Canadian Jewish Studies / Études juives canadiennes

Bliss, Michael

English

Skating on Thick Ice: Tulchinsky and Business History

Granatstein, Jack

174
Jack Granatstein / Ethnic and Religious Enlistment in 
Canada During the Second World War
J.L. Granatstein
Ethnic and Religious Enlistment in Canada During 
the Second World War
175Canadian Jewish Studies / Études juives canadiennes, vol. 21, 2013 [2014]
Trying to calculate which groups of Canadians provided the men and women who 
served in the Canadian armed forces in the Second World War is no easy task. We 
have gross numbers that indicate that 1.1 million, or 10 percent of the total popula-
tion of 11 million, donned a uniform at some point in the war. We know that roughly 
750,000 served in the Canadian Army, 250,000 in the Royal Canadian Air Force, and 
100,000 in the Royal Canadian Navy. Some 50,000 of these enlistments were women. 
But there is no readily available data on how long men and women served, whether 
men were called up under the National Resources Mobilization Act (NRMA) and 
volunteered—or not—for service before enrolment, or if they joined the RCAF or 
RCN on receiving call-up notices for the Army.
None of this should be surprising. We still do not have clear data for the composi-
tion of the Canadian military contribution in the Great War almost a century after 
it occurred. We do know that some 620,000 were enlisted for the Great War, and we 
know that some 100,000 of that number were conscripts called up under the Mili-
tary Service Act of 1917. It is well known that the British-born made up two-thirds 
of the First Contingent mobilized in 1914. It is less well known that the tendency of 
the British-born to enlist in the largest numbers persisted throughout the war, and 
an extraordinary 228,170 of the 470,000-odd British-born Canadian men of mili-
tary age, or 48.5 percent, enlisted. It was not until the end of the war in November 
1918 that Canadian-born soldiers made up a majority ( 51.4 percent) of the men who 
served in the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF), a figure that included the hun-
dred thousand conscripts. English-speaking Canadian-born men generally were 
slow to enlist, and we know that some regions—the Maritimes and Eastern Ontar-
io—were very slow in generating volunteers. Of 2.82 million eligible Canadian-born 
males, 318,728 men or 11.3 percent enlisted or were conscripted.1 More than two-
thirds of the 1,811 officers in the First Contingent, however, were Canadian-born, 
almost all coming from the Militia or the Permanent Force. These men would get 
most of the senior positions in the Canadian Corps at the front throughout the war.
Francophone enlistment is harder to calculate with precision. Professor Serge 
Durflinger calculated that French Canada supplied approximately 15,000 volunteers 
during the war. Most came from the Montreal area, though Quebec City, western 
Quebec and Eastern Ontario provided significant numbers. A precise total is difficult 
to establish since attestation papers did not require enlistees to indicate their mother 
tongue, and men who enlisted in one town or city were not necessarily from that 
place (something that applied across Canada). Though French Canadians comprised 
some 30 percent of the Canadian population, they made up only about 4 percent of 
Canadian volunteers. Less than 5 percent of Quebec’s males of military age served 
in infantry battalions, compared to 14-15 percent in Western Canada and Ontario. 
Moreover, at least half and likely substantially more of Quebec’s recruits were En-
glish-speaking and nearly half of French-Canadian volunteers came from provinces 
other than Québec. The best guess is that at most 50,000 francophones served in 
176
Jack Granatstein / Ethnic and Religious Enlistment in 
Canada During the Second World War
uniform in the Great War, a number that includes conscripts. 
In other words, those Canadians who had the most recent ties to Britain were the 
most eager to serve. Thus, the English-speaking with long histories in Canada were 
less eager, and the French-speaking with no tie to Britain and no love for British 
imperialism were less eager still.2
Until some dogged researcher searches each and every Great War personnel file, 
of ethnic Canadians we can find nothing in detail and almost nothing that one 
might confidently call factual. Historians suggest that ten thousand naturalized 
Ukrainian-Canadians served.3 Vancouver Public Library records indicate that ap-
proximately 300 Chinese-Canadians served.4 The Jewish Virtual Library offers that it 
is believed that more than a thousand Jewish officers and 4600 Jewish soldiers served 
in the CEF, and some one hundred died in the service while 84 were decorated. 
Certainly there were Danes (one won the Victoria Cross), Germans, Italians, blacks, 
Japanese and First Nations soldiers in the CEF,5 alongside substantial numbers of 
Americans and British citizens recruited in the United States. Dr. Richard Holt’s ex-
haustive dissertation research has found more than ten thousand enlistments among 
men from some 15 countries between 1914 and the end of 1916, and he has estimated 
that some one thousand blacks joined the CEF, including 440 from the West Indies.6 
But until Jonathan Vance’s long-term project to go through all the Great War per-
sonnel records is finished, there remain huge gaps and almost none of the ethnic or 
religious group claims can be accepted as factual.
When we look at the Second World War, the task of identifying service in the Cana-
dian forces by ethnicity and religion is even more difficult. No one has yet done the 
research that can provide the clarity Dr. Holt’s dissertation does for World War I. We 
do know that the Canadian-born made up a substantial majority of enlistments. The 
best estimates are that French Canada saw 150,000 or so of its sons join the forces or 
about one in seven of all enlistments, a much higher ratio than in the Great War. This 
took place notwithstanding marriage courses offered by parish churches in Mon-
treal in the summer of 1940 to help young single men avoid being called up under 
the NRMA by getting married.7 We also know that the 65,000 NRMA “zombies” in 
late 1944, the diehard group that resisted service overseas until the King government 
compelled them, were mainly French-speaking and “ethnic.” 
One senior officer who grappled with the question of trying to persuade NRMA 
men to “convert” to volunteers for overseas service was Brigadier W.H.S. Macklin. He 
noted in May, 1944 that he had had almost no success in persuading francophones in 
the Regiment de Hull to volunteer, and he added that “The great majority [of NRMA 
soldiers in other units] are of non-British origin—German, Italian, and Slavic na-
tionalities predominating. Moreover most of them come from farms. They are of 
deplorably low education, know almost nothing of Canadian or British history and 
177Canadian Jewish Studies / Études juives canadiennes, vol. 21, 2013 [2014]
in fact are typical European peasants....” The NRMA men included a large number 
of English-speakers though their ethnic origins remain unclear; many were likely 
of British origin.8 Daniel Byers’ detailed research on the composition of the NRMA 
men generally supports Macklin’s observations on ethnicity, though not necessarily 
his commentary.9
We also know that several ethnic groups, in some cases despite the fact that Canada 
was at war with their nation of origin, claim that their men enlisted in very high 
proportions. Italian-Canadians apparently served in large numbers, even though the 
Fascist Mussolini regime had had substantial numbers of supporters in Canada be-
fore 1940. Prof. John Thompson’s claim that some 700 interned Italians in Canada had 
sons serving in the military must be incorrect, given that Canada interned only 586 
Italians (to January 1941) and had released 105 of them by that date.10 Ukrainian-Ca-
nadians were badly divided between Communist and anti-Communist leanings, and 
the former had little incentive to serve when Hitler and Stalin were allied; large 
but indeterminate numbers nonetheless served, though Ukrainian Canadian orga-
nizations that campaigned for a “yes” vote in the April, 1942 conscription plebiscite 
were badly embarrassed when constituencies with large Ukrainian populations vot-
ed “no”.11 Polish-Canadians, with many good reasons to enlist if they had old country 
ties, also apparently served in substantial numbers.12 “Hundreds” of blacks are said to 
have joined,13 as did 3,090 status Indians or 2.4 percent of males, a figure that does not 
include non-status or metis males.14 About six hundred Chinese-Canadians served, 
or so Chinese cultural groups claim, even though they were not called up under 
the NRMA until 1944 nor allowed to join the RCAF until October 1942 or the RCN 
until March 1943.15 We also are told that, while Mennonites and Hutterites were ex-
cused military service, some 3,000 Mennonites did enlist.16 But all this information is 
fragmentary, and none is based on anything more than self-collected material and 
much propagandistic, breast-beating hearsay. It can be nothing more until all the 
personnel records are searched.
Jewish-Canadians have been particularly assiduous in speaking of their record of 
service. The Jewish Virtual Library claims that approximately 17,000 Jews served in 
the Canadian forces in the Second World War, 10,440 in the army, 5,870 in the RCAF, 
and 570 in the RCN, or some one in five of the male population. Some 421 died in 
service and 1,971 were decorated.17 The on-line Museum of Jewish Soldiers World 
War 2 has slightly different numbers, noting that 16,883 served, 429 died, and 200 
were decorated (the definition of decorated likely varies wildly) of an inflated pop-
ulation estimate of 240,000.18 Gerald Tulchinsky, much the most reliable collector of 
data, cites the Canadian Jewish Congress’ figure of 16,441 men and 279 women who 
served, 39.1 percent of Jewish men of military age. This, he notes, did not compare 
very favourably to the 41.4 percent of all Canadian men who served.19 The Canadian 
Jewish News in 2010 nonetheless called it “one of the higher rates of enlistment” with 
about one-fifth of the adult population in uniform.20 It has also been suggested that 
178
Jack Granatstein / Ethnic and Religious Enlistment in 
Canada During the Second World War
the true enlistment numbers might be higher as some Jews did not declare their 
religion, not wanting “Jewish” or “Hebrew” to appear on their military identification 
discs lest they be captured by the Nazis, preferring “OD”, for “Other Denomina-
tions”.21 All this data again are not wholly reliable, as the discrepancies suggest.
Jews had more reason than most Canadians to enlist, given Hitler’s war of extermi-
nation against Europe’s Jews, and Jewish organizations, eager to counter claims by 
anti-Semites that Jews were not doing their part, worked hard to encourage en-
listment. They had some success, though the claims that Jews enlisted above their 
proportion are wrong, as Tulchinsky has correctly noted and as ought to have been 
obvious to others. If French-speaking Canadians enlisted well below their share 
of the population, as they did, and if ten percent of the total Canadian population 
joined one of the armed services, then Anglo-Canadians must have enlisted in high-
er numbers than all or almost all ethnic or religious communities. In other words, 
Canadians of British origin made up the lion’s share of enlistments, exactly as in the 
Great War, though now most were Canadian-born.
Not surprisingly, the most thorough account of the Jewish enlistment record is that 
by Tulchinsky in his Canada’s Jews. He noted that Jewish participation in the Army 
(especially its combat units) and in the Navy was below national levels. Jews consti-
tuted 1.5% of Canada’s population in 1940, but provided 2.6% of its airmen, 1.4% of its 
soldiers, and 0.7% of its sailors.22 Peter Usher has explained well the reasons for high 
RCAF participation,23 but Tulchinsky was the first scholar to venture into the reasons 
why enlistment by service and corps varied. The RCN initially appeared to refuse to 
enlist Jews, and the RCAF’s physical and education standards were very high at the 
outbreak of war. Except for a few regiments, the army took almost anyone, it appears, 
but Jews, apparently with more education than the norm, tended to be pushed to-
ward—or perhaps chose—non-combat roles. Many served in front line units, how-
ever, and some like the later backroom politico Eddie Goodman in the Fort Garry 
Horse, the later Canadian historian Joe Levitt in the Governor General’s Foot Guards, 
and businessman Ben Dunkelman in the Queen’s Own Rifles had distinguished re-
cords. Nonetheless, the death rate for all Canadian servicemen was 4.08 percent; for 
Jews in uniform, it was a much lower 2.61 percent.24 In his unsparing but sympathetic 
account, Tulchinsky (using Byers’ data) added that of the 16,441 Canadian Jewish men 
enrolled, 21.2 percent were home defence conscripts or “Zombies”, 2.2 percent of 
the total of all men who served in the NRMA. This compared to Jews’ 1.46 percent 
of the total population. This, he notes, was the highest percentage for any religious 
denomination.25 Tulchinsky rather bravely also added that in the Jewish community 
“there were those with little concern for the fate of European Jews and no strong 
enthusiasm for fighting Nazis.”26
Let me venture a very personal word here. There are, of course, an infinite number 
of reasons why men and women volunteer—or do not—for military service. Some 
179Canadian Jewish Studies / Études juives canadiennes, vol. 21, 2013 [2014]
are single and believe themselves unfit, some married with children; some are fear-
ful, some conscientious in their objection to war. I recognize all these factors. In 
my immediate family of Toronto-born and immigrant Jews, however, very few of 
the men served and, so far as I know, no women worked in war factories or other 
war-related jobs. One uncle on my mother’s side was drafted into the U.S. Army 
and served in Europe where he was wounded and shell-shocked; one cousin joined 
the RCAF, I think to avoid conscription into the army, and served in Canada. On my 
father’s side, neither he nor his four brothers served, although at least three were 
certainly eligible in terms of age; one of my uncles is said to have altered his birth 
certificate to increase his chances of avoiding the NRMA call-up. Another uncle by 
marriage was a home defence conscript and remained in Canada. I thought this a 
shameful family record in a war against Nazism, and I agree entirely with both Bar-
ney Danson’s comment, “How could any [such] Jew look himself in the mirror?” and 
in Ernest Sirluck’s remark, also as quoted by Tulchinsky, that “Jews had a special stake 
in this particular war and in the defeat of Nazism...” Sirluck also believed, as I hope I 
would have, that “as a Jew I should be in the dangerous shooting part of the war.”27 I 
have no doubt at all that this kind of reasoning led me to go to the College Militaire 
Royal and the Royal Military College and to join the army in 1956 when I turned 17.
Certainly more research is needed on the composition of the Canadian armed forces 
during the Second World. Tulchinsky’s books on Canadian Jewish history are models 
of the work that is needed, fine history that is sympathetic but notably clear-eyed in 
judgment. We need much more such work.
1 
Richard Holt, “Filling the Ranks: Recruiting, 
Training, and Reinforcements in the Canadian 
Expeditionary Force 1914-1918,” PhD diss., 
University of Western Ontario, 2011.
2 
Based on J.L. Granatstein and J.M. Hitsman, 
Broken Promises: A History of Conscription in 
Canada (Copp Clark Pitman: Toronto, 1985).
3 
Frances A. Swyripa, “Ukrainian Canadian,” The 
Canadian Encyclopedia, 15, December, 2013. 
http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/en/
article/ukrainian-canadians/ 
4 
Chinese-Canadian Genealogy. “Chinese-Cana-
dians in World War I (1914-1918),” Vancouver 
Public Library, 2012. www.vpl/ca/ccg/WW1.
html
5 
Richard Holt, “First Nations Soldiers in the 
Great War,” Native Studies Review, XXII (1913).
6 
Holt diss., 194, 198
7 
Bilan du Siecle. “Début d’une course au mar-
riage pour éviter la mobilization,” Université 
de Sherbrooke,, www.bilan.usherbrooke.ca/
bilan/pages/evenements/20679.html
8 
Granatstein and Hitsman, Broken Promises, 
205-7.
9 
Daniel Byers,”Canada’s Zombies: A Portrait of 
Canadian Conscripts and Their Experiences 
During the Second World War,” in Bernd Horn, 
ed., Forging a Nation: Perspectives on the 
Canadian Military Experience, (St Catharines, 
ON: Vanwell Publishing, 2002), 159.
180
Jack Granatstein / Ethnic and Religious Enlistment in 
Canada During the Second World War
10 
J.L. Granatstein, A Man of Influence: Norman 
Robertson and Canadian Statecraft, 1929-68 
(Ottawa: Denau 1981), 90; J.H. Thompson, 
Ethnic Minorities During World War II (Ottawa: 
CHA, 1991).
11 
Thomas Prymak, Maple Leaf and Trident: The 
Ukrainian Canadians During the Second World 
War (Toronto, Multicultural History Society 
of Ontario,1988); Bohdan Panchuk, Heroes 
of Their Day (Toronto: Multicultural History 
Society of Ontario, 1983); Thompson, Ethnic 
Minorities During World War II.
12 
Aloysius Balawyder, The Maple Leaf and the 
White Eagle (Boulder: East European Mono-
graphs, 1980).
13 
Black History Canada, www.HistoricaCanada.
ca, 
14 
Directorate of History and Heritage, NDHQ, 
Aboriginal People in the Canadian Military, 
chap. V.
15 
Chinese-Canadian Genealogy. “Chinese-Cana-
dians in World War II (1939-1945),” Vancouver 
Public Library, 2012. www.vpl.ca/ccg/wwii.
html
16 
Thompson, Ethnic Minorities During World 
War II.
17 
www.JewishVirtualLibrary.org/source/vjw/
canada.html
18 
The Museum of the Jewish Soldier in World 
War 2, www.jwmww2.org/show_item.
asp?levelid=65034
19 
Gerald Tulchinsky, Canada’s Jews: A People’s 
Journey (Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 
2008), 376. The reliability of the CJC figures is, 
in my opinion, questionable.
20 
April 29, 2010.
21 
Ontario Jewish Archives. “Taking Care of 
Business: Labour and Business in Jewish 
Toronto.” www.OntarioJewishArchives.org/
exhibits/jcmm/military.html. As late as 1956, 
my nameplate at the College Militaire Royal 
de Saint-Jean identified me as “A Eng Heb” or 
“Army, English-speaking, Hebrew.”
22 
Tulchinsky, Canada’s Jews, 380.
23 
Peter Usher, “Jews in the Royal Canadian 
Air Force, 1940-1945” Canadian Jewish 
Studies / Études juives canadiennes. Vol. 20 
(2012[2014]): 93-114. Mr Usher kindly sent me 
his paper.
24 
Tulchinsky, Canada’s Jews, 377.
25 
Ibid.
26 
Ibid., 374
27 
Ibid., 373.


Ethnic and Religious Enlistment in Canada During the Second World War

Panofsky, Ruth

REVIEW: Shulamis Yelin, Gilah Yelin Hirsch, and Nancy Marrelli, "Demonic to Divine: The Double Life of Shulamis Yelin"

 ,  

174
Contributors / Collaborateurs
Contributors / Collaborateurs
175Canadian Jewish Studies / Études juives canadiennes, vol. 23, 2015
Zelda Abramson is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Acadia University in 
Wolfville Nova Scotia. Her areas of research and teaching include gender, meth-
odology, health and families. She grew up in Montreal and both her parents were 
holocaust survivors.
Ava Block Super has worked for the Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada 
since 2008. She has always been involved with the Jewish Community in Winnipeg 
and thus has a first hand knowledge of its people and its history. It may be a small 
community but it has left a rich legacy in every aspect of life! Ava feels privileged to 
be able to serve her community in this capacity and is grateful to work with stellar 
colleagues.
Katherine Biggs-Craft has been the curator of the Saint John Jewish Histori-
cal Museum since 1998. She holds degrees in History from the University of New 
Brunswick.
Monda Halpern is an Associate Professor in the Department of History at Western 
University. She teaches courses in nineteenth and twentieth-century North Amer-
ican women’s history and Jewish history. Monda is the author of And On That Farm 
He Had a Wife: Ontario Farm Women and Feminism, 1900-1970 (McGill-Queen’s Uni-
versity Press, 2001), and Alice in Shandehland: Scandal and Scorn in the Edelson/Horwitz 
Murder Case (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2015) about a 1931 murder case in the 
Ottawa Jewish community. 
Lillooet Nordlinger McDonnell is an independent scholar and historian special-
izing in Jewish integration, assimilation, and fringe Jewish communities.
Agnes Romer Segal holds M.A. degrees in Library Science and in Yiddish litera-
ture from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. She has been with the Jewish His-
torical Society of Southern Alberta since its founding in 1990.
Debby Shoctor is CEO of the Jewish Federation of Edmonton. She served as the 
Archivist for the Jewish Archives and Historical Society of Edmonton and Northern 
Alberta (2001). She came to Edmonton in 1987 to serve as Western Regional Director 
for B’nai Brith Canada after working in publishing for the Ontario Government and 
Prentice-Hall Canada. In 2004, she joined the Board of the Archives Society of Al-
berta before becoming President in 2009. She holds a BA in English and Psychology 
(University of Toronto 1985), a graduate degree in Journalism at (Dalhousie Univer-
sity 1986) and a MA in Library and Information Studies (University of Alberta 1992). 
Peter J. Usher, Ph.D. is a retired geographer residing in Clayton, Ontario. He has a 
particular interest in the experience of Canadian Jews in the military, and continues 
his research and writing on this topic. 


176
JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA, Vancouver 
#300-950 West 41st Avenue Vancouver, B.C., V5Z 2N7  
Archivist: Jennifer Yuhasz 
Tel: 604-638-7286, Museum: (604) 257-5199 | archives@jewishmuseum.ca | http://www.jewishmuseum.ca/ 
VANCOUVER HOLOCAUST EDUCATION CENTRE, Vancouver 
50 - 950 W 41st Ave Vancouver, BC, V5Z 2N7 Canada 
Executive Director: Nina Krieger; Archivist: Elizabeth Shaffer 
Phone: 604.264.0499 | Fax: 604.264.0497 | info@vhec.org | http://vhec.org
Canadian Jewish Heritage Material Repositories/
Liste de référence de tous les dépôts du patrimoine 
juif du Canada
Canadian Jewish Heritage Material Repositories / 
Liste de référence de tous les dépôts du patrimoine juif du Canada
177Canadian Jewish Studies / Études juives canadiennes, vol. 23, 2015
JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF SOUTHERN ALBERTA, Calgary 
1607-90th Ave. S.W., Calgary, Alberta T2V 4V7 
Archives Director: Agi Romer Segal 
Telephone: 403-444-3171 | jhssa@shaw.ca | www.jhssa.org
JAHSENA (Jewish Archives & Historical Society of Edmonton & Northern Alberta), Edmonton 
10220-156 St., Suite 200, Edmonton, AB T5P 2R1 
Archivist: Paul Gifford 
Tel: (780) 489-2809 | jahsena@shaw.ca | http://www.jahsena.ca/jahsena_001.htm
JEWISH HERITAGE CENTRE OF WESTERN CANADA, Winnipeg 
C116 - 123 Doncaster Street, Winnipeg, MB, Canada R3N 2B2 
Archivist: Ava Block-Super 
Tel: (204)-477-7460 (7461) | jhc@jhcwc.org | http://www.jhcwc.mb.ca/
ONTARIO JEWISH ARCHIVES, Toronto 
4600 Bathurst Street, Toronto, Ontario, M2R 3V2 
Archives Director: Dara Solomon 
Tel: (416) 635-2883, ext. 5170 | oja1@ujafed.org | www.ontariojewisharchives.org/
OTTAWA JEWISH ARCHIVES, Ottawa 
21 Nadolny Sachs Private, Ottawa, ON K2A 1R9 
Archivist: Saara Mortensen 
Tel: (613) 798-4696 ext.260 | archives@jewishottawa.com | http://www.jewishottawa.org/
CANADIAN JEWISH CONGRESS CHARITIES COMMITTEE NATIONAL ARCHIVES, Montreal 
1590 Avenue Docteur Penfield, Montreal, Que., H3G 1C5 
Archives Director: Janice Rosen, Archives assistant: Hélène Vallée 
Tel: (514) 931-7531 ext. 2 | archives@cjccc.ca | http://www.cjccc.ca
JEWISH PUBLIC LIBRARY ARCHIVES, Montreal 
1 Cummings Square, 5151 Côte Ste-Catherine Rd., Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3W 1M6 
Archivist: Shannon Hodge, Archivist Emeritus: Eiran Harris 
Tel: (514)345-2627 ext. 3015, 3000 | archives@jplmontreal.org | www.jewishpubliclibrary.org/en/archives/
MONTREAL HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL CENTRE, Montreal 
1 Cummings Square, 5151 Côte Ste-Catherine Rd., Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3W 1M6 
Museum & Collection coordinator: Julie Guinard 
Tel: (514) 345-2605 | info@mhmc.ca | http://mhmc.ca/
JEWISH GENERAL HOSPITAL ARCHIVES/ ARCHIVES DE L’HOPITAL GENERAL JUIF,  Montreal 
3755 ch. de la Côte-Sainte-Catherine Rd., A-200, Montréal, QC H3T 1E2 
Digital Archives Consultant: Linda Lei. 
Telephone 514-340-8222 #3277 | legacy@jgh.mcgill.ca | http://www.jgh.ca/en/archives 
SAINT JOHN JEWISH HISTORICAL MUSEUM ARCHIVES 
29 Wellington Row, Saint John, New Brunswick, E2L 3H4 
Curator/Archivist: Katherine Biggs-Craft 
Telephone: (506) 633-1833 | sjjhm@nbnet.nb.ca | http://www3.nbnet.nb.ca/sjjhm/


Canadian Jewish Heritage Material Repositories/Liste de référence de tous les dépôts du patrimoine juif du Canada

Bialystok, Franklin

The Road Ahead - Opening Lecture, Oyfn Veg: A Symposium on Canadian Jewish Studies in Honour of Gerald Tulchinsky

Romer Segal, Agnes

123Canadian Jewish Studies / Études juives canadiennes, vol. 23, 2015
Agnes Romer Segal 
Archivist, Jewish Historical Society of Southern Alberta (JHSSA)
Dancing into History: A Glimpse into the Jewish 
Community of Calgary, 1912-13 
124
Agnes Romer Segal / Dancing into History: 
A Glimpse into the Jewish Community of Calgary, 1912-13
Among the most intriguing acquisitions that can find their way into archival collec-
tions are those singular items generally labelled as “ephemera.” It is amazing what 
a small, seemingly insignificant item, usually the by-product of a single event, can 
reveal to the modern researcher.
In 2001, the Jewish Historical Society of Southern Alberta (JHSSA) was fortunate to 
receive a donation of dance cards from a number of social events held by Jewish or-
ganizations in Calgary in 1912-1913. These events had been attended by Cecyle Sereth 
(1892-1974) and her dance cards were donated to JHSSA by her daughter, Ethel Allen 
of Toronto, with the help of her nephew Stanley Winfield.1
Cecyle Sereth, ca. 
1917. JHSSA #557, 
Jewish Historical 
Society of Southern 
Alberta.
125Canadian Jewish Studies / Études juives canadiennes, vol. 23, 2015
These dance cards offer us a glimpse into the relatively new Jewish community of 
Calgary of 100 years ago. They show that even at this early date, the community con-
sisted not only of new and struggling European immigrants who eked out a living 
as peddlers, labourers and shopkeepers. The names listed as dance partners on these 
cards indicate the presence of a generation of more acculturated men who danced 
to the same tunes as their fellow Calgarians. The cards reveal what might be called 
a socialite class consisting of managers, proprietors of businesses and professionals 
whose presence was crucial to the tremendous development of the local Jewish com-
munity between 1910 and 1930.
Calgary’s first permanent settlers, Jacob and Rachel Diamond, arrived in 1889. Jacob 
had arrived in Canada in 1884 and had married the Ontario native in 1886. The 1901 
census recorded just 10 local Jews, yet by 1905 a Torah scroll had been acquired and 
land had been purchased for a Jewish cemetery. Congregation House of Jacob was 
officially incorporated in 1909 and opened its impressive synagogue building in late 
1911. By 1911 Calgary had 641 Jews and a sound infrastructure for growing the community.
The general economic climate in Alberta was an important factor in supporting this 
growth. A number of Jewish entrepreneurs who already had some business experi-
ence in other parts of North America were drawn to Alberta in the early 20th century. 
Cecyle Sereth’s dance 
card, Third annual 
Grand Ball of the Al 
Azhar Temple, 1912. 
JHSSA Acc. 2001-003. 
Source: Ethel Allen, 
Stan Winfield, Jewish 
Historical Society of 
Southern Alberta.
126
Agnes Romer Segal / Dancing into History: 
A Glimpse into the Jewish Community of Calgary, 1912-13
Henry Noah Sereth came to America in 1900 and settled in Calgary in 1905. With 
his brother Alexander, he established Riverside Lumber during Calgary’s building 
boom.  As the business expanded, it came to employ hundreds of new immigrants, 
including Sereth relatives. As his daughter Ceycle’s dance cards and Calgary news-
paper articles indicate, the Sereths became very involved in local social activities. 
Stella Sereth Sameth recalled, “The Sereth girls were known from one end of Canada 
to the other and whenever young men came to Calgary their first aim was to be in-
vited to our home”.2 There seem to have been many opportunities for socializing as 
these cards, and an earlier one from a Bachelors’ Ball from 1911, attest. The Calgary 
Daily Herald reported on December 11, 1912 that Cecyle (or Celia here) had been vot-
ed “the most popular young lady of the evening” at the Hebrew Board of Education 
ball on December 10th. This Board of Education was an early committee of the newly 
formed Calgary Hebrew Council or Va’ad Ha’ir. It was created to replace the Con-
gregation House of Jacob committee which had operated Jewish Hebrew classes for 
children up to that time.
The earliest of the three balls Ceclye attended was organized by the Hebrew La-
dies’ Aid Society which was formed in 1906 to help new immigrants steadily arriving 
straight from Europe. The card reveals that Mrs. Sereth served as treasurer in 1912. 
The Calgary News Telegram (October 19, 1912) covered the “brilliant ball”, with a full 
description of the dresses of the 34 female attendees.
The Allen family moved to Calgary from Ontario in 1910 to establish the Canadian 
Film Exchange and to open a chain of theatres including the Monarch (1911), the 
Allen (1913) and the Rex (1921).3 Harry (H.J.) Allen came to Calgary with his uncle 
Barney and sons and lived near the Sereths. He married Cecyle in the Sereth home 
in February 1914 and they lived in Calgary until their move to Vancouver in 1925. In-
terestingly, Harry’s name does not seem to appear on any of the dance cards. Among 
the names that are (legibly) recorded are Barron, Mr. Bell, C. Benjamin, Bloom, Har-
ry Cooper, Goldberg, Jack Kroker, C. Sternberg, Romanoff, and the intriguing Mr. 
Rothschild. Most of these men were involved in communal affairs and had signifi-
cant business connections. 
127Canadian Jewish Studies / Études juives canadiennes, vol. 23, 2015
J.B and A.S. Barron came to Calgary around 1911 and both became well known law-
yers. J.B. was also known for his business ventures, including the Grand and the 
Palace theatres. The Barron brothers were also largely responsible for the Canadian 
Western Jewish Times (CWJT), a monthly “devoted to Jewish interests and to Jewish 
advancement”, which unfortunately only saw a single issue, in April 1914. Charles Bell 
was co-owner of the King George Hotel, built partly by Sereth’s Riverside Lum-
ber. His brothers Nathan and Alex were also involved in the business community. 
Charles Benjamin was the manager of the W. Diamond Clothing Company. Both Bell 
and Benjamin (along with Jay Allen) were featured in the Calgary News Telegram 
Spring/Summer 1913 series of Calgary caricatures – indicating their prominence in 
the business community. A. Bloom was Advertising Manager of the CWJT and on the 
board of the YMHA in 1914. H.J. Cooper was active on a number of organizational 
boards including that of the synagogue and the Va’ad Ha’ir. It is not quite clear which 
Goldberg danced with Cecyle. According to the local press and to Henderson’s street 
directory of the time, there was a local Jacob Goldberg family –with a number of 
sons involved in community organizations - but it is very possible that the Goldberg 
on the cards was A. Henry Goldberg, founder, with J.M. Sternberg (possibly a relative 
of the C. Sternberg listed on the 1912 dance card), of the Northern Grain Company 
in Edmonton in 1907. It is possible that two men were in town to support the orga-
nizations hosting the events. Goldberg, who served as best man at Sophie Sereth’s 
1911 wedding to John Weinfield, returned to his original home in St. Paul in 1912 to 
Cecyle Sereth’s dance 
card, Grand Ball of the 
Al Azhar Temple, 1912. 
JHSSA Acc. 2001-003. 
Source: Ethel Allen, 
Stan Winfield, Jewish 
Historical Society of 
Southern Alberta.
128
Agnes Romer Segal / Dancing into History: 
A Glimpse into the Jewish Community of Calgary, 1912-13
get married but eventually returned to Edmonton and finally settled in Calgary with 
his wife Marcia in 1921. The Goldbergs became very active in the Jewish community, 
especially in Zionist organizations. J.E. Romanoff was on the founding board of the 
YMHA.  According to the CWJT, Mr. Krorker (spelled Krarker) was a frequent visi-
tor from New York. There is speculation whether the Rothschild listed on the dance 
card might be Edmond, the son of Baron de Rothschild, who is known to have passed 
through Calgary in 1911. 
By 1913, Calgary Jews were closely involved in the political issues of the day. They had 
formed two different political associations, both well covered in the local press. Some 
of the names on the dance cards appear in this coverage. The Jewish community felt 
confident enough to have banded together to protest against a 1911 campaign for 
mandatory religious training in public schools.
This 1913 dance card also attests to the rise of Zionist activity in this growing com-
munity. The first formal report of such activity is the Canadian Jewish Times (CJT) 
Cecyle Sereth’s dance 
card, First Annual Ball 
of Agudas Zion, Al 
Azhar Temple, 1913. 
JHSSA Acc. 2001-003. 
Source: Ethel Allen, 
Stan Winfield, Jewish 
Historical Society of 
Southern Alberta.
129Canadian Jewish Studies / Études juives canadiennes, vol. 23, 2015
report from February 22, 1907 that J. J. Goodman‘s western tour (from Winnipeg) on 
behalf of the Federation of Zionist Societies of Canada took him to towns, including 
Calgary, “where new Zionist Societies are being organized”. Mr. Goodman moved to 
Cochrane near Calgary shortly afterwards. By September 1907, CJT could report on 
the “unfurling for the first time of the Zionist flag in the Province of Alberta” This 
refers to the founding of such societies in both Edmonton and Calgary in the wake of 
M.B. Steine’s efforts on behalf of the Federation. Calgary’s new Agudas (or Agudath) 
Zion originally had 46 charted members. A year later they had collected $11 in 
fees and $5 for Jewish National Fund stamps. President E. Geffen attended Zionist 
Council meetings in Montreal in 1909. H.J. Cooper served as Secretary.  Visiting 
Zionist speakers soon became a common feature of the local Jewish cultural scene. 
These visits were well covered in the local press. Mrs. B. Pevsner came in January 
1912. Her talk was followed by a banquet which the Allen and Sereth families at-
tended. In July of that year a Herzl Memorial event was held at the Allens’ Mon-
arch Theatre. Herzl Memorials became a prominent feature of Calgary Jewish 
cultural calendar until the establishment of the State of Israel.  The December 19, 
1913 issue of the CJT reported a total of $60.70 remitted from Calgary from that 
year’s National Fund Boxes collection.
With the 1913 establishment of the Franklin Press by local Zionist, Abraham Shnitka, 
our picture of the local cultural scene becomes much richer. Shnitka owned Hebrew 
font and all the local Jewish organizations used his press to advertise their events. 
One of the earliest surviving products of the Franklin Press is a Yiddish notice of 
an Agudas Zion memorial meeting for the great Zionist leader David Wolffsohn on 
October 25, 1914.
By 1914 the Calgary Jewish community had come into its own. The Sereth dance cards 
(and the local press clippings relating to the names and the organizations listed on 
them) demonstrate that within 25 years of the arrival of the first Jewish citizens, the 
community infrastructure had been firmly established. The institutions and organi-
zations that flourished in larger Canadian Jewish communities also found fertile soil 
here. Jewish Calgarians quite freely participated in and contributed to the economic, 
political and social life of the city. The presence of a number of key Jewish families 
who had immigrated to North America before 1906 and thus arrived in Calgary  with 
some knowledge of English, some assets and previous business experience aided the 
development of this infrastructure and helped to create links between the Jewish 
community and the rest of Calgary society.  
It is thanks to the preservation of such ephemera that a glimpse at the intimate social 
life of one person can shed light on the broader picture of a fledgling community.
130
Agnes Romer Segal / Dancing into History: 
A Glimpse into the Jewish Community of Calgary, 1912-13
1 
These dance cards were first described by the 
late Jack Switzer, “Calgary Jewish Socialites 
Hold Grand Balls, 1912-1913,” Discovery 11 
(2001): 4. Most of the information for this arti-
cle was gleaned from JHSSA clippings from the 
local press and from information in our subject 
reference files.
2 
The Sereth Story: 57. This is an unpublished 
typed memoir by the Sereth family from 1974. 
It includes an English translation of H. N. Ser-
eth’s German diary from his early immigrant 
years as well as biographies of each of his 
five daughters. JHSSA has a photocopy of the 
memoir.
3 
For a detailed discussion of the Allen family 
business, see Robert and Tamar Seiler, Reel 
Time: Movie Exhibitors and Movie Audiences in 
Prairie Canada, 1896-1986 (Edmonton: AB, AU 
Press, 2013).


Dancing into History: A Glimpse into the Jewish Community of Calgary, 1912-13

D. Palmer, Bryan

8
Bryan D. Palmer / Reading Otherwise: Ian McKay’s “Fairly Straightforward” 
Misrepresentation of Canadian Communist Party Historiography
Bryan D. Palmer
Reading Otherwise: Ian McKay’s “Fairly 
Straightforward” Misrepresentation of Canadian 
Communist Party Historiography
9Canadian Jewish Studies / Études juives canadiennes, vol. 23, 2015
Editors, Canadian Jewish Studies
Congratulations for the recent Volume XXI of Canadian Jewish Studies, a special col-
lection of essays to honour the scholarship of Gerald Tulchinsky. I taught with Jerry 
for many years at Queen’s University and was disappointed that I could not present 
a paper at the conference from which these proceedings grew, due to a previous-
ly-scheduled public lecture in England.
Ian McKay’s essay, “Joe Salsberg, Depression-Era Communism, and the Limits of 
Moscow’s Rule,” addresses Tulchinsky’s book Joe Salsberg: A Life of Commitment and 
offers a statement on what it meant to be a communist in Canada from the 1920s to 
1939.1 This necessitates addressing Stalinism. McKay insists the current historiogra-
phy answers the question of what it means to be a “‘Stalinist,’ or ‘loyal communist,’” 
with “a fairly straightforward answer: it meant subservience to Moscow.” 2
In actuality, understandings of what it meant to be a Stalinist are not straightfor-
ward at all. As I show below with reference to my own writing, which McKay largely 
ignores yet manages to quote out of context in ways that distort egregiously my 
interpretive intentions, there are many complications embedded in the works of 
those who have written on Canadian communism. Indeed, the motley crew McK-
ay assembles to assert his “Moscow Rules” historiographic consensus should not be 
considered a true unit. Lumping William Rodney, Ian Angus, Norman Penner, Ivan 
Avakumoic, and myself in one congealed analytic mass, as McKay does on the first 
page of his article, should give anyone with serious interest in Canadian communism 
cause to pause. 
The historiography of Canadian communism, according to McKay, is an “essential 
‘traditionalist’ narrative” in which Party leaders and “the broader small c-commu-
nist movement they influenced” worked as one to champion the Soviet Union and 
follow slavishly the “Moscow Rules” as they emanated from the Communist Inter-
national.3 According to McKay, this perspective blinds us to the rich legacy of com-
munist rank-and-filers, many of whom were Jews like Salsberg and who fought for, 
and accomplished, a great deal.
To sustain this representation of the historiography a responsible scholar should 
provide actual quotations from the authors he or she cites to establish, beyond ques-
tion, the validity of his or her sweeping claims. McKay does no such thing. The asser-
tion of scholarly agreement around what he labels “‘transmission belt’ authoritari-
anism”,4 in which Communist leaders conditioned a Pavlovian-like obedience from 
their ranks, is inaccurate. Even if some scholars McKay cites have views congruent 
with those of the “Moscow Rules” school, significant differences among them should 
be recognized. Others can only be placed in this framework through a misreading of 
their actual research and writing.
10
Bryan D. Palmer / Reading Otherwise: Ian McKay’s “Fairly Straightforward” 
Misrepresentation of Canadian Communist Party Historiography
Nothing in my publications, for instance, can be marshalled to sustain such a car-
icature. And I am the only scholar quoted directly by McKay in his making of this 
misrepresentation. Let me offer a blunt refusal of his characterization of my position:
• McKay’s only direct citation or quotation of my writing on Communism 
refers to two-pages in my book, Working Class Experience.5 This overview 
of labour history addresses the revolutionary left at various points over two 
centuries. However, it is hardly a source that should qualify as a historio-
graphic centerpiece on the topic of Canadian Communism. 
• The single quotation McKay uses from these two pages highlights the words 
“revolutionary posturing.” I used this term to describe some of the activities 
of the Canadian Communist Party in the Third Period (1928-1935). Most 
reasonable assessments of the policies emanating from the Comintern in 
this era address the ultra-left sectarianism that encouraged what John 
Manley described similarly as “confrontational posturing.” What makes 
McKay’s quotation of my work troubling is that he neglects to mention that 
the pages he cites deal only with this particular Third Period era; and that 
he ignores later sections of Working-Class Experience where I outline gains 
made by the Communist Party in trade union organizing through agita-
tional propaganda, through the arts, and among the unemployed. 
• Furthermore, a look at the entire paragraph in which I make reference to 
the Communist Party’s revolutionary posturing in the Third Period shows 
beyond doubt that McKay lifted these words out of context and misrepre-
sented what I actually said about Canadian Communism. Here is the entire 
passage: “In this period of revolutionary posturing, much was lost on the 
political and cultural fronts, as well as in the industrial realm. These were 
years that set the stage for the irrational, for the blind faith in the “party 
line,” however far removed from Canadian reality it may have been. The late 
twenties and early thirties served as an introduction to the drastic shifts in 
Communist policy resulting from the wartime needs of the Soviet Union in 
1939-41. As such, these years have presented historians with ample ammunition to 
disparage and discredit the entire Communist experience, to denigrate the accom-
plishments of rank-and-file Communists, and to erase the achievements of militan-
cy, struggle, and resistance – often paced by Communist effort – from the pages of 
Canadian history.”6 (Italics added.) In short, what I wrote in this particular text 
does indeed address the problem of Moscow ruling, but it also abundantly 
makes clear how this was not the totality of Communist experience. I can-
not be assimilated into McKay’s “Moscow Rules” school of historiography. 
 
11Canadian Jewish Studies / Études juives canadiennes, vol. 23, 2015
• Quoting me out of context is one issue. Another is what McKay ignores. In 
a number of writings on Canadian and United States communism from the 
1980s to the present, I have attempted (with subtle analytic shifts over time) 
to develop a two-sided appreciation of communism: While I insist Stalinism 
be defined carefully and addressed critically, I acknowledge the important 
contributions and commitments of communists in their struggles for so-
cial justice that involved issues such as building revolutionary parties and 
organizing the working class. Among these writings are my oral biography, 
A Communist Life: Jack Scott and the Canadian Workers Movement, 1927-1985;7 
my article “Rethinking the Historiography of United States Communism,”8 
to which American Communist History devoted an entire issue, publishing 
the essay, four critical responses, and my rejoinder; a 2005 Labour/Le Travail 
article on Maurice Spector, the Jewish Left Oppositionist who struggled to 
build a Trotskyist alternative to Stalinism in Canada in the late 1920s and 
1930s; 9 and my book James P. Cannon and the Origins of the American Revolu-
tionary Left, 1890-1928, which brings to life the experience of United States 
communism in ways that address both the debilitating impact of Stalinism 
and the often admirable struggles of committed communists.10 McKay re-
fers to none of this work is in his misrepresentation of the historiography. 
That these publications are not all Canadian in their focus is not a reason 
McKay can claim for excluding them from his historiographic consider-
ation, for he cites other international literature when it suits his purposes.
• As McKay’s essay reveals, there is an analytic binary opposition in the his-
toriography of communism. On one hand, the revolutionary communist 
project can be reduced crudely to Stalinism’s overarching capacity to im-
pose “Moscow Rules.” The major architects of this view are mainstream ac-
ademics, many of whom were and remain Cold War warriors of liberal/
conservative leanings, though some on the left have bent their pens in this 
direction.
On the other hand, there is a tendency, associated with some New Left-in-
clined scholarship and some defenders of mainstream Soviet-aligned Com-
munist Parties, to close one’s eyes to the emerging bureaucratization of the 
Communist International in the mid-1920s as well as the Stalinization that 
undermined the revolutionary character of the Soviet Union, and the ways 
these affected international developments and national decision-making 
in the world’s communist parties. This approach tends to deflect atten-
tion away from how the twists and turns in the Communist International’s 
policies affected national and local activists, and stresses instead the inde-
pendence and autonomy of communist secondary cadre and rank-and-file 
militants. 
12
Bryan D. Palmer / Reading Otherwise: Ian McKay’s “Fairly Straightforward” 
Misrepresentation of Canadian Communist Party Historiography
• My own two-sided interpretation complicates these oppositional simplifi-
cations. The decision to join the Communist Party and the commitment and 
discipline shown in aligning with a Communist International and defend-
ing the actions of the Soviet Union and its many shifts in programmatic ori-
entation must be taken into account when evaluating the Communist expe-
rience. At different times this meant different things, but by the 1930s there 
was no mistaking the extent to which Stalinism’s influence had achieved a 
certain hegemony, meaning that all of those associated formally with the 
Communist Party, leaders and rank-and-filers, bear certain responsibili-
ties. That someone like Salsberg stuck by the Communist Party throughout 
the 1930s and 1940s and part of the 1950s, in spite of evidence of Soviet an-
ti-Semitism and bureaucratic suppression of revolutionary dissidents’ po-
litical rights (to curtail the list of ‘problems’), cannot be swept under the rug 
of what McKay calls “living otherwise.”11 Another Jewish communist, Mau-
rice Spector, also “lived otherwise.”12 Unlike Salsberg, Spector chose to live 
out his revolutionary commitment in a decisive, early, and publicly-pro-
claimed break from the official Communist Party, not in 1956-57 but in 1928. 
This does not mean that Salsberg and other communists who remained 
with the Party for so long did not also struggle against injustice, commit 
their lives to what they thought was a better world, and stand against pow-
erful forces of opposition, often heroically. 
The difficulty in insisting on this two-sidedness is that critics who are more one-sid-
ed in their approach can easily maneuver quotations and positions to accent one side 
of the argument rather than others. McKay does precisely this in his historiographic 
pigeon-holing of what he labels “Moscow Rules.” 
McKay has previously admonished authors writing on the Canadian left to avoid 
“scorecard history,” assigning “stars and demerit points based on his or her pres-
ent-day politics.”13 Of the thousands of books, articles, and theses he claims are 
relevant reading for those pursuing an appreciation of the history of the left in 
Canada, McKay claims that a good many serve up a potent brew of “sectarianism and 
sentimentality. Sectarianism: our tradition has the goods, and every other approach 
to the left is mired in error and illusion. Here we have the truth. There you find the 
erroneous errors. Sentimentality: our heroes were never complicated, cowardly or 
inconsistent.”14 
Good advice is always easy to give. It can be hard to follow. McKay’s historiographic 
misrepresentation is a scorecard of sorts: It comprises an undeniable downplaying of 
specific writing; a refusal to quote fairly and acknowledge past historiography fully, 
which betrays a certain kind of sectarianism; and it sidesteps Stalinism and its com-
plicated meanings, which has all the trappings of sentimentality. 
13Canadian Jewish Studies / Études juives canadiennes, vol. 23, 2015
Let there be interpretive difference. By all means, let us argue through conflicting 
assessments. This is as it should be. But let such discussion and analytic disagreement 
proceed on the basis of fair-minded and responsible use of existing writing, however 
much that complicates our dialogue. 
Bryan D. Palmer, Canadian Studies, Trent University
1 
Gerald Tulchinsky, Joe Salsberg: A Life of 
Commitment (Toronto: University of Toronto 
Press, 2013).
2  
Ian McKay, “Joe Salsberg, Depression-Era 
Communism and the Limits of Moscow’s 
Rule,” Canadian Jewish Studies, Oyfn Veg 
Essays in Honour of / Mélanges en l’honneir 
de Gerald Tulchinsky 21 (2014): 131.
3 
Ibid, 132.
4 
Ibid, 132.
5 
Bryan D. Palmer, Working Class Experience: 
Rethinking the History of Canadian Labour, 
1800-1991 (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 
1992).
6 
Ibid.
7 
Bryan D. Palmer, ed., A Communist Life: Jack 
Scott and the Canadian Workers Movement, 
1927-1985 (St. John’s: Canadian Committee 
on Labour History, 1988).
8 
Bryan D. Palmer, “Rethinking the Historiogra-
phy of United States Communism,” American 
Communist History 2, no. 2 (2003): 139-173.
9 
Bryan D. Palmer, “Maurice Spector, James P. 
Cannon, and the Origins of Canadian Trotsky-
ism,” Labour/Le Travail 56 (2005), 91-148.
10 
Bryan D. Palmer, James P. Cannon and the 
Origins of the American Revolutionary Left, 
1890-1928 (Urbana: University of Illinois 
Press, 2007).
11 
McKay, “Joe Salsberg, Depression-Era Com-
munism and the Limits of Moscow’s Rule,” 
133.
12 
Ibid. 
13 
Ian Mckay, Reasoning Otherwise: Leftists and 
the People’s Enlightenment in Canada, 1890-
1920 (Toronto: Between the Lines, 2008), 1. 
14 
Ian McKay, Rebels, Reds, Radicals: Rethinking 
Canada’s Left History (Toronto: Between the 
Lines, 2005), 22.  


Reading Otherwise: Ian McKay’s “Fairly Straightforward” Misrepresentation of Canadian Communist Party Historiography

Brown, Michael

66 Michael Brown / Oyfn Veg Session One Discussion
Michael Brown
Oyfn Veg Session One Discussion
67Canadian Jewish Studies / Études juives canadiennes, vol. 21, 2013 [2014]
To begin, let me say that it is a pleasure and an honour to participate in this well 
deserved tribute to Professor Gerald Tulchinsky. Jerry’s contributions to the history 
of Canadian Jewry and through those works to a better understanding of Canada, 
as a whole, are of the greatest significance. It is no exaggeration to say that it would 
be impossible today to imagine conceptualizing or contextualizing the Jewish 
community of Canada without the guidance and insights of Jerry’s works. And his 
studies of the Canadian Jewish community tell us a great deal about Canada as a 
whole. We, and future generations owe him thanks and appreciation.
The two papers on which I comment here are very different in scope and discipline, 
although both raise major issues of Canadian-Jewish life, one explicitly and the other 
implicitly. Professor Weinfeld’s paper is a discussion of the old question of Jews’ dual 
loyalty in its contemporary Canadian setting: the potential conflict of Jews’ allegiance 
to Canada and to Israel. Dr. Lipinsky’s paper focuses on a byway of Canadian-Jewish 
history that, perhaps surprisingly, illustrates some of the main themes of that history 
in the formative interwar period.
Lipinsky’s paper has a narrow focus. It tells of the attempt in the 1920s to establish 
an agricultural school in Ontario for immigrant Jews. (In those years, there were 
two such schools in the US and one in Palestine.) Through micro-history, the paper 
illustrates the extent to which Canada has moved away from racist bi-nationalism 
and towards equality for all citizens and a multicultural perspective on Canadian society. 
Despite the growing urbanization of Canada and the decreasing need for farmers 
as a result of mechanization, farming long remained a Canadian social ideal and 
an important criterion for determining the suitability of immigrants. As a highly 
urbanized group, Jews were considered “non-preferred” immigrants who would or 
might subvert that ideal. A number of Jews, in this case, Morris Saxe, “a trained 
European farmer,” hoped to improve the desirability of their coreligionists as 
immigrants by, as Harold Troper put it, “mak[ing] farmers of them.” Saxe and others 
believed in “productivizing” Jews, a process that had to the establishment of Jewish 
farming colonies in Palestine (now Israel), Russia, and South and North America, 
including the Canadian prairies.
Lipinsky’s piece describes Saxe’s personal connection to Frederick C. Blair, an 
antisemite and a racist, the go-to bureaucrat on immigration matters from 1924 to 
1945, who set himself the task of acting as Canada’s gatekeeper. But this is more than 
the story of an idiosyncratic do-gooder and his bigoted friend/nemesis. Writ small, 
it tells of immigrant chicanery, which helped seal the fate of the proposed school and 
of deserving (and less deserving) immigrants. Writ large, it illustrates the racism that 
governed Canada’s immigration policies in these years, keeping out many potentially 
valuable citizens (Armenians fleeing the Turks, Jews fleeing the Nazis, and others) 
and made life unpleasant for many living in Canada (Ukrainians during World War 
68 Michael Brown / Oyfn Veg Session One Discussion
I, Japanese during World War II, First Nations people still). 
 As noted, Prof. Weinfeld’s study focuses on the question of dual loyalty, Canada or 
(and?) Israel. He suggests that the Talmudic dictum, “The law of the land [in which 
one lives] is the law” for Jews no less than others, should serve as an answer to anyone 
who raises the issue. That dictum, however, is actually limited to money matters 
and not broadly applicable. (One might note, ironically, that an area in which Jews 
often transgress is money matters.) Weinfeld also points to the common practice of 
reciting a prayer for Canada or the queen during synagogue services as a means of 
undercutting the canard. The practice is, in fact, of ancient provenance, although 
one of its motives has undoubtedly always been a declaration of loyalty to the local 
powers. Today it is customarily followed by a prayer for the state of Israel. 
Weinfeld asserts that the adoption in 1982 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms 
with its “equal rights paradigm” has reinforced the legitimacy of dual loyalty in Canada. 
My own work indicates that Canada’s shift from binationalism to multiculturalism 
helped transform the country’s Jews from outsiders to insiders and also strengthened 
the legitimacy of dual loyalty. Weinfeld illustrates all this in his analysis of the career 
of Irwin Cotler, who served as federal justice minister while remaining an eloquent 
and outspoken advocate for Israel. Implicit is a comparison with the United States, 
where the myths of the founding fathers and the melting pot make dual loyalty less 
acceptable. Weinfeld notes that the potential problematics of dual loyalty in Canada 
at the present moment are ameliorated by the unswerving support of Israel (and 
other embattled Canadian voter groups in their native countries, such as the Tamils) 
by the present (Conservative) government. Consequently, the abandonment of the 
Liberal Party for the Conservatives by many Canadian Jews, serves as an affirmation 
of loyalty to both Canada and Israel. (One could also see it as reflecting Jews’ voting 
their perceived economic well-being.) 
Interestingly, then, when Weinfeld embarked on a field study, what he calls the 
“Tebbit” or “cricket” test, he found an unexpected degree of discomfort and 
ambivalence regarding Canadian Jews’ allegiance. Asked whom they would support 
in a sporting competition between Israel and Canada, prominent community 
members waffled and even then insisted on anonymity. One might well infer then, 
that there is less difference between American and Canadian Jews than expected, 
all the more so in an era when some extraordinarily wealthy American Jews have 
supported Israel’s prime minister in his public criticism of the American president 
and secretary of state.
Two very different papers: a micro-history and a look at a refrain that reverberates 
throughout Jewish history from ancient times to the present. Both describe interesting 
aspects of Canadian Jewish life. More importantly, they situate the community in 
both the Canadian historical context and the Jewish historical context.


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