From Immigration To Integration
The Canadian Jewish Experience:
A Millennium Edition
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From Immigration To IntegrationThe Canadian Jewish Experience:
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Sheva Medjuck
The last few decades have witnessed a growing interest in the study of Jews in Canada. Just as the field of ethnic studies is burgeoning generally, so too has the literature on all aspects of Canadian Jewish life. While Jews have always had an appreciation of their rich history, we have only recognized more recently that it is equally imperative to understand our current situation. Whether our interests are academic in nature, or whether we want to study how best to serve the Jewish community, we are currently realizing the need for a more detailed analysis of Jewish life.
Such concern is encouraging and suggests that the study of the Jews of Canada has come of age. However, with certain exceptions, there are few scholars of Jewish life in Canada who focus specifically on small Jewish communities. What is not typically recognized is that there are thousands of Jews outside the larger metropolitan regions and that these Jews have largely eluded extensive scholarly study. How can we explain this major oversight? There are a number of possible reasons for the ommission. Perhaps it is simply a kind of benign neglect. After all, since the Jewish population base is in the larger communities, it stands to reason that the vast majority of scholars who study the Jewish community also reside in large centres and thus have not really considered Jewish life outside these areas. Or perhaps there is the assumption that Jewish life in these smaller centres is simply a scaled-down version of these larger Jewish communities, and thus does not warrant special attention. More troubling is the possible existence of a feeling that small Jewish communities do not need to be considered at all because their numbers are small - in some cases dwindling - and, in time, will probably disappear altogether.
As indicated above, in recent years there have been some attempts to redress this oversight. Statistics Canada data analysis by a number of academics has included these areas of smaller Jewish population. For example, Jim Torczyner has examined smaller Jewish communities as well as larger ones in his analysis of Statistics Canada materials (see his essay, “A Community Snapshot: The Socio-Economic Dimensions” in this collection). Similarly, Allan Moscovitch’s preliminary work on Jewish poverty in Canada, based on the 1996 census, includes a regional analysis.1 While these studies do not focus specifically on small Jewish communities, but are rather a breakdown of a Canada-wide profile, the inclusion of these areas indicates a recognition that the experience of Jews in small communities may be different in certain ways from the life of their co-religionists in large communities.
It is not only in terms of academic research that we see this recognition; the larger Jewish community has in recent years acknowledged that the Canadian Jewish mosaic consists of a wide range of communities. Organizations such as B’nai Brith and Hadassah-WIZO have long-established bases in smaller communities, Hadassah with women’s chapters and fundraising activities throughout the country, and B’nai Brith with a network of lodges anchored by regional offices and an ongoing program of field services. The constitution of B’nai Brith has always specifically mandated representation from the small communities at the national board level. In addition, as part of its mandate to encourage regional participation in its advocacy initiatives, the organization established a 1-800 number for its anti-hate hotline specifically to enhance lines of communication with the scattered communities. In more recent years, the Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC), through its National Small Communities Committee (NSCC) in partnership with its regional affiliates, worked to establish a variety of services and publications geared to small communities, that linked Jews from Newfoundland to British Columbia. It is regrettable that the NSCC experienced severe budget cuts, and was forced to cut back services. However, the board of United Israel Appeal Federations Canada has now indicated its recognition of small communities across Canada and is working to find a model for efficient service delivery, as well as to determine its new role in this field. The organization is currently co-operating with Congress in the Regional Jewish Communities of Ontario pilot project, which aims to service the small communities of the province.
The relative success of these initiatives both in the long term and in the short term has important implications for the continued viability of small communities. Before we analyze the specific details of various initiatives, we shall first address the question of how small communities are different.
It is important to recognize that small Jewish communities are not homogeneous and differ enormously from each other. For example, some communities in eastern Canada have older Jewish populations, while those in British Columbia tend to have younger populations. Some communities were once vibrant and are now in decline, while others are just beginning to grow. Some small communities are larger and able to support a synagogue, while others are unable to support even this level of institutional infrastructure. Nevertheless, while being cognizant of these differences, there are many ways in which small communities as a group differ from larger urban centres. These include the overall support structure of the community, the visibility of the Jewish community, and the degree of integration into the larger host society. The view that the small communities are only microcosms of the larger communities fails to recognize that smaller communities differ not only in size, but also in structure, from communities with substantial Jewish populations.
Any cursory examination of large Jewish communities reveals the existence of extensive support systems. These include not only religious institutions, such as synagogues, but also Jewish communal institutions, such as community centres (JCCs)-formerly Young Men’s and Young Women’s Hebrew Associations (YM&YWHAs), day schools, and so forth. This holds true in many mid-sized communities as well. In Winnipeg, for example, a community of approximately 15,000, the establishment of the Asper Community Centre in the last decade of the twentieth century reflected not only a massive commitment of funding, but also the creative vision to plan for the Jewish community’s future at a time when its population was declining. The result is a vibrant multigenerational centre that has centralized community resources under one roof and injected new life into the community as a whole, providing a focus for ethnic identification.
The role played by ethnic facilities in the maintenance of ethnic identity is relatively well institutionalized. Lenski2 and Sklare and Greenblum3 have pointed out that ethnic life has two major components: one that revolves around the group’s religious institutions, and another that revolves around the communal, non-religious life of the group. While the former provides important identification mechanisms for those who seek a religious affiliation, the latter provides a Jewish identification for both religious and secular Jews. In large centres Jews have access to a full range of both secular and religious institutions that serve to maintain and enhance Jewish identity. Jews who live in small communities, however, do not have access to these institutions. While some of the more populated small communities may have a synagogue that provides a basis for identification for religiously affiliated Jews, few small communities have any additional institutional structure.
The role of institutional structures that support ethnic identification has been well recognized in the literature on ethnicity. Breton and Pinard4 and Breton5 argue that there is an important structural basis for ethnic identification. The greater the extent to which an ethnic group has its own structures to serve the needs of the group, the more likely the group is to be able to maintain a high sense of group identification and to counter integration into the larger host society. Breton refers to this process as institutional completeness, that is, the degree to which the ethnic group can provide for its own needs from within the community. If an ethnic group can provide all services to its members, such as education, work, and entertainment, its membership is less likely to seek these services within the larger host society. Having to seek out needed services outside one’s ethnic group may potentially encourage integration into the larger society.
The Jewish shtetl of eastern Europe provides a classic example of Breton’s concept of institutional completeness. Jews had little need to go outside the shtetl community. It is important not to romanticize the difficulties of shtetl life and its physical hardships; however, it is clear that the shtetl created a sense of ethnic solidarity that was important to the maintenance of Jewish identification.6 The kind of organizational supports offered in a shtetl will rarely be found in North America, although the ultra-Orthodox Hasidic communities come the closest in their ability to maintain separate organizational and communal structures.7, 8
Aside from the closely-knit Hasidic communities, there are enormous variations across Canada in the degree to which Jews need to seek services outside the Jewish community. Obviously, in Toronto there are many more institutional structures serving the religious and non-religious needs of the Jewish community than can be found in communities like Moose Jaw, Medicine Hat, or Charlottetown. These formal structures protect ethnic identity, and develop and enhance a sense of ethnic difference. The plethora of religious institutions in Toronto offers many shades of affiliation. One may choose to affiliate with a small neighbourhood shteibl (a Hasidic prayer room), a large or small Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, or Reconstructionist congregation, as well as various permutations and combinations of these streams. There are egalitarian-Orthodox congregations, “Conservadox” synagogues, and secular-humanist communities. Smaller Jewish communities, such as Okanagan with sixty families or Prince Edward Island with only thirty families, may not have any synagogue at all, while more populated small communities may typically have only the one institutional structure of a synagogue. Fredericton, for example, a community of approximately eighty-five families, is served by one Orthodox synagogue, while other communities have only one Conservative synagogue. Sometimes these institutions may face a precarious future. In the tiny community of St. John’s, Newfoundland, twenty-five families are struggling to maintain their one Conservative synagogue.
Even for these communitites, the sole synagogue will likely not match the religious orientation of a significant proportion of the community. The existence of a single synagogue may therefore be inadequate in providing the services necessary to maintain Jewish religious identity. In some areas this need has been addressed. The Halifax-Dartmouth area, which had 1,480 Jews according to the 1991 census, cannot be classed as a large community by any means, but there are, in fact, three types of synagogue, Orthodox, Conservative, and Lubavitch to serve the differing religious needs of the Halifax community. Edmonton, with more than 5,000 Jews, is a larger commmunity - although nowhere near the size of Toronto or Montreal - yet it has established five different synagogues, as well as two further informal minyanim (prayer groups).
This need to respond to diversity has led communities with limited resources to be flexible. Saskatoon, a community with two hundred families, is one such example. For many years it functioned with only one Conservative synagogue. However, in mid-2000, a segment broke away and formed another congregation. Regina took a different approach to serving diverse religious needs. A section of the seating in its Orthodox synagogue - where men and women sit separately at prayer according to tradition - was reserved for those who prefer to pray together as a family, a custom that is more prevalent in the Conservative and Reform traditions.
For non-religious Jews, the issue of structuring Jewish identity is even more problematic. Non-religious Jews in larger communities have institutional supports in a wide range of organizations and facilities, such as JCCs, Jewish welfare agencies, and Jewish day schools (secular or religious). While the situation is clearly problematic for all Jews in small communities who wish to maintain a Jewish identity, it is thus particularly problematic for non-religious Jews.
It would seem reasonable to conclude that because of their small numbers, Jews in small Canadian communities lack collective visibility as members of an ethnic community. This is particularly evident to Jews from small communities when they visit larger centres just before major Jewish holidays and see the prominent place of these holidays within the community. For someone from a community where it is often difficult to find Hanukkah cards at the local card shop, a drive up Bathurst Street in Toronto, where every store has Hanukkah decorations, may seem an almost surreal experience. In Saskatoon, Sault Ste. Marie, or Prince George, Jews do not constitute socially significant ethnic populations. There are probably more Jews in a few block radius of Bathurst Street than there are in Moncton or Kitchener. There are no homogeneous Jewish residential areas as there are in larger communities. Indeed, it is difficult to even conceive of Jewish neighbourhoods in areas where there are only a handful of Jews. There is no doubt that the lack of a critical mass of co-religionists is problematic for the maintenance of ethnic identity.
Fortunately for Canadian Jews, the larger society is hospitable to Jews. While clearly this openness of the larger host society is desirable, such openness has a more complex dimension for ethnic identification, encouraging active participation in the structures of that society.9 A unique outgrowth of this inclusiveness is a particular form of absorption. Kallen, for example, suggests that the “… adaptation of the Jewish home and synagogue to the prevailing norms of the host society has resulted in considerable loss of distinctive Jewish cultural content.…”10 Without some attachment to a distinctive cultural and religious ethnic heritage, the issue of Jewish ethnic survival becomes problematic. In small communities, however, the very small population base complicates this participation in that these Jews engage not only in the relatively impersonal aspects of the larger society such as politics and economics, but also in the more intimate areas such as friendship networks and kinship ties through intermarriage. According to a study of the Jewish community in Atlantic Canada, Jews were well integrated into the larger society.11 They were found on the membership lists of the country and yacht clubs; they participated in large numbers in community affairs, including politics. Lacking extensive Jewish communal structures, they tended to participate in the structures of the larger society. As is true in most small communities in Canada, this openness on the part of the host society leads to an integration that is compounded by the small number of Jews. For these reasons it is much more difficult for Jews in small communities to maintain ethnic boundaries. And as Barth12 has argued in general, and Kallen13 has argued in particular reference to the Jewish community in Toronto, an important key to a group’s ethnic identity lies more in the ethnic boundaries that surround the group rather than the cultural matrix within the boundary. Given the difficulties in defining and maintaining these boundaries, Jews in small communities have greater difficulties in maintaining the social parameters of ethnic identity.14
This situation as described above would lead one to conclude that Jews in small communities lead a precarious existence as Jews. As Rose concludes in his study of small-town Jews in the United States, Jews in small communities, unlike those in large urban centres, are “strangers in alien territory.”15 Not only do they lack the institutional supports, but they also lack ethnic neighbourhoods that help maintain Jewish identity.16 Similarly, the lack of overt discrimination has made it easier to integrate into the larger community.
Yet, Jewish identity persists in small communities across Canada and, while one might wish it to be stronger, it is not as weak or underdeveloped as this analysis would suggest. There appear to be a number of mechanisms that small communities can utilize to help overcome these seemingly overwhelming obstacles to Jewish identification. While some of these mechanisms are commonly discussed as part of the general literature on ethnic identification, many of these devices are not typically recognized. Yet, for Jews in small communities, they serve as important enhancements to ethnic identification.
Much that has been written by concerned Jews has served as a critique of the Canadian Jewish community. These criticisms, rebuking fellow Jews for not doing or caring enough about Jewish issues, end by lamenting the demise of Judaism. If this is the scenario envisioned for the larger urban centres, the prognosis for regions with small Jewish populations does not bode well. How can Jewish life survive if even the larger communities are failing? Certainly, as indicated, the same resources are not available and the support structures are lacking. What are the mechanisms that help Jews in small communities maintain their Jewish identity? What types of resources are available to them?
Some of the mechanisms for Jewish survival in small communities are not dissimilar to those found in larger urban areas. One of these mechanisms is synagogue affiliation. While evidence suggests that Jews are less observant than Christians when it comes to actual participation in services, synagogues continue to exist and, in many cases, to flourish. Sklare and Greenblum17 and Elazer18 suggest that this phenomenon occurs because of the social significance that the synagogue has assumed. The synagogue has become a way of publicly declaring one’s ethnic affiliation. If this is the case in larger centres, it is even more the case in smaller ones. Given the lack of other official institutions on which to hang one’s identity, the synagogue takes on a very important function. Thus we find that if a synagogue exists in a small community, membership rates tend to be very high.19 Although actual participation in regular services tends to be proportionately as low as it is in larger communities, synagogue affiliation is higher. Since the communities are so small, the synagogue provides a focal point for organized Jewish life and an important mechanism for identification with fellow Jews.
While the full range of institutional supports are unavailable to Jews in smaller communities, several local branches of national and international Jewish organizations have established themselves in the larger smaller communities. Early on in their development, most small communities of any size established lodges or chapters of organizations such as B’nai Brith, Haddasah-WIZO, and the Jewish National Fund (JNF). These types of organizations are important for two reasons. First of all, the work in which they engage provides important links to the external Jewish community and reinforces the ties that Jews have with their co-religionists nationwide. Secondly, it provides a focus outside the synagogue for Jews in the community to socialize with each other. The decline of these organizations in many small communities, especially if they are not replaced by other organizations, has had a serious impact on Jewish communal life.
Jews in smaller Jewish communities, like their co-religionists elsewhere, have a strong attachment to the State of Israel and the central role that identification plays for contemporary Jewish identity - in large as well as small communities - is well documented.20 The mechanisms for identification are not restricted by geographic location. However, given that the small Jewish communities have many fewer such mechanisms for ethnic survival, one might be rather pessimistic about their continued viability. Yet, there are mechanisms for Jewish survival in small communities that typically do not exist elsewhere. Primary among them is the openness of the Jewish community and the sense of camaraderie with all Jews.
Small Jewish communities generally tend to include all Jews and are apt to be friendly and welcoming to everyone. This sense of friendliness is not simply a quaint folklore that small-town people hold over their big-city cousins. Rather, because of the small numbers of Jews in the community, typically, every soul is appreciated. At a recent conference sponsored by the Atlantic Jewish Council, the president of the Moncton synagogue spoke of his community as “a large family, and a stranger in shul on Shabbat does not go home without an invitation.” In smaller communities, major life events - a birth, a bar or bat mitzvah, a marriage, or a death - involves the whole community. In small cities, the Jewish community mobilizes its resources to assist, whether it is in preparations for a kiddush, for a bris, or for shiva meals for a house of mourning. This support structure is a consequence of necessity - after all it is not possible to purchase these services as it is in large urban centres - but it also serves as a mechanism of integration into the community. Jews in small communities may at times be envious of how much simpler it is to be a Jew in Toronto or Montreal, but having to rely on the good will of fellow Jews creates a special sense of community and establishes a level of integration into that community that goes a considerable way towards compensating for the lack of a kosher deli, or prepared shiva meals.
This sense of belonging to a particular small community is something that Jews carry with them, even when they decide to migrate to larger centres. A young student at Dalhousie University in Halifax readily admits to coming from Toronto to Halifax because she did not care to have any affiliation with the Jewish community. Ironically, she is now extremely active in Jewish student affairs and assists with programming for the Jewish youth of the community. She suggests that her turnaround had a great deal to do with the nature of the Jewish community, which she found warm, friendly, and inviting. While some might think that it is ironic that a young woman should have to move from Toronto to Halifax to feel a part of a Jewish community, Jews in small communities can readily understand her experience.
A cogent example of this sense of community is further evidenced when discussing the Maritimes with former residents. They talk with affection about their roots and the support they received from the community. There is even a Jewish Maritimer club in Toronto. This sense of belonging is more than warm nostalgia, a romanticization of the past. Many former Maritimers choose to send their children to Camp Kadimah, a Jewish summer camp in Nova Scotia. With so many camps and summer programs available in large centres, the sons and daughters of former residents - and former Camp Kadimah alumni - return every summer because their parents wish them to experience the same sense of community that they felt several decades earlier. In fact, while the camp was initially established over fifty years ago to serve the children of Atlantic Canada, currently only about 30 per cent of the campers are from this region.
In brief, smaller Jewish communities lack the wide range of Jewish institutions that serve to support Jewish identity and create the sense of ethnic identification that is more readily found in larger centres. They are, therefore, forced to rely on their own resources to compensate. While the quality of services that can be provided by community members on an ad hoc basis may not be as high as those provided by the professional organizations in the larger centres, the former have been successful in creating a sense of community, which has greatly mitigated the weaknesses inherent in communities that lack institutional infrastructure.
As indicated above, Jews in small communities tend to be relatively well integrated into the larger host society. At first glance this might be seen as problematic for Jewish survival due to the greater chance of assimilation and intermarriage, and, indeed, it has proved to be a double-edged sword for small-community Jews. Because they are well integrated and have established friendship networks with non-Jews, they are able to mobilize support from the non-Jewish community, which is major asset. For example, it is more common in smaller communities to be well acquainted with local politicians, not only at the local level but also at the provincial and federal levels. Thus, lobbying politicians on issues of concern to the Jewish community may generally be more successful in smaller communities where these individuals are more accessible.
As discussed earlier, Jews in small communities generally lack the visibility as an identifiable ethnic group that is more common for Jews in larger centres. Nevertheless, in spite of their relatively small numbers, they still retain considerable individual visibility. Some Jews in smaller communities do not choose to publicly identify as Jews, in the same way as some in larger urban centres choose not to do so. Jews who publicly identity themselves as Jews in small communities are quite distinct from most of their neighbours, who might have little experience of “visible” Jews. The ways in which their ethnic differences are recognized - not only by the wider community, but also by the Jews themselves - are often different in the smaller communities. This situation can be very positive for Jewish identity as it encourages self-examination of the saliency of Jewish affiliation to the complex mix of one’s overall identity.
How can the survival of Jewish communities be ensured in such out-of-the-way places as Niagara Falls, St. John’s, or Glace Bay, which is the oldest organized community on Cape Breton? There are several mechanisms that could potentially be utilized.
First of all, it is important to ensure that small communities have visibility on the national Jewish agenda. The terms of reference for community planning should be beyond the limitations of defined geographic boundaries. While many studies of ethnicity approach ethnic communities as if their social boundaries were coterminous with spatial boundaries,21 others, such as Goldenberg and Haines, have argued that the strength of ethnic identification can be measured by the level of participation in ethnic institutions, regardless of their geographic location.22 In particular, advances in communication and transportation would suggest that the concept of “community” is increasingly disentangled from spatial constraints. As Goldenberg and Haines note, this means that spatial boundaries and social boundaries need not be and frequently are not coterminous. If such is the case, then the relative geographic isolation of smaller communities can be mitigated by strong ties to larger centres of Jewish life.
This process is illustrated in Raisins and Almonds, a book that provides an account of a young girl growing up in various small towns in Saskatchewan and Manitoba in the 1920s.23 While her family was often the only Jewish family in town, she was able to maintain her Jewish identity by mail-order deliveries of Sunday school material, visits to relatives in Winnipeg, gatherings with Jews from neighbouring towns, and subscriptions to Jewish newspapers from New York. Since the 1920s, the enormous advances in communication technologies and the increased sophistication of transportation allow for a vast array of ties to be developed and maintained with Jews not only in the rest of Canada, but throughout the world. These advances provide a myriad of new and exciting possibilities for the enhancement of Jewish identity.
The range of services that can be provided to smaller communities and the ease by which this process can occur is thus greatly enhanced. Small communities have recognized this potential and are using it to the outmost in their attempts to provide a Jewish context for their membership. Thus, for example, Jewish educational resources are no longer limited by what can be sent through the regular postal service, but increasingly are being provided through the Internet. This is especially critical for communities where there may be only a handful of Jews. Distance education via the Internet has put Jewish education both for youth and adults in easy reach of all Canadian Jews, regardless of their geographic location.
Advances in transportation mean that Jews in all small communities of Canada can send their sons and daughters (and, of course, themselves) to Israel for the “Israel experience.” Most small communities in Canada are only a short airline trip away from larger communities and, as such, can participate in Jewish institutional life in ways that would have been unheard of only a few decades ago. The two national Jewish newspapers - the Canadian Jewish News and the Jewish Tribune - are easily distributed nationally both by regular mail and via the Internet. Issues of importance to the Jewish community can be discussed on-line by individuals wherever they are located. These types of mechanisms act in lieu of more formalized institutional supports and are extremely important for the preservation of Jewish identity in these smaller communities.
Small Jewish communities have also increasingly recognized that they share much in common with each other and can collectively do more for their membership than they can accomplish individually. Thus, for example, two regions of Canada have seen the creation of regional organizations - the Atlantic Jewish Council in Atlantic Canada and, more recently, Federation’s Regional Jewish Communities of Ontario pilot project serving all non-federated communities in Ontario.
The Atlantic Jewish Council (AJC) was created in 1975 in order to co-ordinate and provide Jewish services throughout the region. It is an example of a very effective model for service delivery to small communities. The AJC operates as the umbrella organization for most Jewish activities of the region, with the exception of the synagogues, and has representation on its executive from all the smaller communities in the area. It provides direct services through such programs as youth programming, campus services, young leadership, seniors programs, and chaplaincy. It publishes a quarterly magazine, which serves as a method of communication among the various regions of Atlantic Canada. The mandate of the AJC is to reach into all the communities of Atlantic Canada to improve the quality of Jewish life. For example, the Atlantic Jewish Council has a chaplain who travels to all communities that do not have rabbis in order to provide religious services. This has been particularly important in communities that were once large enough to support a rabbi and a synagogue, but have declined in numbers in recent years. The Atlantic Jewish Council also sponsors regular conferences, and brings in speakers and Jewish entertainment. It co-ordinates celebrations of Jewish holidays and commemoration of Holocaust Memorial Day. It acts as the region’s official representative to such national organizations as the Canadian Jewish Congress, the United Israel Appeal Federations Canada, and the Canada-Israel Committee. As such the Council serves as the collective voice of the community.
More recently, the joint Federation-CJC Regional Jewish Communities of Ontario project was set up in recognition of the need for an organizational structure to serve the collective needs of the scattered small communities in the area. In Ontario, there are about twenty-six communities with some form of Jewish community outside the federated communities of Toronto, Ottawa, London, and Hamilton. These small communities recognize that they are better able to address issues of common concern through such collective initiatives as the Ontario project. Both the Ontario region and the Atlantic region struggle with similar problems - educational outreach to small communities, repopulation of the communities, providing adult programming, and mentoring of university students who have come to their communities to study.
On a national level, organizations such as B’nai Brith Canada and Haddassah-WIZO have long recognized the importance of maintaining units in small communities such as Regina or Saskatoon, and have repeatedly attempted to assist when the local organization seems in decline. B’nai Brith’s lodge network also links small communities with the national initiatives of its domestic advocacy agency, the League for Human Rights, and with the global human-rights agenda of its Institute for International Affairs. Students enrolled in universities based in the smaller communitites have often benefited from the resources and initiatives of these two agencies when encountering antisemitism on campus or hostility engendered by Arab propaganda campaigns that make them feel marginalized or threatened.
National organizations thus recognize the unique character of smaller communities and their special contribution to the richness of the Canadian Jewish mosaic. All these organizations have benefited from the experience of individuals from smaller communities on their boards and executives. Membership in such organizations itself provides yet another mechanism for maintaining Jewish identity. It is critical that, through such membership, the voices of the small communities are heard and numbers alone do not determine organizational direction and policy. With advances in transportation and communication, the ability of the national community to assist smaller communities in maintaining their Jewish identity - as well as the ability of these communities to participate at the national level - is now greater than ever before. Their presence on the national stage illustrates that they will be eager participants in determining the future agenda of Canadian Jewish organizations.
It is, of course, important not to be too “Pollyanna-ish” about the future of Jewish life in all small communities. The prognosis for some small communities that have lost their demographic base is indeed problematic. With an aging population and a stagnant economy, it is hard not to be pessimistic about communities such as Glace Bay or New Waterford in Cape Breton. Yet, in the summer of 2001, Glace Bay is planning a kuma ahame (coming home) and the overwhelming enthusiasm for this project clearly indicates that there is much to be said for small-town life. For many other communities, there is reason to be encouraged about their continued viability. Communities themselves are organizing to mobilize and, with proper resources both from inside the community and from without, these communities can maintain and perhaps enhance Jewish life. Examples abound across Canada. The Barrie Jewish community has recently begun a fundraising drive to build a synagogue, a clear sign of its growth and viability. The Okanagan region has built a community centre. The St. John’s, Moncton, Saskatoon, and North Bay communities have imported areivim (Israelis who come for a limited stay to help with the educational, cultural, and social needs of the Jewish community). Project Areivim has revitalized these communities in important ways. Marty Brown, a member of the North Bay Jewish community, recently noted that the community had been without professional leadership since 1983, but with Project Areivim “we received a new lease on life…. Their [the areivim] youthful enthusiasm is contagious and thanks to their efforts the lights are on in the synagogue far more than they have been in years.”24 Halifax has recently established a committee for community renewal and growth. Most Jews, even in the smallest centres of Yarmouth or Thunder Bay maintain their attachments to the Jewish community. These examples illustrate the strength and commitment to Jewish life throughout the country.
Given the difficulty of maintaining Jewish life in these communities and given that considerable resources that need to be allocated to help these communities survive, the question that is sometimes raised is why is it important to keep these communities viable as Jewish communities.
There are those who suggest that small pockets of ethnic groups cannot easily survive and that it is just too difficult to provide the necessary resources needed to help in their struggle for survival. With respect to Jews, implicitly or explicitly, the view expressed is that if Jewish survival is important, Jews in these smaller regions should simply pack their bags and move to large urban centres. For many Jews this is simply not practical. They have established economic ties to the region and may have difficulty re-establishing their careers elsewhere. But the importance of maintaining smaller Jewish communities goes far beyond the economic well-being of a few Jews. What are these factors?
First of all, there is the obligation in Jewish law to help those who need help. If Jews in small communities are struggling to survive as Jews, then it is the obligation of the entire Jewish community to provide them with the resources that will help them maintain their Jewish identity.
Beyond this sense of obligation to one’s fellow Jews, there is much that is positive about Jewish life in small communities and, hence, beneficial to preserve. As indicated above, there is a uniqueness to small Jewish communities that is very worthwhile maintaining. The warmth, the friendliness, the sense that every Jew is a member of the community are important features that go some way in compensating for the lack of Jewish institutions and organizations.
For the larger Canadian Jewish community as well, it is important for the smaller communities to continue to exist. For the larger community, if there are no Jews in these small communities, who will carry the Jewish agenda in these regions? A particular cogent example of the importance of this representation across Canada occurred during the closing months of 2000. As the peace process in the Middle East unravelled and violence increased between Palestinians and Israelis, we saw a worldwide propaganda war against the State of Israel. Jews in Canada mobilized to counter this propaganda as best they could, but this did not only happen in Toronto or Montreal, but also in Halifax, in Guelph, and in Victoria. If Jews were not found in small communities, there would be no one to defend Israel. More generally, if there were no Jews in Kitchener or Kelowna, then non-Jews in these regions would know nothing about Jews and would most likely regard them as a somewhat exotic ethnic group. The fact that there are Jews in these communities, discussing Jewish concerns with their non-Jewish neighbours and telling them of Jewish accomplishments, provides a voice for Canadian Jewry throughout Canada, and Canadian Jewry is thereby made stronger. Jews in these smaller communities may, in fact, be better positioned to carry the torch for Jewish causes than their co-religionists in larger communities. As indicated, the Jews in small communities are typically well integrated into the larger host society. As such, they often have excellent contacts with political decision-makers through friendship networks and can use these contacts on issues of concern for Jews generally.
Finally, the fact that ethnic communities can exist throughout Canada enriches us as a country. Surely, one of the features that most Canadians value is our commitment to multiculturalism. We pride ourselves on our ethnic diversity and on our appreciation of other cultures. If Jewish communities can survive only in large urban centres, then both Canadian Jews and the wider Canadian community will be diminished.