Welcome
Introduction: Canadian Jewish Creativity at the Margins
Welcome to the Spring 2009 issue of The Student Journal of Canadian Jewish Studies (SJCJS). Created by the Concordia Institute for Canadian Jewish Studies, SJCJS provides a forum for undergraduate and graduate research that aims to investigate, through interdisciplinary approaches, the many experiences of Jews in Canada.
Canadian Jewish culture was founded on precarious ground. Almost miraculously, however, in a land where the official stance on Jewish citizens was “none is too many,” this marginality fuelled an unmatched flourishing of creativity, community, and commitment to life. Consequently, though Canadian Jewish cultural products and organizations are often rooted in a history of persecution and a consciousness of the Jewish role within the mythology of the Other, they are also characterized by a celebration of Jewishness and a desire to move forward. This Spring 2009 issue of The Student Journal of Canadian Jewish Studies showcases the numerous ways that Canadian Jews have turned marginality into ingenuity. Moreover, since Francophone Jews have often been overshadowed by the larger Anglophone population, both French and English articles about Canadian Jewry are included in this SJCJS issue.
Yvonne Völkl’s paper, “Contrecoups involontaires—Solitude entraînée par la guerre dans Un amour maladroit et La femme de Loth de Monique Bosco” tackles the fiction of a Canadian Jewish woman writer who is also Austrian, French, and Quebecoise. Völkl argues that the solitude and isolation that mark the fiction of this woman, a woman whose many identities have meant a position of liminality for her, are embodied in the leitmotif of World War II.
Turning otherness into constructive community aid, in “Breaking Down Boundaries and Creating Interfaith Dialogue: The Jewish Framework for Multiculturalism in Toronto,” Caroline Cormier describes how Toronto’s Jewish community has come together to render its experience of marginalization into a beneficial system of programmes meant to ease the transition of newer immigrant populations to the city. By demonstrating how a group that was once composed of outsiders becomes the facilitator of bringing others in, Cormier outlines an instance of interfaith dialogue dedicated to life—and to making it better.
The first of two book reviews assesses Alan Mendelson’s Exiles from Nowhere: The Jews and the Canadian Elite (2008) and takes up its discussion of Canada’s “genteel anti-Semitism,” a dangerous version of Jew-hatred backed by intellectualism and influence. A review of Ruth Panosky’s collection, At Odds in the World: Essays on Jewish Canadian Women Writers (2008), describes authors who are, as women, at the margins of their Jewish community and, as Jews, at the periphery of the dominant Canadian society. Notably, however, it is precisely the experiences of oppression in its varied forms that have inspired their writing and led to some of Canada’s most fascinating works.
Canadian Klezmer music is the subject of the groundbreaking contribution from Emily Lam, “People didn’t call it klezmer”: Klezmer Music in Jewish Montreal 1924-1970. Not only has this music been pushed aside in ethno-musicological studies, but it is also itself the creation of those who were considered invisible. Lam portrays how a culture created by musicians marginalized in the heim, once transplanted to the New World, can evolve into something entirely different.
Marylin Bernard’s article, “« C’est vraiment comme de la famille » et « c’est la seule communauté que l’on a »: une histoire orale des liens existant entre huit femmes juives de Québec et la communauté Bet Israël Ohev Sholom, de 1940 à aujourd’hui,” reiterates that a community does not always speak with one voice—a reminder necessary in order to avoid internal marginalization within a “minorité en peril.” The women interviewed by Bernard express their personal desires for, understanding of, and sense of belonging to Quebec City’s Jewish community.
In today’s world, the question of home and belonging becomes more and more significant, for it promises to present a challenge to the anonymity of an increasingly globalized and hybridized world. As the editors of SJCJS invite you to discover in this Spring 2009 issue, Canadian Jews have always had their gaze simultaneously on the past and the future. Their defence against marginalization has always been in knowing where they are going by understanding where they have been.
Julie Spergel and Jillian Kestler-D’Amours
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