The Montreal Shtetl

As the Holocaust is memorialized worldwide through education programs and commemoration days, the common perception is that after survivors arrived and settled in their new homes they continued on a successful journey from rags to riches. While this story is comforting, a closer look at the experience of Holocaust survivors in North America shows it to be untrue. The arrival of tens of thousands of Jewish refugees was palpable in the streets of Montreal and their impact on the existing Jewish community is well-recognized. But what do we really know about how survivors’ experienced their new community? Drawing on more than 60 interviews with survivors, hundreds of case files from Jewish Immigrant Aid Services, and other archival documents, The Montreal Shtetl presents a portrait of the daily struggles of Holocaust survivors who settled in Montreal, where they encountered difficulties with work, language, culture, health care, and a Jewish community that was not always welcoming to survivors. By reflecting on how institutional supports, gender, and community relationships shaped the survivors’ settlement experiences, Abramson and Lynch show the relevance of these stories to current state policies on refugee immigration.

The presence of Jews in Quebec dates back four centuries. Quebec Jewry, in Montreal in particular, has evolved over time, thanks to successive waves of migration from different regions of the world. The Jews of Quebec belong to a unique society in North America, which they have worked to fashion. The dedication with which they have defended their rights and their extensive achievements in multiple sectors of activity have helped foster diversity in Quebec. This work recounts the different contributions Jews have made over the years, along with the cultural context that encouraged the emergence in Montreal of a Jewish community like no other in North America. This is the first overview of a history that began during the French Regime and continued, through many twists and turns, up to the turn of the twenty-first century.

"These stories describe aspects of Jewish life in Brantford from the 1940's. They are centred on fictional characters and events but loosely based on some of the experiences the author had growing up.

Exploring the interaction between Judaism and the modern state, relations between Jews and the larger Quebec community, differences within the Jewish community, and the distinctive literary voice of Montreal Jewish writers.

The five short novellas which comprise this anthology were written between 1890 and World War I. All share a common setting--the Eastern European Jewish town or shtetl, and all deal in different ways with a single topic--the Jewish confrontation with modernity. The authors of these novellas are among the greatest masters of Yiddish prose. In their work, today's reader will discover a literary tradition of considerable scope, energy, and variety and will come face to face with an exceptionally memorable cast of characters and with a human community now irrevocably lost. In her general introduction, Professor Wisse traces the development of modern Yiddish literature in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and describes the many shifts that took place between the Yiddish writers and the world about which they wrote. She also furnishes a brief introduction for each novella, giving the historical and biographical background and offering a critical interpretation of the work.

The texts collected in this volume unveil the practice and the methods of the translators and scholars who contributed to the reemergence of Yiddish in contemporary Canada. Each of the personalities discussed enlarged the historical position and interpreted various aspects of the Yiddish language in Montreal that until recently remained obscure or inaccessible. -- Les textes rassemblés dans ce volume tentent de lever le voile sur la démarche et les méthodes des traducteurs et chercheurs qui ont contribué à la réémergence du yiddish dans le Canada contemporain. Ces traducteurs et chercheurs ont élargi l’assise historique et interprété de nombreux aspects de la langue yiddish à Montréal, aspects qui jusque-là demeuraient obscurs et inaccessibles.