Articles Autumn 2008 - Volume 2, issue 2
A.M. Klein and the Artistic Transmission of Ethnic Identity
Ezra Glinter, McGill University
Abstract:
Throughout his life and work, Montreal poet A.M. Klein struggled to unite and reconcile the many elements of his individual and communal cultural identity. Between the Yiddish of his upbringing, the English of his education, the French of his neighbours and the Hebrew of the newborn State of Israel, Klein attempted to transverse and translate multiple linguistic, artistic, and cultural realms. Though his efforts met with varying degrees of success, they continue to illuminate the enduring value of unique cultural and ethnic identities and the desire to communicate these values to those who do not share them. By taking into account the historical background of Klein’s life, as well as his correspondence, journalism and a thorough literary analysis of some of his most important poems, his overarching, life-spanning artistic project can be fully appreciated.
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Keeping the Door Closed: Canada’s Restrictive Immigration Policies towards European Jews during World War Two
Aviva Levy, McGill University
Abstract:
The largely untold story of European Jews attempting to enter Canada during the Second World War is one that highlights the nation’s deep-seated anti-Semitism. Equal parts embarrassing, xenophobic and unacceptable, this story is examined with reference to publications released after 1983, when the acclaimed None is Too Many by Irving Abella and Harold Troper first appeared. Canada’s shameful decision to refuse entry to many Jewish refugees is analyzed with particular attention to interventions by Canadian churches and Jewish organizations. The Canadian Government systematically rejected the applications of Jews seeking sanctuary from Nazi Germany, while simultaneously deporting Jewish refugees who had already reached Canadian soil. Core responsibility for this restrictive immigration policy, one of the most discriminatory in Canada’s history, falls on the shoulders of elected officials. It is only recently, in light of other minority communities facing similar situations, that Canadians have begun to think about these Jewish refugees who were denied asylum and thus to reflect on the anti-Semitic policies that prevailed during the period of WWII.
Montreal Jewish Life and the Truth about Lies My Father Told Me
Shana Rosenblatt Mauer, Hebrew University
Abstract:
For more than half a century, Montreal has been strongly identified with the Canadian Jewish imagination. This conception of Montreal is, in large part, due to writing by Mordecai Richler, A.M. Klein, and even Ted Allan, whose short story, Lies My Father Told Me, was made into an evocative film in 1975. Nevertheless, the debate whether Montreal truly possessed an extraordinarily potent Jewish character, or was simply glorified by writers and filmmakers, has been a subject of much debate. Moreover, this debate has been complicated by the erosion of Montreal’s formative Jewish neighbourhoods, and the effort by artists, writers, and historians to cobble together a history for Jewish Montreal that is accurate, but not steeped in sentimentality. In literature and art, this has meant that impressions of Montreal’s Jewish life portrayed in narrative have come under great scrutiny; an examination that has unearthed additional questions but also proved that Jewish life in Montreal was genuinely unique and thus inspired influential images that defy the tired clichés of nostalgia.
Honouring the Fallen: Are Canadian Jewish War Veterans a Fading Memory?
Barbara Weiser, Concordia University
Abstract:
There are very few war memorials honouring the Jewish servicemen and women who represented Canada in the Second World War. Two major works of stained glass were nonetheless commissioned: the Enlightenment Window at Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto and the Shalom Window at the YMYW-HA in Montreal. The aesthetics of both windows reflect the missions of their institutions and the long tradition of Jews to remember their dead. This paper examines the reasons underlying why Canadians Jews commissioned, in the period after the war, only a few memorials commemorating the service of 500 lost Jewish souls.