Ira Robinson. A History of Antisemitism in Canada

Ira Robinson. A History of Antisemitism in Canada. Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2015. 300 pp. Notes. Bibliography. Index. $38.99 sc. This book is a most valuable addition to the writing in the field of Canadian Studies, and as such, to the broader area of Canadian ethnic studies. It is a well written, engaging work of synthesis, a chronology that provides the first coherent and lucid overview of antisemitism in Canada. Robinson displays a mastery of all previous historical writings on the subject. He is not presenting a full history of Canadian life. Rather he focuses on the specific issue of antisemitism in Canada. Studies of diaspora life have often wrestled with two polar foci. The first is to stress the negative, the long history of various forms of discrimination and oppression--what has been termed by the eminent historian of the Jews, Salo Baron, a lachrymose conception of history. The other has been an attempt to focus on the culturally rich and adaptive stories of many diasporic communities before, during and after episodes of acute distress. Obviously this book tilts towards the former, but with a balanced perspective. And of course, diaspora communities vary a great deal in the type and extent of antisemitism directed at them. In fact, looking at the historical record, one can easily argue that North American Jews, or the Anglosphere more generally, have experienced by far the least antisemitism of any community on the planet over the past two hundred years. But still, the story needs to be told. Indeed, the case is in a sense iconic, in terms of the struggles of many immigrant groups for full acceptance in Canada. In 1808 Ezekiel Hart was denied his seat in the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada, because he swore his oath with a kippa and on a Hebrew Bible. Two hundred years later, a Niqabi Muslim woman was nearly denied citizenship because of her religious apparel during the public swearing-in ceremony. Robinson begins this volume with a helpful definition of antisemitism. Jews, after all, are a religious group as well as an ethnic group. There is today a multidimensional and pluralistic religion, as well as various forms of culture, languages, etc. Christian antisemitism has been the foundation of Western and Canadian antisemitism. Robinson explores this in some detail, and then devotes an important chapter to antisemitism in England and France. This puts the later discussion of anglophone and francophone antisemitism in Canada in a helpful context, particularly since both countries embark, in their own way, on a form of liberal-democratic tolerance that creates space for Jews, and eventually others. The entire book wisely differentiates the case of Quebec/French Canada from that of the rest of the country. The differences are sharp. The Jewish Question in Quebec remains unanswered in a way that is still not the case in English Canada. Consider: in post-war Ontario, there have been three leaders of the major provincial political parties--Stephen Lewis, Stuart Smith, and Larry Grossman, for trivia buffs. …

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