayor of the small town of Eckville, Alberta, was charged under the anti-hate law with unlawfully promoting anti-Semitism, including Holocaust denial and Jewish international conspiracy theories. He was convicted in 1985, had the conviction overturned on appeal in 1991, and was convicted again at a second trial in 1992 and fined $3,000. What to do with Nazi war criminals living in Canada was an issue in the 1980s. The Jewish community demanded government action when the public became aware of how they gained entry into the country. In 1986, the government appointed Justice Jules Deschenes to investigate. In 1987, he published his findings, which cited corrupt government policies and procedures, including the disregard of regulations that would have blocked Nazis from immigrating. Deschenes looked into 1,700 cases and recommended further investigation into about 250 immigrants, 20 of which required immediate attention from the government. Deschenes’ proposal for trying war criminals in Canada was made into law. In September 2002, Arab students at Concordia University rioted in protest of a visit by former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. It was the culmination of three years of tension between the Arab and Jewish communities. Montreal police had to use pepper spray on the protesters and made five arrests. In the summer of 2011, after nearly two years of deliberation and investigation, a special Parliamentary Coalition setup to Combat Anti-Semitism released a report that found that anti-Semitism was a growing threat in Canada, especially on campuses and universities. The panel gave several recommendations, including training police across Canada to deal with anti-Semitism and the adoption of a definition of anti-Semitism. In October 2017, Canada’s first national Holocaust monument was unveiled in Ottawa by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who reaffirmed “our unshakable commitment to fight anti-Semitism, racism, xenophobia and discrimination in all its forms” and said Canada was paying “tribute to those who experienced the worst of humanity. The number of anti-Semitic incidents in Canada rose to a record high for the fourth consecutive year, according to the League for Human Rights. Incidents increased 8% in 2019 to 2,207, most involving harassment (91.1%), mostly online (83.2%). Prime Minister Trudeau created the special envoy position to combat anti-Semitism in 2020 and announced it would become a permanent position in 2021. Trudeau said the commitment aligned with “Canada’s commitment to promote and defend pluralism, inclusion and human rights.” Anti-Semitism, he said, “isn’t a problem for the Jewish community to solve alone. It’s everyone’s challenge to take on, especially governments.” He pledged to “develop and implement a national action plan on combating hate, working in concert with Jewish communities and our special envoy.” In June 2023, the Toronto Holocaust Museum opened. The 9,500-square-foot museum is on the Sherman Campus or the United Jewish Appeal (UJA) Federation of Greater Toronto. The museum replaces the city’s Holocaust Education and Memorial Centre, which was started in 1985 by Holocaust survivors. After Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, and massacred 1,400 people, anti-Semitism surged around the world, including in Canada. On November 6, for example, vandals threw Molotov cocktails at Congregation Beth Tikvah and the Federation CJA building. Neither was seriously damaged. “The attempted arson at @FederationCJA West Island and Congregation Beth Tikvah in Montreal is deeply disturbing,” Trudeau wrote. “Antisemitism is completely unacceptable and must always be condemned – our government will continue to work with Jewish communities to combat this hatred.” The following month, it was reported that the Montreal police’s arson unit was investigating a minor fire at Congregation Beth Tikvah, a synagogue and Jewish community center in the West Island after a suspect reportedly fled the scene. The fire, which caused minor damage to the front door, was extinguished by police upon arrival. An incendiary device was found, prompting a security perimeter and increased patrols. This incident follows a similar attack in November 2023 involving Molotov cocktails, which has drawn condemnation from the Jewish Community Council of Montreal as a “repeated assault” fueled by anti-Semitic hatred. The SPVM notes a significant rise in hate crimes targeting the Jewish community since Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, with Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante condemning the incident and affirming that such actions are criminal and unacceptable. In January 2025, Amir Arvahi Azar, 32, was arrested and charged with 29 offenses, including arson, weapons violations, and the rare charges of advocating genocide and willful promotion of hatred, for a series of anti-Semitic attacks in Toronto between April 2024 and January 2025. His alleged crimes targeted Jewish institutions, including multiple vandalism and arson incidents at Kehillat Shaarei Torah. Despite concerns from Jewish advocacy groups, Azar was released on bail. His arrest follows a broader rise in anti-Semitic incidents in Canada since October 7, including synagogue attacks, hate graffiti, and shootings at a Jewish school. The case has sparked criticism of law enforcement and judicial responses to anti-Semitic violence. The following month, a Canadian website published the names and details of 85 Canadian citizens who previously served in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), causing an uproar in the Jewish community, who expressed fears for their safety. The list included the name of a young Israeli-Canadian man who was murdered at Nova on October 7. This comes after police officers recently refused to act against protestors who celebrated the deaths of the Bibas family. A now-deleted Toronto Police Service podcast featured Muslim Liaison officers Farhan Ali and Haroon Siddiqui rejecting the characterization of pro-Palestinian rallies as pro-Hamas Islamophobic. Ali argued that equating protests with Hamas support was discriminatory. Following backlash from the Jewish community, TPS apologized, with Chief Myron Demkiw acknowledging the distress caused and pledging a review of content procedures. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney came under fire after appearing to endorse a claim that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza during a rally. However, he later said he misheard the statement. Responding “Thank you” and referencing Canada’s arms embargo on Israel, Carney later clarified he hadn’t heard the word “genocide” and was only acknowledging the situation in Gaza. His comments triggered sharp criticism from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Canadian Jewish organizations, who accused him of fueling anti-Semitism and undermining support for Israel amid its war with Hamas. The controversy adds to concerns from Canada’s Jewish community over the Liberal Party’s stance on Israel, following Carney’s earlier misstep when he mistakenly said he agreed with Hamas during a leadership debate. In June 2025, Canada’s National Holocaust Monument in Ottawa was vandalized overnight, with the words “FEED ME" spray-painted in red across the site. Crews arrived Monday morning to cover and clean the graffiti. The monument, inaugurated in 2017, commemorates the six million Jews murdered during the Holocaust, as well as millions of other victims of Nazi Germany. Ottawa police confirmed they are investigating the incident. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said the defacing of the memorial was “reprehensible.” Politicians across party lines condemned the act. The Ottawa monument has previously been targeted — a 2020 incident was also investigated as a hate crime. Meanwhile, Carney also visited the Nova Music Festival Exhibition in Canada, which documented the October 7 Hamas massacre. The Prime Minister stressed the need to confront the rise in anti-Semitism seen in Canada since the attack and reaffirmed the government’s commitment to protecting Jewish communities and promoting long-term peace and security in the Middle East. In August 2025, an elderly Jewish woman was stabbed in an Ottawa grocery store by 71-year-old Joseph Rooke, who was arrested at the scene and charged with aggravated assault and possession of a dangerous weapon. Rooke had a history of anti-Semitic social media posts, including calling Judaism “the world’s oldest cult.” The victim, who was attacked while shopping in a store with an extensive kosher section, was treated at the hospital and released. Canadian leaders, including Prime Minister Mark Carney and Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe, condemned the assault and pledged support for the Jewish community. At the same time, organizations such as the Jewish Federation of Toronto and B’nai Brith Canada urged more decisive action against anti-Semitism. The following month, Radio-Canada suspended reporter Élisa Serret and issued an apology after she made anti-Semitic remarks on air, claiming Jews finance U.S. politics and control cities and Hollywood. The broadcaster condemned the statements as prejudicial and contrary to its journalistic standards. At the same time, Jewish groups, Canadian officials, and politicians across party lines denounced the comments as harmful anti-Semitic tropes. Critics stressed the need for accountability and stronger safeguards to prevent similar incidents, warning against the normalization of hatred in public discourse. Community ContactsOldest Synagogue in Canada Located in Victoria, British Columbia, Congregation Emanu-El is the oldest synagogue in continuous operation in Canada and has been made a Canadian Heritage Site. The synagogue was built in 1863 and restored in 1982. Lubavitch of British Columbia Lubavitch Center of Winnipeg Baron de Hirsch Hebrew Benevolent Society In 1890, the eighteen Jews of Halifax founded the Baron de Hirsch Hebrew Benevolent Society. In 1894, the congregation bought a church on the corner of Starr and Hurd Streets and established Beth Israel Synagogue. Over the years, the shul has relocated several times and has been at its current location since 1956. Toronto Holocaust Museum Jewish Russian Community Center Canadian Jewish Congress BIBLIOGRAPHYI. Abella and H. Troper, None is Too Many. Canada and the Jews of Europe 1933–1948 (1982); P. Anctil, I Robinson, and Gerard Bouchard, Juifs et Canadiens Francais dans la Societe Quebecoise (2000); P. Anctil, Tur Malka. Flaneries sur les cimes de l'histoire. juive montrealaise (1997); D. Bercuson, Canada and the Birth of Israel. A Study in Canadian Foreign Policy (1985); F. Bialystok, Delayed Impact. The Holocaust and the Canadian Jewish Community (2000); M. Biderman, A Life on the Jewish Left. An Immigrant's Experience (2000); M. Brown, Jew or Juif? Jews, French Canadians, and Anglo-Canadians, 1759–1914 (1986); A. Davies, ed., Antisemitism in Canada. History and Interpretation (1992); E. Delisle, The Traitor and the Jew: Anti-Semitism and the Delirium of Extremist Right-Wing Nationalism in French Canada from 1929–1939 (1993); S.J. Godfrey and J.C. Godfrey, Search Out the Land. The Jews and the Growth of Equality in British North America (1995); Z. Kay, Canada and Palestine, The Politics of Non-Commitment (1978); M. Marrus, Mr. Sam. The Life and Times of Samuel Bronfman (1991); S. Medjuck, Jews of Atlantic Canada (1986); Z. Pollock, S. Mayne, and U. Kaplan, A.M. Klein. Selected Poems (1997); L. Rosenberg, Canada's Jews: A Social and Economic Study of the Jews in Canada (1939); S. Speisman, The Jews of Toronto. A History to 1937 (1979); G. Tulchinsky, Taking Root: The Origins of the Canadian Jewish Community (1992); idem, Branching Out: The Transformation of the Canadian Jewish Community (1998); M. Weinfeld, Like Everyone Else … But Different: The Paradoxical Success of Canadian Jews (2001). Sources: Encyclopaedia Judaica. © 2007 The Gale Group. All Rights Reserved. Photo Credits: CIA World Factbook map of Canada. |
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