The Canadian Jewish Studies Reader

The Canadian Jewish Studies Reader. Richard Menkis and Norman Ravvin, eds. Calgary: Red Deer Press, 2004. 493 pp. sc $24.95 CAD; $18.95 US. Published as the third book in a series dedicated to Canadian Jewish studies, this volume is a rich, if somewhat uneven, collection of essays reflecting diverse facets of the experience of Jews in Canada. In attempting to match the better-known story of Jews in America with knowledge of Jews in Canada, the multidisciplinary contributors to this book reveal intriguing and little-known aspects of Canadian Jewish cultural, social, and political history originating in communities from coast to coast and from the eighteenth century onward. In their totality, the essays suggest something more significant than the simple correspondence of Jewish immigrant experiences in North America or than changing ethnic minority experiences over time. Underlying the chapters is an archetypical Canadian theme of continual accommodation among ethnic minorities and vis-a-vis the dominant society, alternately preserving ethnicity through distinction and finding common ground with others. The lessons for scholars and for Canada of this long, collective struggle lies not only in how Jews maintained their cultural identity while achieving an admirable measure of social integration, but also in the way they faced the challenges of extreme hostility and learned to negotiate political identities and sensitivities. The book is divided into five sub-sections: Heroes and Counterheroes, A Sense of Time, Jewish Spaces, Sites of Memory, and Multicultural Encounters. In the first section, the collective Canadian Jewish struggle is portrayed by particular descriptions of colourful public figures in New France and in Victorian Canada, where successful Jews contended with public anti-Semitism even while contributing to their new country. Historical examples of the intersection of anti-Semitism and feminism and the religious roots of Moroccan Jews in Canada in traditional North African saint worship are also examined, delving into sociocultural contradictions that conventional cultural histories might neglect. The subsequent section, A Sense of Time, concerning Jewish rituals and worship in everyday life in a predominantly Christian Canada, promises to be fascinating but falls short. Resolving everyday cultural tensions--celebrating the Sabbath, holidays, and marriage rites--is fundamental to many minority cultural groups. Unfortunately, these chapters are not enticingly written, diminishing the significance of marking time in everyday life. The next chapters focus on Jewish Spaces, and they do so very well. One fine chapter about Orthodox Jews in urban history describes the development of the settlement corridor from downtown Toronto northward to the suburbs. A chapter contributed by the Prairie poet Miriam Waddington evocatively captures the emotional and intellectual yearnings of displaced Jewish writers, portraying a small artists' salon in Ottawa in the 1930s. …

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