The Journals of Yaacov Zipper, 1950–1982: The Struggle for Yiddishkeit

Bruce Grainger is head of the Public Services Department, Macdonald
Library, McGill University.

Yaacov Zipper immigrated to Canada in 1925 and for most of his life
served as principal of the Jewish Peretz School, an affiliate of the
Labour Zionist Organization, which combined Zionism with a social
democratic political stance. Between 1901 and 1931, Jewish immigration
to Montreal ballooned from less than 7000 to more than 58,000 and
represented over 60 percent of all Jews in Canada. Nearly all were from
Eastern Europe and as a consequence, 94 percent of Montreal Jews in 1931
listed Yiddish as their mother tongue. The Peretz School, founded in
1913, sought to inculcate an ethical Jewish way of life informed by
Yiddish culture or “Yiddishkeit.”

Operating without taxpayer support, the school was hard pressed to
generate sufficient income from fees or from support from the broader
Jewish community in the postwar period, partly because it served poorer
Jews and was still located in the old immigrant neighbourhood, from
which more established Jews were now migrating. Zipper’s journals
chronicle his desperate struggle to maintain a Yiddish-language school
that was competing less successfully for students than other Jewish
schools with a different orientation. Ultimately, the school was forced
to amalgamate with another Jewish school where Yiddish was not
emphasized. The failure of the school was a part of the decline and
virtual disappearance of Yiddish from Jewish life throughout the world.

On a more positive note, Zipper was also a writer. Near the end of his
life he travelled to Israel to receive the Manger Prize for Yiddish
literature in the Diaspora. An appendix lists his writings in Yiddish,
Hebrew, and English. Also included are a glossary of Hebrew and Yiddish
terms; a list of organizations, institutions, and place names; a list of
individuals mentioned in the text; and an index.