Branching Out: The Transformation of the Canadian Jewish Community

Norman Ravvin is an assistant professor of English at the University of
New Brunswick. He is the author of Café des Westens, Sex, Skyscrapers,
and Standard Yiddish, and A House of Words.

Gerald Tulchinsky’s skills as a social historian are evident in this
detailed study of Canadian Jewish history from 1920 to the present.
There are excellent chapters on the impact and curtailment of early
Jewish immigration, and on such key Montreal phenomena as the “rag
trade” and the question of who would be responsible for Jewish
children in the public school system. Tulchinsky has also done extensive
research in Jewish newspapers of the early decades of the 20th century
to gain an intimate sense of the nature of Jewish political thought and
movements. His book includes sidebars profiling unusual personalities
and relevant works by Canadian Jewish authors.

Montreal Jewish life receives the most detailed treatment, followed by
Toronto and Winnipeg. On the prairies, Tulchinsky conveys the kind of
life led by farmers in such pioneering colonies as Hirsch and
Edenbridge. But beyond this, the West is a somewhat shadowy aspect of
his Canadian tableaux.

As Tulchinsky confirms the established, successful, and varied nature
of contemporary Canadian Jewish communities, he asks provocative
questions about their chances for continued vitality. If Israel and the
Holocaust are “posited as the touchstones” of contemporary Jewish
identity, is this “enough motivation to make a commitment to Jewish
‘continuity’”? To investigate this question, he looks at the role
of Zionism, Holocaust memorialization, and the experience of Jews in the
armed forces during World War II. With the “Jewish world of Eastern
Europe … destroyed,” he sees these as key issues contributing to
contemporary Jewish identity.

Students and scholars of history, sociology, and religious life will
find this clearly written and meticulously researched book a useful
resource.