Celebrating 80 years ...

As many young Americans fled to Canada to escape being drafted during the Vietnam War, the Jewish community voiced concern that there was “no Jewish agency directly involved in helping these boys or encouraging them to keep their faith.” An April 16, 1971, article in the Jewish Western Bulletin estimated that there were some 10,000 Jews among the American expatriates living in Toronto, based on a report put out by the city’s Temple Sinai Brotherhood. The report called on the American Jewish community to also help out and noted that the poor economic conditions in Canada at the time meant that many of the “fugitives” were “jobless, homeless, penniless and hungry.”