Canadian Jewish Studies / Études juives canadiennes

Davids, Leo

English

Hebrew and Yiddish in Canada: a Linguistic Transition Completed

Pirozhenko, Ekaterina

Gendered Experience in the Concentration Camp and the Construction of the Kapo identity in “Edgia’s Revenge” by Chava Rosenfarb

Lerner, Eve

286    CJS/ÉJC
Jewish life, members of the community they study and partici-
pants in the history they write. All combine passion with 
professional scholarship. All contribute to a body of work that 
highlights the distinctiveness of Canadian Jewry. The Defining 
Decade is a great read; Troper’s story-telling style makes it 
indeed a page-turner. Its clarity and accessibility should assure 
this book a broad audience. 
Sharon Gubbay Helfer
Concordia University
Vaugeois, Denis. Les Premiers Juifs d’Amérique, 1760-1860. 
Sillery: Septentrion, 2011. 382 pp.
A genealogist’s warning to would-be researchers of family 
history: be prepared, once you scratch below the surface, to 
find horse thieves and smugglers among your ancestors. Denis 
Vaugeois proves this point in his study, Les Premiers Juifs 
d’Amérique, a welcome change from the filio-pietistic tradition 
of ethnic history. His portrait of a venerated family is one of 
flesh and blood creatures, who are eminently fallible. 
The Hart family has attracted a number of histori-
ans, notably David Rome, Mary and Sheldon Godfrey, and 
Raymond Douville, and it even inspired Charles Law’s novel, 
Aaron’s Convenant. To my knowledge, however, Vaugeois 
is the first who looks at the first two generations of Harts 
as a continuum, using them to illuminate the political, economic 
and social context in which they lived. He uses a wealth of 
sources, notably the Hart papers in the archives of the Trois 
Rivières Seminary, and the archives of the McCord museum 
in Montreal.
Patriarch Aaron Hart emigrated from Britain to Trois 
Rivières as a purveyor to Amherst’s army during the Conquest 
of Québec in 1763. With a few other families the Harts founded 
a Jewish community in Lower Canada. Aaron Hart was a key 
figure in the development of the town of Trois Rivières: post-
master of the town, seigneur of Bécancour (a seigneurie across 
 Book Reviews/Comptes Rendus   287 
the river from the town) and prominent businessman. His three 
sons, Moses, Ezekiel, and Benjamin share with him the focus 
of the book.
Despite his own success, Aaron warned Ezekiel against 
the folly of seeking public office, for, as he predicted, “your 
religion will count against you.” Ezekiel, of course, has been 
the subject of the most widespread historical attention. Elected 
twice to public office as a member of the assembly in Lower 
Canada in 1807 and 1808, his seat was ultimately denied him, 
precisely on the grounds of his religion. His contesting this deci-
sion ultimately led to the passage of the Declaratory Act in 1832 
eliminating all legal disabilities for Jews in the province, a law 
which preceded the legal emancipation of Jews in England by 
twenty-seven years.
Ezekiel’s achievement is clearly of the greatest histori-
cal significance; in this book, however, Aaron’s son Moses is 
the most colourful of the four portraits. He is a black sheep 
with a long list of sexual liaisons producing an impressive 
amount of illegitimate children (the burial of one of them in 
the Jewish cemetery in Montreal was hotly disputed by his 
brother Benjamin). His reputation for licentiousness (he was 
once accused of running a bawdy house) was only rivalled by 
his litigious nature. Vaugeois is fascinated as well by Moses’ 
publication of a deistic tract which decries the obscurantism 
of Catholicism, and promoted a universal religion, General 
Universal Religion.
The youngest of the three sons, Benjamin, comes off 
as a curmudgeon. One of the founders of the Shearith Israel 
Congregation in Montreal (Spanish and Portuguese) he is infu-
riated by the invasion of the congregation by Ashkenazic Jews 
who didn’t even know the Sepahardic rite. Not all the Hart 
descendants, however, shared Benjamin’s preoccupation with 
Jewish life. The core of a tiny population of about 100 Jews in 
Quebec at the end of the 18th century, the family melted into 
Québec society during the next two generation, largely through 
métissage, by marrying French Canadian spouses.
288    CJS/ÉJC
One of the central tropes of this book is acceptance, the 
lack of anti-Jewish social discrimination in Lower Canada. That 
Aaron Hart should be able to accede to a seigneurie and a posi-
tion of prominence, that the family could successfully blend 
in to the surrounding society, are proofs, Vaugeois tells us, of 
a lack of prejudice, in sharp contrast the reader infers, to 
the exclusionary attitudes and practices of the twentieth century 
in Québec. 
Even the move to exclude Ezekiel Hart from the 
assembly, claims the author, was motivated by political tacti-
cal considerations, not by outright antisemitism, specifically 
to limit the number of pro-English, “bureaucratic” allies in the 
chamber. The proof of this contention, he says, is that French 
Canadians supported Hart’s petition to explicitly allow Jews to 
hold public office twenty-four years later when circumstances 
had changed.
Despite the openly anti-French sentiments expressed by 
Moses and the harsh anti-patriote judgements of Benjamin, (a 
magistrate during the 1837 rebellions), there is barely a riposte, 
claims Vaugeois, against this group of Jews, even during the 
most violent days of the rebellions; barely an echo “dans le 
desert du silence crée par les executions des patriotes” [in the 
desert of silence created by the executions of the patriots] (328). 
This is a strange passage in what is otherwise a fairly objective 
work. Are we to see Jews as the winners in a contest of national 
prejudice? It is curious, because, as Vaugeois stated, Jews are on 
both sides of the conflict between pro and anti-rebellion forces.
This is because, according to Vaugeois, all doors were 
open to Jews, especially those of the Church. The only real prob-
lem they encountered is the absence of prejudice against them. If 
not for the arrival of new waves of immigrants in the middle of the 
nineteenth century, the author asserts, the first Jews of Québec 
would have become Franco-Catholic or Anglo-Protestant.
What message are we to draw from this last statement? 
Is it that as long as Jews barely existed as a corporate entity, 
as long as they blended into Quebec society, there existed no 
 Book Reviews/Comptes Rendus   289 
deep-seated prejudices against them? If so, is this a virtue, or a 
deficiency?1
Vaugeois’ strength lies not in moralizing, but in the 
wealth of context he provides for the daily lives of the Harts, 
both in Trois Rivières and in Montreal. The relationship of the 
family with the Ursulines of the Trois Rivières (who educated 
Aaron Hart’s daughters) is complex and fascinating. Vaugeois 
gives us as well, an illustrated history of the beginnings of 
the sewage system in Montreal in the first half of the nine-
teenth century, a project in which the David family (related by 
marriage to the Harts) was key.
The illustrations in the book are copious and beautiful, 
even if their relevance to the text, particularly in the case of 
early Jewish memorabilia, is not always clear. In this regard, the 
author could easily have benefited from a closer collaboration 
with some of his Jewish informants.2
The book is very much a joint memoir, of both the 
Hart family and the search for documents about them. I found 
the continued presence of the detective/author in the narrative 
distracting at times, but others might find this charming and 
informative. The narrative (especially the analytical elements) 
is not always coherent, but this deficiency is compensated by 
a wealth of interesting detail that makes Vaugeois’ subjects 
human and believable, and his depiction of the surrounding 
society rich and compelling.
Students of early Jewish history in Canada, and of the 
social history of Quebec in the century following the British 
conquest will find this book a welcome addition to their library.
Eve Lerner
Endnotes
1 The Hart’s ambiguous relationship to their social surroundings in 
Trois Rivières persisted after their death, though Vaugeois makes no mention 
of it here. In 1901, Aaron Hart’s bones were disinterred and moved to make 
way for a new development, before their final burial in the Shearith Israel 
cemetery in Montreal.
290    CJS/ÉJC
2 For example, Vaugeois has trouble explaining why Benjamin Hart 
was such a partisan of the Sephardic synagogue Shearith Israel, though he 
was an Ashkenazic Jew. A quick look at Gerald Tulchinsky’s Branching Out 
(cited in his own bibliography) could have cleared up the question for him. A 
consultation of a Jewish informant might have given him the meaning of the 
frontispiece of his book (an iconography of the Jewish year), which he admits 
he is unable to give his readers.


Vaugeois, Denis. Les Premiers Juifs d’Amérique, 1760-1860.

Morgentaler, Goldie

The Poetry of Chava Rosenfarb: the Joyful Drabness of the Everyday

Anctil, Pierre

H.-M. Caiserman, critique littéraire du Canada français

Tal, David

 Book Reviews/Comptes Rendus   263 
Kay, zachariah. The Diplomacy of Impartiality: Canada and 
Israel, 1958-1968. Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 
2010. 127 pp.
At the time of the writing of this review, Israel has been 
subjected to a great deal of criticism from many governments. 
One place where the Israeli Prime Minister can find friendly 
faces, however, is Canada. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen 
Harper is one of the politicians friendliest to Israel, and Canada 
is among the more friendly countries to Israel at a time when 
there are not very many like it among the nations. Reading 
zachariah Kay’s concise and to-the-point monograph, one 
learns that this situation was not always the case. The title tells 
it all: The Diplomacy of Impartiality; to sensitive Israeli ears, 
“impartiality” in those sensitive days when Israel was still very 
young and trying to find its place in the world amounted to 
almost open hostility.
Canada’s way in the international arena was set by 
Prime Minister Mackenzie King (1921-1930, 1935-1948), who 
had established “a cautious and scrupulous tone in international 
relations” (3). That line was followed also in the years to come, 
including those covered in this book. It was based on the prin-
ciple of legality and respect for international law and bodies: 
foremost, at the time, the United Nations. Tilting between the 
optimism nourished by the creation of the United Nations and 
the prospects it offered for the resolution of conflicts, and the 
reality of the Cold War, Canada’s foreign policy tended to be 
prudent and impartial. Canada sought to have a diplomacy that 
would allow it to work on both sides of a conflict, hoping to close 
gaps and helping to solve conflicts through its unbiased politics: 
that was how it also approached the Israeli-Arab conflict.
The period chosen by Kay for this book starts with the 
election of the conservative John G. Diefenbaker, who had 
inflicted a heavy blow to the rival Liberal party. The new Prime 
Minister was a supporter of the nascent Jewish state, but that 
did not lead to a change in the fundamentals of the “scrupulous 
264    CJS/ÉJC
impartiality” policy toward Israel. First, it was considered to be 
the right policy, and second, “regardless of the party in power, 
the formulation of governmental attitudes and policies will be 
bureaucratically generated” (10). The “scrupulous impartiality” 
policy was devised by the professional body of the External 
Affairs ministry, that remained in power even with the change 
of government. Thus when the Liberal Lester B. Pearson 
(former External Affairs Minister) replaced Diefenbaker as 
Prime Minister, the “scrupulous impartiality” policy remained 
in force. 
What really emerges from this book is the author’s 
observation that Israeli-Canadian relations during the period 
under discussion were mainly formal. Israel did not really 
expect Canada to act in its favor. Canada, for Israel, was a 
friendly country, and certainly better than hostile. However 
Canada did not really have assets it could provide to Israel; 
these were not available because of the “scrupulous impar-
tiality” policy. The coming to power of the Liberal Lester B. 
Pearson in April 1963 did not lead to a profound change in 
Canada’s attitude towards Israel. Mr. Kay’s description of the 
way the Pearson government continued the line of the depart-
ing government is in line with the general theme of this book: 
the endorsement of a pragmatic and calculated policy towards 
Israel by consecutive Canadian governments. But that observa-
tion adumbrates to a great extent one major feature of the book: 
it is not really about Israeli-Canadian relations, it is rather a 
book on Canada’s foreign policy, which in this case is directed 
toward Israel. There is very little emphasis on the Israeli part 
of the equation, and we hardly learn about the way the Israeli-
Canadian interaction was created and functioned. The story that 
this book tells us is the story of one side of what were mutual 
relations. It uncovers the fundamental line of policy taken by the 
Canadian government but it doesn’t tell us to what extent the 
Israelis made efforts to influence the making of Canadian policy 
regarding Israel. When the Israeli part of the story is told, it is 
mostly done in a strictly descriptive way. No serious attempt 
 Book Reviews/Comptes Rendus   265 
is made to deal with the Israeli decision-making process that 
helped to shape mutual relations. 
It is for that reason that the main advantage of this book 
is the light it sheds on several aspects of Canada’s foreign 
policy, and the way it was formulated. It is less informative on 
the mutual relations between the two states, Israel and Canada.
David Tal 
University of Calgary
King, Joe. Fabled City: the Jews of Montreal. Montreal: Price-
Patterson Ltd., 2009. 200 pp. 
This book is the latest in a series of tributes to Jewish Montreal 
flowing from the pen of Joe King. As an experienced joumalist 
and a talented storyteller, King has made the most of a rich body 
of material in order to evoke the personalities, incidents and an-
ecdotes that mark the rich history of the Jews of Montreal over 
two and a half centuries. He knows a good story when he sees it 
and tells it well. The book is the result of a great deal of research 
and consultation, which the author graciously acknowledges. 
Fabled City is well designed with copious illustrations on nearly 
every page. Both those who are new to the historical memory 
of Montreal Jews and those who are already familiar with the 
subject will be entertained and instructed. 
Ira Robinson
Concordia University
Levine, Allan. Coming of Age: A History of the Jewish People 
of Manitoba. Winnipeg: Heartland, 2009. 511 pp.
Almost fifty years after the publication of Arthur Chiel’s The 
Jews in Manitoba, Allan Levine gives us a chronicle of astound-
ing scope, supplemented by wonderful photographs from the 
archives of the Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada. The 
task of writing a regional history is no small one. The story must 
have sufficient depth and breadth so that readers from inside the 


Kay, Zachariah. The Diplomacy of Impartiality: Canada and Israel, 1958-1968.

Robinson, Ira

 Book Reviews/Comptes Rendus   265 
is made to deal with the Israeli decision-making process that 
helped to shape mutual relations. 
It is for that reason that the main advantage of this book 
is the light it sheds on several aspects of Canada’s foreign 
policy, and the way it was formulated. It is less informative on 
the mutual relations between the two states, Israel and Canada.
David Tal 
University of Calgary
King, Joe. Fabled City: the Jews of Montreal. Montreal: Price-
Patterson Ltd., 2009. 200 pp. 
This book is the latest in a series of tributes to Jewish Montreal 
flowing from the pen of Joe King. As an experienced joumalist 
and a talented storyteller, King has made the most of a rich body 
of material in order to evoke the personalities, incidents and an-
ecdotes that mark the rich history of the Jews of Montreal over 
two and a half centuries. He knows a good story when he sees it 
and tells it well. The book is the result of a great deal of research 
and consultation, which the author graciously acknowledges. 
Fabled City is well designed with copious illustrations on nearly 
every page. Both those who are new to the historical memory 
of Montreal Jews and those who are already familiar with the 
subject will be entertained and instructed. 
Ira Robinson
Concordia University
Levine, Allan. Coming of Age: A History of the Jewish People 
of Manitoba. Winnipeg: Heartland, 2009. 511 pp.
Almost fifty years after the publication of Arthur Chiel’s The 
Jews in Manitoba, Allan Levine gives us a chronicle of astound-
ing scope, supplemented by wonderful photographs from the 
archives of the Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada. The 
task of writing a regional history is no small one. The story must 
have sufficient depth and breadth so that readers from inside the 


King, Joe. Fabled City: the Jews of Montreal.

Jones,  Faith

221
SOURCES
Introduction
Eiran Harris’ compendium lists Hebrew type (including Yiddish) 
which appeared in any printed form in Canada between 1844 
and 1915, excluding newspapers and periodicals. This document 
is the product of years of meticulous research at the Jewish 
Public Library in Montreal, where Harris is Archivist Emeritus, 
the Canadian Jewish Congress Charities Committee Archives, and 
in private collections. This compendium complements Gerald 
Stone’s Catalogue of Books, Pamphlets and Printed Material: 
Jewish Canadiana (Ottawa, 2008), which has a stronger orien-
tation towards published materials. Because so much of Harris’ 
focus is on ephemera, the items on his list display a different kind 
of history than printed books do. As Brad Sabin Hill has pointed 
out1, Hebrew and Yiddish printing came much later in Canada 
than in the neighbouring United States, and its earliest use, in 
Toronto, points to Protestant interest in Hebrew scriptural study 
rather than to Jewish settlement patterns. Use of Hebrew type in a 
Jewish context began in 1853, and proceeded slowly until about 
1890, when the pace dramatically picked up. Post-1890 we see 
much more ephemera, reflecting the needs of a growing commu-
nity and its organizations, businesses, and religious institutions. 
In total, over 150 examples of early printed Hebrew and Yiddish 
typography are listed and described. The years covered immedi-
ately precede the great boom in Yiddish publishing in Canada, 
bringing to light Hebrew type that is very little known.
Harris’ listing offers many prospective avenues for 
further research. The early printers, especially the non-Jewish 
John Lovell and “the first viable Yiddish-Hebrew press”2 of 
Abraham Kaplansky, are intriguing. The variations in Hebrew 
and Yiddish vocabulary and orthography used in bar mitzvah and 
wedding invitations, and the different registers of Yiddish from 
extreme daytshmerish to more common vernacular fusions with 
222    Sources
English and French, are themselves an invitation to linguists, 
particularly when compared, for example, to the letterhead of a 
rabbi, a synagogue or a zionist organization. The programmes 
and schedules of services will be of interest to scholars of reli-
gion. Moreover, the history of Jewish apostasy and Christian 
Hebraism in Canada is hinted at in the early entries. In some 
cases, what is lacking is as interesting as what is found here. In 
contrast to the robust production of the Christian Hebraists in 
the United States, there are no grammars, though several incom-
plete attempts at language learning materials are in evidence. 
Some important early titles by Canadian authors were printed 
elsewhere due to the lack of full Hebrew typographic capability 
anywhere in Canada3.
Undoubtedly this listing, the ephemera in particular, is 
only a tiny sample of what existed at the time, and perhaps only 
a small portion of what we will eventually locate in archives and 
personal collections. We see certain prominent rabbis’ names 
over and over, while even some large organizations are repre-
sented by just a single item. What has survived is not entirely 
random—and further investigation will help us understand 
what the lacunae mean. Several of the items are attested only 
at second hand. A booklet referred to in zalman zylbercweig’s 
encyclopedia and biographical dictionary of Yiddish theatre4 
has never been located, but zylbercweig was a careful editor 
and we have reason to hope this item did exist and will be found 
(see entry dated 1897). Irrefutable evidence exists for an early 
Yiddish theatre poster: a photograph showing the poster hang-
ing on a Montreal street (see entry dated 1914). It surely was not 
the only one, but thus far it is the earliest example we know of. 
And a tantalizing 1913 item from Vancouver—where Hebrew 
and Yiddish type is generally not seen until much later—was 
reported on in 1958, but has since been lost. Like the best works 
of scholarship, Harris’ compilation is a reminder that most of 
our work still lies ahead of us.
Faith Jones
 Introduction   223 
Endnotes
1 See Brad Sabin Hill, “Early Hebrew Printing in Canada,” Studia 
Rosenthaliana 38/39 (2002), 306-347.
2 Rebecca Margolis, “Jewish Print Culture” in Patricia Fleming, et 
al, eds. History of the Book in Canada vol. 3 (Toronto: University of Toronto 
Press, 2007): 305-307.
3 Hill notes the apostate Bishop of Huron, Isaac Hellmuth, wrote 
typographically complex works such as his unfinished Biblical Thesaurus 
(1884), which were printed in England, and even simpler texts such as litur-
gies were often printed in Philadelphia.
4 zalman zylbercweig, Leksikon fun Yidishn Teater, Vol. 1 (New 
York: Elisheva Press, 1931): 736.


Introduction

Scheinberg, Ellen

 Book Reviews/Comptes Rendus   257 
Gladstone, Bill. A History of the Jewish Community of London 
Ontario: from the 1850s to the Present Day. Toronto: Now and 
Then Books, 2011. 248 pp.
This work documents the Jewish community of London, Ontario 
from the 1850s to the present. The author, Bill Gladstone, is a 
columnist for the Canadian Jewish News as well as a publisher 
who operates Now and Then Books and author of several other 
works. This book was commissioned by Penny and Robert 
Rubinoff in 2009, in honour of their parents David and Rachel. 
David Rubinoff was a successful businessman who owned the 
Commonwealth Holiday Inn franchise as well as other real 
estate ventures. The couple lived in London from 1939 until 
1985, raised their four children there and were active members 
of the community.
Much of the Jewish scholarly and community literature 
in the past has tended to focus on large cities like Toronto and 
Montreal. Hence, this study represents a departure from this 
trend, serving as the first published history of London’s Jewish 
community. Similar studies have been produced for Ottawa and 
Windsor within the last few years, written by Valerie Knowles 
and Rabbi Jonathan Plaut respectively. 
Gladstone relies on a variety of sources that include: 
archival records from libraries, Jewish archives and the local 
London synagogue Or Shalom, photographs, approximately 100 
oral histories that he undertook himself, genealogical sources 
and cemetery data gleaned from London’s two Jewish cemeter-
ies. This handsome book includes a large number of striking 
illustrations in the form of archival photographs, maps and 
documents. The work is structured in a manner that is chrono-
logically and thematically driven, highlighting many family 
stories and historical lists and tidbits which are interspersed 
throughout the book. 
When comparing London to other Jewish communities 
in Ontario, it would be considered a mid-sized community with 
a population base of 1880 in 2001. It was home to a large and 
258    CJS/ÉJC
successful merchant class of Jews as well as one of Canada’s 
most prestigious universities, the University of Western Ontario. 
The community was settled early on by a number of fascinating, 
colourful, and in some cases, famous figures like movie mogul 
Jack Warner, whose parents (the original family name was 
Wonsul) lived in London during Jack’s early youth, Anglican 
Bishop Isaac Hellmut, a former Rabbi who converted and was the 
founder and first Chancellor of the University of Western Ontario, 
along with a number of bootleggers, bigamists, scam artists and 
other questionable characters, the latter of whom ran into some 
trouble with the law and did not remain in town very long. 
The first Jewish settlers to establish roots in London 
arrived after 1869 and established businesses. Most of these 
residents were engaged in trades such as dry goods, cigar 
making, dress making, pawn broking and the junk and rag busi-
ness. When investigating the immigration trends, Gladstone 
attributes family ties, jobs, connections to nearby towns or luck 
as the primary factors drawing early Jewish settlers to this area. 
A small number farmed outside of the city, but many of those 
ventures were short lived, due to the lure of appealing jobs and 
a strong Jewish infrastructure that existed within the larger city. 
London, Gladstone reveals, had a sizeable Jewish 
infrastructure considering the size of its population. It had 3 
synagogues by 1940, at least one kosher butcher, a community 
centre, a Jewish Council established in 1933, a branch of JIAS 
and a Talmud Torah. Gladstone also reveals that London had a 
thriving Yiddish theatre supported by Melech Grafstein, many 
zionist organizations, and an active radical group of Jews who 
sponsored a visit by the prominent anarchist, Emma Goldman, 
in 1908 and took part in the local Workmen’s Circle. He also 
recounts a story of how a number of radical residents joined a 
commune in the western United States for a number of years 
and returned around 1910. Although the chapter on radicals 
distinguishes London from many of the other mid-sized Jewish 
Ontario communities, despite alluding to the fact that Jews 
likely worked as factory operatives within the city’s cigar and 
 Book Reviews/Comptes Rendus   259 
garment industries during the first half of the twentieth century, 
one doesn’t really learn about the size and scope of the Jewish 
working-class within this town or hear their unique stories. 
Thus, some detail about the less prominent and affluent Jewish 
citizens in town would have made this community history 
more complete.
One of the problems that the community—along with 
many others in Ontario -- is confronting today is the loss of 
its young people to Toronto and other large cities. This trend 
started in the 1950s as the youth left town in pursuit of a univer-
sity education and employment opportunities. Gladstone reveals 
that London’s Jewish population, like that of many others across 
the province, is aging, and there is a concern that it may be diffi-
cult to maintain the synagogues in the future without the support 
of younger generations. Despite this loss, London is quite 
unique in that it possesses an eruv, a mikvah, the availability 
of Kosher food at the local grocery stores, its own community 
newspaper as well as a JCC, a Federation, a day school, and 
a senior’s centre. There is also an active Chabad movement 
close to campus that has attracted hundreds of students to its 
Shabbat dinners each week. Hence, the community’s numbers 
are declining and yet it still seems to be sustaining its institu-
tions and thriving. 
Glastone must also be commended for bringing together 
a wide array of sources that would not have been accessible to 
the public without his efforts. He does a wonderful job showcas-
ing a plethora of stories documenting the prominent Jews who 
shaped the vibrant Jewish community of London over the past 
160 years. The only critique that is worth noting, beyond the 
absence of working-class actors, is that the structure, although 
sound, becomes a little disjointed and choppy due to the way that 
the family biographies and documents are interspersed through-
out this book. In turn, this community study tends to focus on 
the Jews of London almost exclusively and in isolation, leaving 
out their connections with non-Jews (except for descriptions of 
anti-Semitic incidents) as well as their brethren from other cities 
260    CJS/ÉJC
like Toronto and Windsor. Since no group lives in a bubble, it 
would have been worthwhile learning more about these types 
of interactions and connections in order to get a more complete 
snapshot of their experiences. This work does, however, fill a 
major gap within the literature by revealing the untold stories of 
London’s Jews, and one can hope that in the future more stud-
ies of this kind, documenting the histories of other significant 
communities in Ontario like Hamilton, Kitchener-Waterloo, St. 
Catharines and others, will be told. 
Ellen Scheinberg
Goodman, Joseph J. Collected Writings. Hannah Berliner 
Fischthal, translator. Harriet Goodman Hoffman, editor. 
Bloomington, Indiana: Xlibris Corporation, 2011. 337 pp.
In 1919, Joseph J. Goodman’s Gezamelte Shriften was published 
in Winnipeg. Eighty-five years later, Goodman’s grandniece 
discovered his book at the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, 
Massachusetts, a discovery which led to its translation into 
English along with the addition by his granddaughters of 
background material and commentaries, and ultimately to the 
publication of Collected Writings.
Now in bilingual format, Gezamelte Shriften is a compi-
lation of Goodman’s poems, essays, stories, homilies, and 
observations on a wide range of topics. Goodman was a commit-
ted Jew and zionist, a romantic and a humourist, a philosopher 
and an astute observer of people and places—these qualities 
permeate his writings, providing us with a sense of the life lived 
by Jews in the early twentieth century in Western Canada.
Born in Ukraine, in the Pale of Settlement, in or around 
1863, Goodman saw the Jews’ suffering and poverty, and it is 
likely that he lived through several pogroms while in his teens. The 
horrific conditions that he both witnessed and endured seem to 
have shaped his world view and informed much of his writings.
Toward the end of the nineteenth century, he emigrated 
to the United States and in 1901 moved to Canada, taking up 


Gladstone, Bill. A History of the Jewish Community of London Ontario: from the 1850s to the Present Day.

Bernard, Marylin

 Book Reviews/Comptes Rendus   275 
on the street never will. Unfortunately, as Mendelson takes us 
through Canada’s elite in the first half of the twentieth century, 
he also shows us the squandered opportunities of many men and 
women who could have done more good with their power and 
influence than was the case.
Nowadays, most Canadians take pride in the image of 
their country as one that values a multi-ethnic society, more 
welcoming and accepting of minorities than most. Exiles From 
Nowhere serves as a daunting reminder that Canada’s recent 
past includes many dark shadows. With scholars and intel-
lectuals like George Grant casting the influence of nineteenth 
century prejudices forward into the twentieth, Mendelson does 
his best to let in light on this subject, giving us all a clearer 
picture of who we are as Canadians so that we may understand 
our “great” men better. 
Sara Libby Robinson
Olazabal, Ignace. Khaverim: Les Juifs ashkénazes de Montréal 
au début du xxe siècle, entre le shtetl et l’identité citoyenne. 
Québec: Editions Nota Bene, 2006. 276 pp. 
D’entrée de jeu, l’auteur se situe par rapport a son sujet de re-
cherche: non-juif, Ignace Olazabal s’intéresse a l’étude de l’inté-
gration des minorités dans la société québécoise et a l’édification 
de ponts intercommunautaires. La minorité juive l’a particu-
lièrement interpelle, étant donne la richesse de sa contribution 
plus que bicentenaire à la collectivité montréalaise, et la valeur 
emblématique qu’elle a acquise en ce qui a trait aux relations 
entre minorités et majorités, au Québec. Ainsi, Olazabal a décidé 
de lui consacrer sa thèse de doctorat, dont la forme remaniée et 
publiée fait l’objet de ce compte rendu. 
Afin de bien cerner la vie juive à Montréal depuis le 
début du vingtième siècle, Olazabal a d’abord dû se plonger 
dans l’étude des traditions, du yiddish et de tout ce qui constitue 
l’univers juif. En plus d’absorber ces nouvelles connaissances, 
Olazabal a arpenté les rues des quartiers ou les Juifs ont vécu et/
276    CJS/ÉJC
ou vivent encore, à la recherche de traces mémorielles de leur 
passage. Nous faisons ici un bond vers l’avant pour mentionner 
que le quatrième chapitre s’intéresse tout spécialement à ces lieux 
de mémoire, qu’il décrit, nomme et situe géographiquement. Ce 
chapitre fait aussi état de la migration graduelle du centre névral-
gique juif, du sud de la rue St-Laurent vers le centre puis l’ouest 
de l’île. Enfin, Olazabal a privilégié les méthodes d’enquête 
orale et d’observation participante. À ce sujet, nous aurions pré-
féré qu’il présente des le début de l’ouvrage le groupe qu’il a ob-
servé et interrogé pour mener à bien son étude, au lieu d’attendre 
au dernier chapitre pour apprendre que l’auteur s’est inséré, en 
1996-1997, dans un atelier dispensé par l’ Association de l’age 
d’or des Services communautaires juifs de Montréal, et qu’il y a 
rencontré certains de ceux qu’il appelle les « immigrants de deu-
xième génération». Ces enfants d’immigrants juifs d’Europe de 
l’Est arrivés autour de l’an 1900, qui sont nés ici dans les années 
1910 ou eux-mêmes arrives en très bas age au Canada, sont au 
coeur de l’étude d’Olazabal : ce sont eux, les khaverim. 
L’objectif de l’auteur était de montrer la transmission 
identitaire de la judéité, à travers le changement social, des Juifs 
ashkénazes est-européens immigres ici au début du xxe siècle 
à leurs descendants. Cependant, l’accent de l’ouvrage, nous 
l’avons écrit, est mis sur la « seconde génération », et l’auteur 
garde la plupart de ses réflexions sur les troisième et quatrième 
générations pour sa brève conclusion, ce qui est dommage car 
nous aurions aimé en apprendre davantage. 
L’ouvrage est divisé en deux parties. La première, de 
l’aveu même de l’auteur, n’a «d’autre but que de montrer les 
avatars de la mémoire collective, tout aussi faite de bris, de cas-
sures mémorielles, que de continuité » (26). La nécessite de faire 
mémoire étant devenue une composante majeure de l’identité du 
peuple juif, Olazabal a apparemment jugé pertinent de s’attar-
der sur les principaux événements et éléments de l’histoire juive 
ashkénaze d’Europe de l’Est depuis le Moyen Age jusqu’au xxe 
siècle. Alors que le premier chapitre aborde les vicissitudes des 
relations entre les Juifs et les peuples d’Europe de l’Est, le second 
 Book Reviews/Comptes Rendus   277 
décrit la vie juive dans cette région du monde. Il va sans dire que 
l’entièreté de cette première partie en deux chapitres reprend des 
données déjà connues, tirées de sources secondaires. Même si la 
lecture en est très agréable, et que cette partie est pertinente en ce 
qu’elle rappelle certains des principaux éléments constitutifs de 
la mémoire juive, nous la trouvons définitivement trop longue. 
Elle aurait avantage à être raccourcie afin de laisser plus de place 
a la deuxième section de cet ouvrage, et plus précisément au 
chapitre cinq qui constitue l’apport véritable d’Olazabal à l’édi-
fice des connaissances sur les Juifs ashkénazes de Montréal. 
La deuxième partie du livre traite des Juifs d’Europe de 
l’Est qui sont arrivés à Montréal entre 1881 et 1914, de leurs 
stratégies adaptatives, ainsi que de celles de leurs enfants. Nous 
avons déjà décrit plus haut le contenu du chapitre quatre. Le 
chapitre trois, a l’instar des chapitre un et deux, résume l’état des 
connaissances actuelles, cette fois sur les immigrants Juifs a 
Montréal depuis le Régime anglais jusqu’au milieu du XXe 
siècle. Le chapitre cinq, lui, repose sur la recherche d’Olazabal 
dont il a été question plus haut. On y apprend que l’une des ca-
ractéristiques majeures de la « seconde génération », par rapport 
aux générations suivantes, serait la persistance des valeurs du 
shtetl, notamment les valeurs ouvrières et le principe de tsedaka. 
Ces personnes maintenant âgées ont lutté pour une meilleure 
justice sociale, et encore aujourd’hui elles continuent à remplir 
leur devoir de charité. Sur le plan religieux, bien qu’affirmant 
faire partie de l’orthodoxie, Olazabal a observé que les khaverim 
sont davantage héritiers de la tradition mitnagdique, et que la 
plupart d’entre eux ne remplissent pas les mitsvot les plus 
usuelles chez les orthodoxes. Enfin, le lien unissant les Juifs a 
Israël et l’importance de la famille font partie des marqueurs 
identitaires intergénérationnelles. 
Nous avons déjà pointé du doigt quelques forces et fai-
blesses de l’ouvrage. Même si le sujet de l’ouvrage est la per-
sistance de la mémoire et de l’identité juives chez les descen-
dants d’immigrants du début du siècle dernier, nous ne croyons 
pas qu’un aussi long préambule (les deux premiers chapitres), 


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