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March 7, 2003
Jews during the interwar years
Unresolved issues were challenges to growth in Vancouver's community.
JAMIE BONHAM SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH BULLETIN
During the interwar period, the Jewish community of Vancouver strove
to create a unique identity for itself within the greater context
of the Diaspora. Though small, the community contained diverse desires
and visions about what the future of Vancouver Jewry should look
like, and how education and language should facilitate the transformation.
The struggle to survive and grow was the topic of a lecture by Dr.
Richard Menkis, presented by the Vancouver Historical Society and
the Jewish Historical Society of British Columbia. The lecture was
accompanied by a preview of an exhibit at the Vancouver Museum celebrating
the 95th anniversary of Vancouver's oldest Jewish congregation,
the Schara Tzedeck Synagogue.
Menkis opened his lecture with a humorous story about eastern European
biographers who had documented the travels and dispersals of rabbis
throughout the Diaspora. In researching their documents, he discovered
that they had mistakenly placed Winnipeg within the African continent,
more specifically within the country of "Manitomba." The
dearth of knowledge about Canada and the general distaste for moving
to North America was relatively common in eastern Europe during
the early 20th century. As Menkis quoted, an oft-repeated line of
that time was, "In America, even the stones are un-kosher."
Despite the lack of knowledge about Canada and its position as a
backwater of the Jewish world, Jews in Canadian cities, including
Vancouver, were able to carve out an identity to become an important
representation of Jewish life. According to Menkis, the interwar
period was a seminal time for the Jewish community of Vancouver
as it grew from an extremely small community to one that came to
see itself a centre for Jewish life. Jews who immigrated to Canada
in general, and Vancouver in particular, began to eschew the view
that Jewish life couldn't exist in North America and started to
see their communities as an important and independent facet of the
Diaspora. With this self-recognition came a perceived responsibility
to define what form Jewish life would take.
Vancouver Jews were unresolved about such issues as to whether Jewish
life was defined solely by religion or secular Jewish culture. Within
the larger split between religion and secularism, there were many
subgroups that added complexity to the debate. Those who viewed
religion as the defining aspect of being Jewish were split into
Orthodox, neo-Orthodox, and Conservative camps. Secular Jews were
represented by various forms of Zionism: the general Zionists, the
socialist Zionists and the religious Zionists.
According to Menkis, "Zionists were those who said that Jews
should be maintaining a kind of strong, separate culture oriented
towards Palestine, but still keeping North American Jews as a strong
group in the Diaspora."
The choice of spiritual leaders during the interwar period reflected
the various religious orientations of different congregations. Menkis
paid particular attention to the various rabbis and spiritual leaders
of Schara Tzedeck, of which detailed information is available in
the exhibit at the Vancouver Museum.
"Rabbis were chosen that represented a kind of Judaism that
Schara Tzedeck wanted to align itself with," said Menkis. "They
wanted to show that Jews who were traditional, who were Orthodox,
could also be modern and intellectually alive."
Thus leaders were chosen who represented the ideological bent of
the particular congregation at a given time. Rabbis who were Orthodox,
neo-Orthodox and Conservative were all operating in Vancouver and
each would preach his particular view on what shape Jewish life
should take in Vancouver.
The city's Jews were in disagreement over not only the amount or
type of Judaism that should be incorporated into society, but also
over what language would best facilitate the strengthening of Jewish
life.
"Language is one of the ways we can explore culture,"
said Menkis.
Zionists encouraged the teaching of Hebrew, since it was seen as
the language of Jewish culture. However, Yiddish was very much the
language of the masses and it was the language with which most immigrants
were comfortable. The popularity of Yiddish during the interwar
period was on the decline though. In 1931, 98 per cent of Vancouver
Jews in the census claimed Yiddish as their mother tongue, in 1941
only 49 per cent did so.
"In 1941, fewer people were willing to claim Yiddish as their
mother tongue due to being in Canada longer and to the intensification
of anti-Semitism," said Menkis. "Jews were trying to fit
in more."
Even if they spoke Yiddish, they suppressed it. Thus Yiddish identity,
which was so important to many people, was facing real challenges
because of the demands of trying to fit into Canada. This was reflected
in the decline and disappearance of schools that taught in Yiddish.
Menkis described a community that, although divergent in its views
on Judaism and Zionism, was united in the belief that it had to
take care of its members. In light of persecutions throughout Europe,
North American communities began to feel the need to create a form
of social welfare whereby the community looked after itself. In
particular, during the interwar period, Canadian Jewish communities
were under great financial strains and Vancouver could not look
elsewhere for support; the community had to strengthen itself from
within. Thus the common bond that tied the various factions in Vancouver
was the desire to maintain a strong and vibrant community.
Menkis is associate professor at the University of British Columbia,
cross-appointed to the departments of history and classical near
eastern and religious studies. He is also the founding editor of
the annual journal Canadian Jewish Studies and has, in the
past year, been scholar-in-residence at the Institute for Canadian
Jewish Studies at Concordia University, as well as a researcher
at the American Jewish Archives in Cincinnati.
Jamie Bonham is a freelance writer living in Vancouver.
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