The Jews In Manitoba

Rabbi Chiel's history of the Jewish community in Manitoba grew out of a curiosity about the colour and vitality of Jewish life in this Canadian prairie province which was impressed upon him during a ten-year residence in Winnipeg. He was impelled as a result to record the events of that history and to try and fit the local Jewish experience into a larger historical panorama. His story has been built up by careful examination of Manitoba newspapers and early histories, by research in the archives of the province, and by interviews with surviving Jewish pioneers. It reveals with insight and skill how the Jewish community has, because of its distinctive character as an ethnic group and its participation with other groups in the development of the Prairies as a whole, made an outstanding contribution to provincial and national life in business, the professions, and the arts. His study is presented under the sponsorship of the Manitoba Historical Society which has encouraged a number of studies of the various ethnic groups in Manitoba. It has received the H.M. Caiserman Award of the Canadian Jewish Congress.

In the decade after the Second World War, 35,000 Jewish survivors of Nazi persecution and their dependants arrived in Canada. This was a watershed moment in Canadian Jewish history. The unprecedented scale of the relief effort required for the survivors, compounded by their unique social, psychological, and emotional needs challenged both the established Jewish community and resettlement agents alike. Adara Goldberg’s Holocaust Survivors in Canada highlights the immigration, resettlement, and integration experience from the perspective of Holocaust survivors and those charged with helping them. The book explores the relationships between the survivors, Jewish social service organizations, and local Jewish communities; it considers how those relationships—strained by disparities in experience, language, culture, and worldview—both facilitated and impeded the ability of survivors to adapt to a new country. Researched in basement archives and as well as at Holocaust survivors’ kitchen tables, Holocaust Survivors in Canada represents the first comprehensive analysis of the resettlement, integration, and acculturation experience of survivors in early postwar Canada. Goldberg reveals the challenges in responding to, and recovering from, genocide—not through the lens of lawmakers, but from the perspective of “new Canadians” themselves.

Between 1882 and 1930 approximately 9,800 Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe settled in Winnipeg. Newly arrived Jewish immigrants began to establish secular mutual aid societies, organizations based on egalitarian principles of communal solidarity that dealt with the pervasive problem of economic insecurity by providing financial relief to their members. The organization of mutual aid societies accelerated the development of a vibrant secular public sphere in Winnipeg’s Jewish community in which decisions about the provision of social welfare were decided democratically based on the authority and participation of the people. "Communal Solidarity: Immigration, Settlement, and Social Welfare in Winnipeg’s Jewish Community, 1882–1930" looks at the development of Winnipeg’s Jewish community and the network of institutions and organizations they established to provide income assistance, health care, institutional care for children and the elderly, and immigrant aid to reunite families. Communal solidarity enabled the Jewish community to establish and sustain a system of social welfare that assisted thousands of immigrants to adjust to an often inhospitable city and build new lives in Canada. Arthur Ross’s study of the formation of Winnipeg’s Jewish community is not only the first history of the societies, institutions, and organizations Jewish immigrants created, it reveals how communal solidarity shaped their understanding of community life and the way decisions should be made about their collective future.

Today, we think of Canada as a compassionate, open country to which refugees from other countries have always been welcome. However, between the years 1933 and 1948, when the Jews of Europe were looking for a place of refuge from Nazi persecution, Canada refused to offer aid, let alone sanctuary, to those in fear for their lives. Rigorously documented and brilliantly researched, None Is Too Many tells the story of Canada’s response to the plight of European Jews during the Nazi era and its immediate aftermath, exploring why and how Canada turned its back and hardened its heart against the entry of Jewish refugees. Recounting a shameful period in Canadian history, Irving Abella and Harold Troper trace the origins and results of Canadian immigration policies towards Jews and conclusively demonstrate that the forces against admitting them were pervasive and rooted in antisemitism. First published in 1983, None Is Too Many has become one of the most significant books ever published in Canada. This fortieth anniversary edition celebrates the book’s ongoing impact on public discourse, generating debate on ethics and morality in government, the workings of Canadian immigration and refugee policy, the responsibility of bystanders, righting historical wrongs, and the historian as witness. Above all, the reader is asked: "What kind of Canada do we want to be?" This new anniversary edition features a foreword by Richard Menkis on the impact the book made when it was first published and an afterword by David Koffman explaining why the book remains critical today.

Originally published in 1926, The Jew in Canada is the most thorough and ambitious book ever assembled about the Jews of Montreal, Toronto, Halifax, Ottawa, Winnipeg, Regina, Calgary, Vancouver and numerous other Canadian cities. A treasure trove of history and genealogy, The Jew in Canada is filled with capsule biographies of hundreds of prominent personalities and community leaders, each augmented with an elegant portrait photograph. Interspersed are descriptions and illustrations of many historic synagogues, community organizations and endeavours. This is an abridged facsimile edition of an original long out of print and almost impossible to attain second-hand. It is certain to be a valuable resource for genealogists, historians, students and everyone else with an interest in Canadian Jewish history. The present edition contains all of the biographical and genealogical material of the original; only several historical essays have been omitted. Paperback, 8.25 x 11 in., 466 pages.