|
Canada rather surprisingly has one of the largest Jewish communities in the world. Canada has the fourth largest Jewish community, exceeed only by that of Israel, the United States, and France. The number totlds over 0.3 million. Canadian Jews are a relatively new community. At the time, France founded New France (17th century), there were very few French Jews and virtually none that were openly Jewish. French policy was to maintain New France as pitinely Catholics, even Protestants were excluded. France like most of Wesern Europe had expelled its Jews during the medieval era. The same was true of Britain which seized New France during the French and Indian Wars (1760s). The few Jews reached Canada at this time, but there were also few British Jews so the number was very small. German Jews began emigrating to America (early- and mid-19th century). Few chose to settle in Canada. Canada's Jewish community is primarily composed of Ashkenazi Jews who emigrated from Central and Eastern Europe. The motivating force was Tsarist pogroms, the same dynamic that drove Ashkenazi Jews to America. One of the most important immigrant groups during the late-19th century was Ukranians, an area of the Tsarist Empire with many Jews. Like other countries, Canada made little effort at the Evian Conferenceto to offer refuge to Jews fleeing the NAZI Holocaust (1939). Canada during the War accepted only about 5,000 Jews, a very small number given the country's ability to accmodate refugees. Canada did, however, play an important role in defeatig NAZI Germany during World War II. After the War, the Canadian Government did offer refuge to survivors of the Holocasust. There are today minority groups from all Jewish ethnic divisions are also represented, including Sephardi Jews, Mizrahi Jews, and a number of converts. It is the Ashkenazi, however, that dominate the Canadian Jewish community. Canadian Jews comprise the full range of Jewish cultural traditions including the wide spectrum of Jewish religious observance. Alhough an important part of the diaspora, Canadian Jews are only about 1 percent of the Canadian population.
Canadian Jews are a relatively new community. At the time, France founded New France (17th century), there were very few French Jews and virtually none that were openly Jewish. French policy was to maintain New France as a pristinely Catholic society, even Protestants were excluded. France like most of Western Europe had expelled or murdered their Jews during the medieval era.
The same was true of Britain which seized New France during the French and Indian Wars (1760s). But the Jews at the time were restablisj=hing themselves in Britain, although the commuity was still very smll. The furst Jews reachig Canada at this time came from Britain, but the number was very small.
German Jews began emigrating to America (early- and mid-19th century). Few chose to settle in Canada. This probably reflets the fact thatthe mall number if Jews in Canada were Brutish Jews and there were German Jews well established in America.
Canada's Jewish community is primarily composed of Ashkenazi Jews who emigrated from Central and Eastern Europe. The motivating force was Tsarist pogroms, the same dynamic that drove Ashkenazi Jews to America. One of the most important immigrant groups during the late-19th century was Ukranians, an area of the Tsarist Empire with many Jews. The Jews that did emigrate to Canada, as in America, came primarily from Tsarist Russia and Russian controlled Poland. Ukranian immigration was especially important in Canada We note one Jewish immigrant family in the 1910s. Only a small fraction of the Jewish emigration from Eastern Europe came to Canada. Most settled in the UnIted States. We are not sure why that was. We are unsure about Canadian immigration regulations. We suspect that Russian and Polish Jews just had heard more about America.
Anti-Semitic feelings in most of Canada is much the same as in America depending on where you live and how big the city (community). Here a factor is that the ethnic and religious make up of Canada is similar to that of the United States, not identical, but similar. You have an Engish base with the linguistic, cultural, and legal components that came with the English. And both America and Canada experienced a substantial mostly Europen admixture in the late-19th century. But there is one major difference between America and Canada--the French Canadians, especially Quebec. Relatively few French Canadians came to America and no wgere in America did Catholics become a majoity population in a state as French Canadians were and continue to be in Quebec. .
We do not yet know enough about Canada to assess the impact of Jews on the country. A Canadian reader, however, tells us that, "What you wrote about the United States also applies to Canada." Another Canadian writes, "I live in an area that is 80 percent Jewish and they have voted Liberal in both Federal and Provincial elections for longer than I have been alive. Although in this most recent federal election the Conservatives had a very popular candidate and was playing up the Liberal promise to cut taxes to the middle class and an increase in taxes to those earning over an average middle class income and of the ones who voted they made it closer than I can ever remember." In America, one issue I do not fully understand is why the changes in Jewish voting patterns is taking place here. There has been a substantial change which began even before Obama. Taxes are surely one issue. But there are other issues such as income redistribution in general, quotas, Israel, Iran, Obama; lack of response to Islamic terror, anti-Semitism on college campuses, etc. I do know what are the strongest factors.
Quebec and especially Montrel developed as the centr bof the Jeish community in Canada. This meant that most of the Jews fleeing Eastern Europe settled in Quebec, especially montreal (late-19th century). We are no, howevr, sure why this was. A Cabadian reader tells us, "Your question is a good one that I never even thought about before now. I know that most Jews that arrived about 100 years settled here because there was already a Jewish community in Montreal as opposed to any of the smaller towns in Quebec. [CIH note: This was akso afactor in Jewish settlenent in the United States.]
The ships bringing new immigrants either disembarked in Halifax, Nova Sotia or they continued up river to either Quebec City, Three Rivers (now Trois Rivieres), or all the way to Montreal. Because of the Lachine Rapids that blocked ocean ships from going any further Montreal was the last stop. But there were small Jewish communities in Nova Scotia as well as in Three Rivers, Quebec. so why ultimately Montreal is not known to me. Also no idea of why the very 1st groups of Jewish immigrants chose Montreal." The geograohy spelled out here, does suggest why most Jews settled in Quebec rather than futher west in Ontaio. Quebec is where the immigrant transports unloaded. This is the same reson why New York developed such a large Jewish popultion. Another Canadian reader provides more information on the situation in Quebec. Here in Quebec when Jews arrived en mass from Eastern Europe during the late-19th century they were not allowed to assimilate with the majority culture being French. The schools then and until modern times were controlled by either the Catholic or Protestant School Boards. The Catholic refused any and
all who were not Catholic from attending their schools and they were all French schools so we had to go to the English Protestant Schools who up to the 1980s did a very bad job at teaching French in school. My grandfather wanted his kids to go to French school to fit in with the majority but was refused. Now, for many years the English speaking Quebecers have a choice of sending their children to English schools or French immersion which has been pivotal in having the children of today be perfectly bilingual unlike us older generations.
Some 17,000 Jews enlisted in the Canadian military. This was more than one-fifth of the entire Jewish male population in the country. This was a phenomenal conrtribution and was in sharp contrast to the French Cnadian contribution. Few French Canadian enlisted and many actively evaded conscription.
Canada like most other countries restricted Jewish immgration after the rise of the NAZIs. Canada like 31 other countries participated in the Evian Conference which was held to address the problem of Jews attempting to find refuge from NAZI oppression (1938). Canada, a huge lightly populsted country, refused to offere any additional level of Jewish immigration. Just before the War, both Canada and Amrica refused to allow Jewish refugees aboard the SS St. Louis to land (1939). The ship was forced back to the Netherlands which was soon overrun by the Germans (May 1940). Canada during the War accepted only about 5,000 Jews. A very small number given the country's ability to accmodate refugees. Canada played a very important part in the Allied Workd War II victory, loyally supporting Britain during the War and assiting in the liberation of France and the Low Countries. This of course saved countless Jewish lives. A Canadian reader tells us that during the War, German Jewish civilians were interned in the same camps as Axis POWs.
There are report that after the War, the Canadian Government made it difficult for Jewish refugees who survived the Holocaust to enter Canada. Some Jewish refugees were admitted. The Canadian government issued the Order in Council #1647 granting permission for 1,000 Jewish war orphans to enter Canada (1947). The government instituted anti-discrimination laws and eased immigration regulations. The Canadian Jewih Congress (CJC) worked to bring displaced persons to Canada. Some 16,275 Jews immigrated to the country, mostly from Europe (1941-51). Post-War immigration had a major impact on Canada's Jewish community. Some 46,000 Jews immigrated (1946-60). Because relatively few Jews had immigrated before orld war II, Holocaust survivers wee a much larger part of the Canadian Jewish population than un America. Holocaust survivors and their descendents made up onlyabout 8 percent of the U.S. Jewish population. In contrast, in Canada they were an estimated 30-40 percent of the Jewish community. hee were several different groups.
Some 4,500 Jewish rfugees arrived from Hyngary as a result of the Revolution there (1956). Other groups came from Eastern Europeand the Soviet Union when Détente helped open Soviet emigration policies (1970s). As Arab anti-Smitism rose, Jews began fleeing those countries. Some 25,000 Sephardic Jews from Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, and Lebanon settled in Montreal and Toronto. This was the first karge group of Sephardic Jews.
Quebec's separatist movement provd unsetling for many Jews. French language regulations were another factor. Exceot for the Jews from Arab countries, most Canadian Jews are English speakers. Even in Quebec, most Jews were English spekers. Quite a number of Montreal Jews decided to move to English-speaking regions of Canada. When the Parti Quebecois won the provincial election (1976), some 20,000 to 30,000 Jews left Quebec. Most were young adults. Many Jews saw the separatist movement as a threat to the Canadian Jewish community. The nationalist component was unsetling. And an independent Quebec would economically and geographically uproot many of the 100,000 Jews in Montreal that wanted to remain Canadian citizens. As a result, Toronto has replaced Montreal as the center of he Canadian Jewish community. With the electoral victory of the Liberal Party (1985), the Jewish population of Quebec has stabilized. A Canadian Jewish reader writes, " That has been a part of the French-English animosities for many years. Many of the English (does not mean British) and especially the Jewish immigrants did want to go to French schools just so they could be fully assimilated into Quebec but we were refused and now the older generations that compose all the elements of the Anglos of Quebec have been forced to either move out over the years or stay here and be discriminated against and suffer financial and or other problems because of the Catholic control of Quebec society. This expanded beyond the school system in the 1960s when Quebecers started to be less devout and more secular."
There are today minority groups from all Jewish ethnic divisions are also represented, including Sephardi Jews, Mizrahi Jews, and a number of converts. It is the Ashkenazi, however, that dominate the Canadian Jewish community. Canadian Jews comprise the full range of Jewish cultural traditions including the wide spectrum of Jewish religious observance. Alhough an important part of the diaspora, Canadian Jews are only about 1 percent of the Canadian population. Canada rather surprisingly has one of the largest Jewish communities in the world. Canada has the fourth largest Jewish community, exceeed only by that of Israel, the United States, and France. The number totlds over 0.3 million. Our Canadian reader writes, "All of this is till in the news today. In the last few years there have been attempts by communities to ban all religious symbols from civic places except for the cross. And today we are having a Provincial election where the party leading in polls is the Partie Quebecois (PQ) with a long time separatist goal to break away from Canada. And in their election campaign they claimed that all religious head gear should be banned from civic places or jobs but small neck chain symbols are OK but on the wall of our National Assembly is a large cross and the PQ claim that is OK there and in other places because it is part of Quebec culture not just a religious symbol."
We have some limited information about individuals.
My maternal grandmother came from Manchester but under a very unusual way. She was only 12. Her parents had emigrated to England from Romania in late 1880s. Her dad joined the British Army and made it up to Sgt. Major. Don't know which Rgtmt. During the Boer War he was sent to South Africa. My grandmother and her mother had gone to the port to see her dad off. A few weeks later (as she often told this) she missed her dad terribly. So she ran away from home and went to the port. She saw all those big tall masted ships like the one her dad left on and got aboard one. She became a stow-away thinking that the ship will bring her to her dad. Wrong ship. This one was coming to Montreal. She was found mid-Atlantic and was taken care of by the ship's Capt. giving her a private berth. When they got to Montreal she was handed over to the authorities and when they found out she was Jewish they placed her in the care of a Jewish agency for orphans. They got her a job as a domestic. She put up with that for a few years and got married at 16. That only lasted a few years until her husband died after falling off a 2nd story roof doing a roof repair job. She married again soon after to a merchant who lived and owned a small store in rural Ontario. That is where my mom was born. That guy died from the Spanish Flu when my mom was only 1 year old. So my grandma married a 3rd time and that guy lasted several years when he got hit by lightning on a roof. Also doing roof repair work. In less then 20 yrs she had out lived 3 husbands. Family jokingly called her a Black Widow.
Navigate the Children in History Website:
[Return to the Main Jewish Diaspora country page]
[Return to the Main Jewish Diaspora pages]
[Return to the Main Jewish pages]
[Return to the Canadian immigration page]
[Introduction]
[Biographies]
[Chronology]
[Climatology]
[Clothing]
[Disease and Health]
[Economics]
[Geography]
[History]
[Human Nature]
[Law]
[Nationalism]
[Presidents]
[Religion]
[Royalty]
[Science]
[Social Class]
[Bibliographies]
[Contributions]
[FAQs]
[Glossaries]
[Images]
[Links]
[Registration]
[Tools]
[Children in History Home]
