Canadian Jews have a healthy tradition of keeping alive the memories
of community leaders and pioneers, by attaching names to buildings
and organizations. This Canada Day, the Bulletin has assembled
a list of names you may not know, to remind you (and us) of the
wealth of stories and historical figures who remain relatively unknown.
Information has been assembled from various sources, but among the
most excellent places to begin a search for Jewish Canadian history
are the Web sites of the Jewish Historical Society of B.C. (http://collections.ic.gc.ca/jhs/)
and the Canadian Jewish Virtual Museum and Archives (www.cjvma.org).
British Columbia's Jewish community has been enormously blessed
to have in its midst Cyril Leonoff, the unofficial (actually, he's
pretty official) historian of British Columbian Jewry. Some of his
work is reflected in the material that follows.
Ezekiel Hart holds a particular place in Canadian history
as a member elected twice to the legislature of Lower Canada and
twice expelled, for refusing to swear an explicitly Christian oath
upon admission to the house. Hart was first elected in 1807. It
was in 1832 that the discriminatory oath was eliminated, effectively
granting Jews full legal equality in what would become Canada –
the first jurisdiction in the British Empire to ensure full participation
of Jews in political life.
Many of British Columbia's early Jewish settlers were drawn by the
series of gold rushes that began in the mid-1800s. Among those who
came seeking gold and other fortunes as provisioners to the gold-seekers,
was Selim Franklin. Originally from Liverpool, England, he
opened a successful store in San Francisco with his brother Lumley.
When that burned down, Selim Franklin moved north to Victoria in
1860, where he became an auctioneer and realtor, later being elected
to the colonial legislature of Vancouver Island.
Another Jewish pioneer with Victoria roots was Samuel Davies
Schultz, who was born in the island city in 1865 and studied
law at Toronto's Osgoode Hall. After practising in Nelson, Victoria
and Vancouver, Schultz became the first Jewish judge in Canada when
he was appointed a Vancouver county court judge in 1914.
The Kootenays, in mountainous and resource-rich eastern British
Columbia, is not a hotbed of Jewish life these days. But there was
a time when Jewish newcomers, drawn by the opportunity and romance
of the opening West, played an important role in the economic and
social life of the region. Pearl and Leopold Levey
were among the pioneers who helped found the communal infrastructure
of the town of Trail. Well-known as a destination for generations
of Italian immigrants, Trail benefited enormously from the work
of Jews like the Leveys, who were instrumental in starting the Kiwanis
Club, the Junior Chamber of Commerce and the hospital board after
their arrival in 1936. Pearl Levey even founded a Trail chapter
of Hadassah. Their son Gerald, a Sea Cadet, was personal aide-de-camp
to Princess Elizabeth and Prince Phillip on a 1951 tour and commanded
his own ship in the Korean War. Cantorially trained Leopold Levey
led the town's Jewish religious services.
Figure skaters tend to cut a wide swath on the ice, but not so much
in political life. But Louis Rubenstein, a winner of the
Quebec, Canadian and American figure skating championships, was
able to draw world attention to the plight of Russian Jewry. In
a public relations coup over a dictatorship that would presage the
1936 Olympics in Nazi Germany, Rubenstein was entitled to compete
in an 1890 world championship in Russia. While there, he was subjected
to anti-Semitic harassment, culminating in the refusal by Russian
officials to award him the first-place trophy he had rightfully
won. Canadian and American government officials intervened and Rubenstein's
victory was recognized, as was the necessity to permit Jewish emigres
of the Russian empire into North America to escape relentless discrimination
in Russia.
Religion-based education has always been a prickly political issue
in Canada, because of the "two founding nations" concept
that defined Canada as French/Catholic and English/ Protestant.
In 1901, a new wrinkle was added, when Jacob Pinsler graduated
from Dufferin elementary school in Montreal. Young Pinsler's academic
achievement should have assured him free secondary education but,
as an English-speaking Quebecker who was not Protestant, there was
no tuition-free school for him to attend. Pinsler's father, Paul,
sued the Protestant Board of School Commissioners. Though his case
failed, the issue never went away. Attendance at a Protestant school
was deemed a privilege, not a right, by successive courts, until
the Supreme Court of Canada reversed the position in 1928. Still,
it wasn't until 1960 that Jewish day schools were admitted to Quebec's
publicly funded school system.
Ruth Solomon (later Ruth Kirsh, wife of Boy Scout leader
Moe Kirsh) was the first captain of the 19th Company of the Girl
Guides. Based out of Montreal's Congregation Shaar Hashomayim, the
19th Company was the first explicitly Jewish Brownie and Guide troop
when it began in 1953, about 40 years after Guiding first came to
Canada from the U.K. Though Guiding is non-sectarian, the troop,
and other similar troops that followed it, were overwhelmingly or
entirely comprised of Jewish girls.
Ralph Moster, a young Vancouverite who died in 1948, is
not a household name. But he was the only one of just a few Canadians
who died in Israel's War of Independence. About 5,000 Jewish Canadians
joined the fight, spurred on by, in some cases, a lifetime of Zionist
dedication and perhaps a romantic sense of cause. Though many of
the volunteers had experience in the Second World War, they were
ill-equipped to fight five invading Arab armies. In some cases,
three soldiers shared one rifle. But it was the dedication and tenacity
of foreign and sabra warriors like Moster who helped defend the
newborn Jewish state.
Johnny Wayne and Frank Shuster met at a Toronto high
school, where they shared a mutual interest in theatre, particularly
comical revues. Their pairing didn't end at graduation, though.
As the duo Wayne and Shuster, the school pals would practically
invent Canadian comedy, first as the principals in The Army Show,
which entertained troops during the Second World War, then in the
emerging media of radio and television during the 1950s and on,
as Canada became known as a source of an inordinate amount of humor.
Though their big break came when they appeared (the first of 67
times) on the Ed Sullivan Show, the pair remained based in Canada
and resisted the lure of American fortune that has drawn so many
Canadian comics – including Howie Mandell, Mort Sahl,
David Steinberg and Eugene Levy – south of the
border.
Every Torontonian – and anyone who has walked down Bloor Street
at Bathurst – knows the name Ed Mirvish. The discount
retailer is responsible for more than one monument in this country.
Honest Ed's discount department store is a little bit of Las Vegas
crossed with a vaudevillian's taste for corny jokes and flashing
neon. Though he got his start as a low-end purveyor of kitchen utensils
and minimal thread-count sheet sets, he has become a household name
and one of Canada's most prolific supporters of the arts and other
philanthropic endeavors.
As the world made plans to visit Montreal for the Expo year of 1967,
Rabbi Wilfred Shuchat decided that the experiences of Jewish
Canada and the world should be represented at the world's fair and
set about creating the Pavilion of Judaism. Offering exhibits and
live performances, the pavilion was based on two maxims Shuchat
took from Ethics of the Fathers: that the world stands on three
things – Torah, worship and acts of charity and loving kindness
– and that the world is preserved by three things – truth,
justice and peace. These are some of the principles that have guided
Canadian Jewish life over 136 years and which continue to serve
as guideposts for this country's Jewish citizens.
Pat Johnson is a native Vancouverite, a journalist and
commentator.