Congress bulletin, 1 février 1974, Février

[" CIC Plenary Assembly SOL KANEE Sol Kanee, CJC President, has announced Canadian Jewish Con- * gress\u2019 17th Triennial Plenary Assembly will take place at the Royal York Hotel in Toronto, June 15-18, 1974.Mr.Kanee noted.\"The: Plenary Session of Canadian Jews is a national assembly of representatives of Canadian Jews, democratically elected by recagnized Jewish organizations and individuals who participate in communal affairs.It is the highest authority in the framework of CJC and is empowered to give direction to Congress activities, both nationally and internationally.\u201d The CJC Plenary Assembly is looked upon throughout Canada as the parliament of Canadian Jewry.Jewish communities throughout Canada are urged to begin the election of their delegates.CUJS Seminar The Canadian Union of Jewish Students convened a seminar \u201cOn Being Jewish\u201d February 21-24.The seminar was co-ordinated by Jewish students in Vancouver and held in a camp in the vicinity of the city.The seminar brought together Jewish students from Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary and Saskatoon.Workshops and discussions were held on such diverse topics as: Jewish Atitudes to Wars \u2014 Halachic View, Soviet Jewry, Shtetel Life; Jewish Mysticism; Flaws in Contemporary Jewish \u2018Communities; Judeo-Christian Relations; Israel.Films and multi-media programmes from the New Jewish Media Project were incorporated into the workshops.Hcong ress bui published by Canadian Jewish Congress - Soviet Jewry DEMONSTRATION On February 2, Soviet Communist Party Leader, Leonid |.Brezhnev landed at Gander, Newfoundland airport enroute home to the Soviet Union after an official visit to Cuba.He was met at the airport by ten Newfoundland Jews who carried signs reading, \"Let My People Go\u201d.The group, led by Dr.Avram Richler, engaged in a conversation with Mr.Brezhnev urging that exit visas be granted to Jews wishing to emigrate to Israel.The Jewish delegation also asked Mr.Brezhnev to intercede on behalf of Sylva Zalmanson, sentenced to ten years strict regime in the first Leningrad trial in 1970.now seriously ill.They were supported by the Canadian Minister of Regional Economic Expansion, the Honorable Don Jamieson who was head of the official reception group.The graup had brought with them a petition signed by four hundred residents in St.John's, Newfoundland.When asked where they obtained their information concerning Soviet Jewry.Dr.Richler produced a fact sheet received from the Montreal Office of Canadian Jewish Congress.HUNGER STRIKE On Friday, February 15 three .Soviet Jews began a hunger strike in Moscow as an act of despair and protest against the Soviet Union's failure to grant them exit visas.Participants included David Azbel, a professor of technical sciences in whose apartment the strike took place, Vitaly Rubin, an authority on ancient China, and Vladimir Galatsky, an artist.It is reported that the phones of most Jewish activists in Moscow have been disconnected.In a statement issued by the hunger strikers it was stressed, \u201cBy cutting off conversation with the outside world the KGB plans to isolate us and minimize the meaning of our hunger strike.We appeal to people who sympathize with us to demand communication with the outside world\u201d.A cable has been forwarded to David Azbel by Sydney M.Harris, Q.C., and Nathan Hurwich, Chairman and Vice-Chairman respectively of the National Committee for Soviet Jewry.Expressing solidarity and sympathy with the aims of the hunger strike, the text of the telegram follows.\u201cCanadian Jewry is gripped with the drame of your hunger strike and sends this expression of solidarity and sympathy with its aims.It Chief Justice Appointed BORA LASKIN - Chief Justice Bora Laskin, appointed recently to head the Supreme Court of Canada, has forwarded a letter to David Satok, CJC Central Region Chairman and Sydney M.Harris, Q.C., National CJC Executive Vice-President, expressing his appreciation for their agp aculations stated on behalf of.cJe The Chief Justice added, \u201cI recall my participation in some of Congress\u2019 activities, a participation which had its beneficial influence on me\u201d.For a number of years, while residing in Toronto, Chief Justice Laskin was a member of the CJC National Executive and Vice-Chairman of the Central Region Joint Community Relations Committee and Chairman of its local committee.In a telegram signed by Sol Kanee, CJC National President and Saul_ Hayes, CJC Executive Vice - President, Congress congratulated Chief Justice Bora Laskin on his appointment to head the highest court in Canada, stating that his elevation to Chief Justice of Canada is a great honour bestowed on a most distinguished jurist who has earned the admiration and recognition of his Government.his profession and his fellow Canadians,\u201d and that his \u201cappointment adds lustre to the Jewish community\u201d of which he is \u201ca proud member\u201d is unconscionable for the Soviet Government to prohibit the emigration of Jews who have committed no illegal acts but wish only to proceed to Israel.We will continue to publicize your plight and to press the Soviet Government and alert public opinion to permit you and all Jews who wish to leave the Soviet Union to do so without further delay.This message is a reaffirmation of our unshakable determination to stand with you and our fervent hope that you will soon be permitted to leave for Israel.Whilst we fully sympathize with your hunger strike we urge you not to jeopardize your health.Shalom from Canadian Jewry Please phone Toronto, 487-7155, Area Code 416.CIC Conveys Condolences Following the death of David Ben-Gurion, former Prime Minister of Israel, condolences were forwarded to His Excellency, Ephraim Katzir, President of Israel.Cosigned by Sol Kanee, CJC President and Saul Hayes; Q.C., CJC Executive Vice President, the text follows.\u201cCanadian Jewry has learned with deep sorrow of the passing of David Ben-Gurion.Ben-Gurion was the statrsman who brought to fruition Herzl's dream of a Jewish state.His single-minded purpose from his early years never diminished for he was constantly dedicated to Israel and the House of Israel.He will be remembered with the greatest affection in Canada where he trained as a young soldier in the Jewish Legion and for his many visits to Canadian Jewry._ He was one of the greatest sons of his people.We mourn his passing.Please accept this expression of our highest esteem.\u201d cq BEN GURION CIC International Meetings Canadian Jewish Congress has participated in meetings held in Zurich, (January 6-9) \u2014 the COJO Presidium (Conference on Major Jewish Organizations) and the World Jewish Congress Governing Council.CJC representatives were Sol Kanee, CJC President and Alan Rose, CJC Associate Executive Dit rector.Monroe Abbey, Q.C.a member of the WJC Governing Council was unable to be present owing to family illness.During the CJC National Executive Committee meeting on February 17, Mr.Kanee reported extensively on the meetings.Items discussed included Jewish education throughout the world, Soviet Jewish emigration, and the situation in the Middie East following the Yom Kippur War with emphasis on world opinion and the energy crisis.(Editor's Note: Mr.Kanee's comments are included in the CJC National Executive minutes, page Eastern Region - Conference The Eastern Region Conference of Canadian Jewish Congress will be held on Sunday.March 31.1974 beginning at 10:00 a.m.at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal.Registration of delegates will commence at 9:00 a.m.The Conference will conclude around 4:00 p.m.Mrs.Joey Richman has been appointed ! Chairman of the Arrangements Committee which is now finalizing the Conference program.The theme of the Conference will be Congress in Perspective: Commitment \u2014 Continuity.Guest speaker at the Conference lunch; eon will be the Honorable Jerome Choquette, Minister of Justice of the Government of Quebec.Mr.Choquette will be introduced by the Honorable Dr.Victor Gold- bloom, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Environment of the Government of Quebec.Mr.Cho- quette\u2019s address will deal with Human Rights Legislation in Quebec.Conference issues will include: the position of the Region on items to be discussed at the CJC National Plenary Assembly in Toronto, June 15-18.1974; and a projection of activities for the Region in all areas of communal endeavour.\u2018In addition, the Conference will emphasize both the position of Jews in Quebec, highlighting the Human Rights Code, as well as the issue of Jewish education.r 2/CONGRESS BULLETIN FEBRUARY/MARCH CJC NATIONAL EXECUTIVE MEETING What zre the current issues concerning the Canadian Jewish community today?The CJC National Executive Committee meeting dealt recently with many of these issues\u2014international organizations, Isreal, Soviet Jewry and Jewish communities throughout the world; humanitarian activity, immigration, multiculturalism and consumer affairs; demographic research, archival work and a museum depicting Ca- > nadian Jewish history\u2014this was.the agenda discussed during the last CJC National Executive meeting held \u2019 in Toronto,February 17.The following summary, in turn, acts as an introduction to the theme of this Congress Bulletin the goal being to provide our readers with an indepth examination of several current Jewish issues and activities.A meeting of the CJC National Executive Committee took place in Toronto, Feb-! ruary 17.Sol Kanee, National President, pfesided After the luncheon recess Mr.Ka- nee called upon Sydney M.Harris.Q.C., National Vice President to take the chair.A summary of the issues discussed follows.FOREIGN AFFAIRS Mr.Kanee reported extensively on recent meetings held in Zurich, the COJO Presidium (World Conference of Jewish Organizations} on January 6-7 and the World Jewish Congress Governing Council on January 7-9.CJC had been represented by Messrs.Kanee and Rose.Mr.Monroe Abbey.QC, a member of the WJC Governing Council was unable to be present owing to family illness.The COJO Presidium was chaired by Mrs.Charlotte Jacobson, Acting.President.The progress of COJO Commission on Jewish Education was discussed, its purpose being to undertake program his countries whose Jewish communities are without resources for Jewish education, such as in Iran and France, and to act as a clearing house for information concerning Jewish education throughout the world.Reports were heard concerning Soviet Jewry emigration and the situation in the Middle East following the Yom Kippur War.The World Jewish Congress Governing Council on the political implications of the Highlights of the meeting included a discussion of the restructuring of the WJC Governing Council; an address to the Council; on the political implications of the aftermath of the Yom Kippur War by Dr.Nahum Goldmann, WJC President; the middle East situation with particular emphasis on world opinion and the energy crisis; and an extensive examination of the current political state of Jewish communities throughout the world, devoting special attention to Soviet Jewry.\u201cIt was noted that the Sixth-Plenatry Assembly of the World Jewish Congress will meet in The Hague, April 28-May 6.1974 Twelve delegates chosen from among CJC Officers will represent Congress.BUDGETING CONFERENCE It was reported that preparatory work is continuing for a meeting of the National Budgeting Conference, scheduled to take place in Toronto on April 17.The United Israel Appeal Inc.will attend as observer.CZF A meeting of CJC and Canadian Zionist Federation Officers will be called in order to discuss issues arising in the field of Jewish education, Saviet Jewry and other matters.CUJS Mr.Kanee.reported that the Jewish Agencies\u2019 participation in the funding of Canadian Union of Jewish Students was discussed during a meeting he had with Leon Dultzin, Acting Chairman of the Jewish Agency.Mr.Kanee has written Mr.Dultzin concerning this.matter which is now pending.CCLA It was reported the Canadian Civil Liberties Association is preparing a primer on human rights for the Canadian Labour Congress.A subvention of $500.00 for this project has been requested from CJC.It was agreed Mr.J.B.Salsberg should meet with the CCLA in order to evaluate whether there are sufficient matters of Jewish interest to warrant subventing the proposed primer.PLENARY ASSEMBLY It was reported that the Plenary Assembly program and arrangements have been completed.The program will be announced in due course.The Assembly will take place at the Royal York Hotel in Toronto, June 15-18, 1974.Recommended allocations for travel and meal subsidies were moved and approved.Noted was the need to provide subsidies to encourage the presence of youth at the Plenary Assembly.It was the strong feeling of the National Executive Committee that CJC regions should direct their attention to this matter and provide special funds for subsidies.\"MUSEUM RESEARCH ARCHIVES LIBRARY The following was reported: -a) Library \u2014 Following a decision of a previous executive meeting authorizing discontinuance of the Congress library, books are being distributed to Canadian Jewish Public Librairies in Montreal, Toronto and Winnipeg.b} Museum \u2014 The museum, depicting Canadian Jewish history, will be presented in three dimensional and audio-visual forms.Plans are on the drawing board.Money for the museum was provided by the family of the late Samuel Bronfman on the occasion of his eightieth birthday.The plans call for action on acquisitions and the ordering of graphs and material at the beginning of 1975.c) Research \u2014 Arrangements have been concluded for current demographic studies of the Canadian Jewish population leading up to 1976 statistics.Two of these have already been printed and distributed: the third is in the works and will culminate \u2019 in 1975-76 with a monograph on the demography of Canadian Jewry.Still to be considered are attitudinal or motivational studies describing the present profile of the Canadian Jewish community.d) Archives \u2014 CJC archives are being assembled and are proving to be a real treasure.What is now required is a professional archivist to carry out a systematic classification of materials.It was the consensus of the National Executive Committee that attention should _also be given to regional efforts \u2014 stressing the accomplishments of the Jewish Historical Society in Winnipeg, noting the commencement of activity in the Central Region, and stimulating Eastern Region community involvement in similar efforts.Regional activity could then serve as a basis for increased national archival work.ISRAELI POWS IN SYRIA It was reported that CJC had contacted the Secretary of State for External Affairs and several organizations {Royal Canadian Legion, Canadian Red Cross, Canadian Council of Churches, the Apostolic Delegate) requesting intervention oh behalf of Israeli POWs in Syria.CJC will be handling, the Canadian visit (Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa) of Israeli POW parents, February 27-March 4.Emphasis will be placed on meetings with government officials and members of the non-Jewish community.The parents will meet with the Honorable Mitchell Sharp, Secretary of State for External Affairs.CIC Regional Canada-Israel Committee ad hoc committees to deal with influential non-Jewish.people have been established in Winnipeg Toronto and Montreal.The idea was initiated by Jewish community leadership in Winnipeg Most recently in Montreal on February 12, a meeting of several prominent Jewish leaders was convened by Charles Bronfman for this purpose.It was announced that chapters of the Canadian Professors for Peace in the Middle East have been established at York University and the University of Toronto.The Chapters have the active assistance of a number of articulate academicans.GRAPE & LETTUCE BOYCOTT It was recommended by the Officers that supermarkets and groceterias displaying grapes and lettuce should indicate these goods are subject to a jurisdictional union dispute and are boycotted.Following a lengthy discussion Mr.Kanee requested Mrs.Ray Wolfe, who is planning a visit to the Imperial Valley in California, to investigate the situation prior to a final determination by the National Executive Committee.KASHRUTH LEGISLATION Approved was the CJC Officers\u2019 recommendation that a meeting take place bringing together diverse community groups to discuss the implementation of the new Kashruth legislation promulgated by the Department of Consumer & Corporate Affairs under the Food and Drug Act.A representative delegation will then meet - the Honorable Herb Gray.Minister of Consumer & Corporate Affairs.IMMIGRATION SUBMISSION CJC and Jewish Immigrant Aid Services have forwarded a joint submission to the Task Force on Immigration.The appointment of the Task Force took place recently following the announcement by the Honorable Robert Andras.Minister of Manpower and Immigration, that the Canadian Government is now embarking on a study that will eventually lead to the revision of the Immigration Act promulgated in 1952.CJC and JIAS have presented joint submissions regarding changes in immigration policy for approximately thirty years.MULTICULTURALISM Saul Hayes, Q.C., CJC Executive Vice President, presented a progress report on the Canadian Consultative Council on Multiculturalism on which he is an executive member as Chairman of the Quebec Section.Discussed was a submission presented to the Canadian Radio and Television Commission (CRTC) by ethnic groups (Italian, Polish and Ukrainian} which raises the question of programming in non-English languages.CRTC is conducting hearings in Ottawa at present.It was decided that CJC should support the principle of requesting CRTC to suggest time be made available for ethnic language programs when CBC presentation is before it.PUBLICATIONS The sum of $1.000.00 was approved as grants for four publications which include poems, novels and essays in Yiddish and Hebrew.UJRA Following the meeting of the CJC National Executive Committee, a meeting of the Board of Directors of the United Jewish Relief Agencies of Canada was held.Sydney M.Harris, Q.C., UJRA Vice President, presided.Sigmund Unterberg, UJRA Executive Director, outlined the president situation with regard to obtaining Passover supplies (matzoh, wine, meat oil, etc) for shipment to the Jewish community in Cuba.Mr.Unterberg presented the following recommendations of the UJRA Officers: .(a) the appointment of Monroe Abbey, QC.Samuel Sable and Isidor Wolfe as UJRA representatives to the National Rudgeting Conference; (b) the allocation of $2,000.00 for tutorial aid for needy immigrant children.The recommendations were moved and approved A Cw at on ie pal To od Jt \u2014 - x | RE ea, EIT M = FEBRUARY/MARCH ee .= = =.= The sketches, part of the Jewish Historical Society of Western Canada\u2019s collection, were drawn by Abel Pann whose efforts recreated the suffering of Eastern European Two Hours Notice ER VE ¥ Ia 3e 3 LR BO a Hiding From Their Protectors Soviet Jewry CONGRESS BULLETIN/3 The plight of Soviet Jewry continues.Canadian Jewry activity on behalf of Soviet Jewry continues.Leonid Brezhnev is met in Gander, Newfoundland by demonstrators; Congress reacts to a hunger strike in Moscow.{See Page 1).CJC is in constant communication with the Department of External Affairs, as indicated by its discussions dealing with the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe.Letter Forwarded to Sharpe On the eve of the meeting of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe which reconvened on January 15 in Geneva.Saul Hayes, Q.C., CJC Executive Vice President, forwarded a letter to the Honorable Mitchell Sharp, Secretary of State for External Affairs.Noting that CJC had followed with keen interest the continuation of the CSCE which commenced in Geneva last September and reminding the Secretary of State of his meeting with a CJC delegation concerning the CSCE on September 2 1, the letter continued: \u201cWe are indeed gratified that Canada has continued to press for the free flow of men and ideas in those sub-committees dealing with \u2018cooperation in humanitarian and other fields\u2019, i.e., the \u2018third basket\u2019.Whilst, of course, all Canadians welcomè detente, we hold firm to the belief that it is critical that there be written into any agreement with the USSR and its allies, cooperation in humanitarian and other fields, a greater flow of information between East and West, cooperation in exchanges in the field of culture and education, the possibility of family joinder, and relaxed emigration procedures from the USSR and from the Socialist bloc.It has often been said that Canadian foreign policy is a reflection of the needs of concerns of Canadians at home.Given the makeup of Canada, which is a multicultural society, we know that your strong advocacy of the third item on the agenda at Helsinki, namely, Cooperation in Humanitarian and Other Fields, will command wide public support.We are disheartened by the attitude of the Soviet Government, which has been particularly reluctant to discuss humanitarian concerns in the four sub-committees dealing with those items.The Soviet Government continues to see detente in terms of relaxation of tension between States rather than contacts between peoples.We know that Canada will continue to press for these humanitarian concerns.when the CSCE reconvenes on January 15 in Geneva.We hope that Canada and its friends will not agree to a final stage of the Conference until the USSR and its allies have modified their stand on the \u2018third basket\u2019.The Canadian Jewish community has a particular interest in the humanitarian proposals because of our strong feeling that those Jews who wish to leave the USSR be permitted to do so without let or hindrance, and those who wish to apply should not be subject to harassment.Once again, we express our deep appreciation to you for the positive stand which Canada has taken at the CSCE.It is heartening indeed to know that the Canadian Government continues to maintain its real concern for humanitarian matters.\u201d CIC Delegation A Canadian Jewish Congress delegation had met with the Secretary of State for External affairs on September 21 in Ottawa.Members of the delegation were Sydney M.Harris Q.C., Toronto; Professor Perry Meyer Q.C., Montreal: David Satok, Toronto; Hyman Soloway, Q.C., Ottawa\u2019 Professor Harold Waller, Montreal; Saul Hayes, Q.C., CJC Executive Vice-Presi- dent; and Alan Rose, CJC Associate Executive Director.Present as observers from Canadian Zionist Federation were Philip Givens Q.C., M.P.P., Toronto; Rabbi Dr W.Gunther Plant, Toronto; Dr.Leon Kronitz, Montreal; and Myer Bick, Montreal.A detailed presentation was made to the Honorable Mitchell Sharp on the decisions arising out of the preparatory sessions of the Conference held in Helsinki.The Canadian Government was congratulated on its stand at Helsinki on the ambassadorial level and for the speech of the Secretary of State for External Affairs to the Conference on July 4, 1973 when he stressed the importance Canada attaches to the third item on the agenda (Cooperation in humanitarian and other fields \u2014 otherwise known as \u201cthe third basket\u201d).Mr.Rose drew the attention of the Minister to the first three sections of the text of the Western Resolution which was adopted by the Conference as a whole.These are: (a) contacts and regular meetings on a basis of family ties; reunification of families; marriage between nationals of different states; .lb) travel for personal or professional reasons; improvement of conditions for tourism, on an individual or collective basis: (c) meetings among young people: expansion of contracts and competitions, particularly in the field of sport.Specifically, it was requested that a special plea be made at the resumed talks in Geneva for free emigration of Soviet Jewry without let or hindrance, and to press the U.S.S.R.to cease the harassment of Jews who wish to leave.The Canadian Government was urged to ensure that the U.S.S.R.undertake obligations in the humanitarian and cultural fields; withouv such an undertaking on the part of the Socialist bloc, detente could very well lead to a form of neo-appeasement.The concept of the free flow of men and ideas must to some extent be secured also by treaty obligations by the German Democratic Republic.Anxiety was expressed that the Soviet interpretation of humanitarian exchanges \"according to the norms and customs of the states concerned\u201d is designed to expressly prohibit the free flow of men and ideas which the Canadian Government has emphasized in its policy presentations to the Conference.The Canadian Government was also asked to encourage nongovernmental contacts as stipulated in the official text of the Conference communique.Such contacts should, for instance, permit Soviet Jewry to be represented at international Jewish gatherings in the same manner as other Soviet religious groups are permitted to attend international conferences outside the Socialist\u201d bloc.Professor Perry Meyer, who had recently visited Moscow, spoke at firsthand of the plight of the Jewish militants he had met; in particular, the tragic fate which had be fallen Professor Benjamin Levich and his family.Concern was expressed by Professor Meyer that detente was leading to an intensification of the oppression in the U.S.S.R.\u201cThe U.S.S.R.anxious to establish detente between States.is sliding into neo-Stalinism in repressing dissidents, and more particularly those Jewish militants who have voiced their determination to emigrate to Israel.\u201d A list of Jewish militants subjected to harassment was supplied to the Department.Professor Meyer asked Canada tu express its indignation at the inhuman treatment of the Jewish militants and to free the Jewish prisoners of conscience. 4/CONGRESS BULLETIN United Restitution Organization TWENTIETH ANNIVERSARY by DR.JOHN STAHR, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, URO CANADA \u201cestablished under the aegis of Canadian Jewish Congress, the URO has opened its doors to thousands of Jewish refugees in Canada.\u201d \u2014with these words Dr.John Stahr, Executive Director of the URO in Canada describes the organization's efforts during two decades.on the occasion of its Twentieth Anniversary.The URO\u2019s successes speak for themselves\u2014 **.10,000 individuals aided; $80,000,000.paid to victims of Nazi persecution living in Canada, millions of dol- ars paid annually to recipients of pensions.\u201d Twenty years ago the United Restitution Organization, established under the aegis of the Canadian Jewish Congress, opened its doors to thousands of Jewish refugees in Canada.Offices of the URO were established in Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg and Vancouver.In the years that followed, the operations of the URO reached their peak in the late fifties and early sixties when the amount of work had grown to such an extent that the staff consisted of five lawyers, four case workers and a number of secretaries.URO Montreal alone had 14 employees.The number of claimants represented by URO Canada in the 20 years of its existence has been over 10.000.with over 20,000 claims submitted for consideration.= On this 20th anniversary of the establishment of the United Restitution Organi- #&tion in Canada, it is only fitting that a short history of the URO and a report on its activities should be made public.BEGINNINGS The beginnings of the URO go back to 1948.The idea of restitution was con- ceived even earlier during the war.when reports of the confiscation of Jewish property in Germany and later in occupied territories reached the western world.In may 1943, the Allied Governments in London published a declaration against acts of confiscation in all Nazi occupied territories.Among the first who devoted a great deal of time and effort to the study of the history of restitution was a lawyer, Dr.George Weiss.Dr.Weiss found precedents applicable to the existing situation in the provisions.of a treaty between the Allied Powers and Turkey at the end of World War |, concerning the confiscation and restitution of property of the Armenians expelled from Turkey.But there had in fact been earlier examples of spoliation the confiscation of the property of Huguenots in France in 1666 \u201cwhich was declared illegal by a special law in 1790 and which provided for the restitution of confiscated property.And earlier in 1648, the Treaty of Westphalia which ended the 30-Years War and contained provisions for the restitution of \u201call Estates of the Holy Roman Empire who had suffered prejudice and damage.\u201d At the end of World War Il, Dr.Nehemiah Robinson of the World Jewish Congress compiled reports of the confiscation of Jewish property in Germany and even made a rough calculation of the material losses suffered by the Jews in Germany.He stated that restitution and indemnification were the common law of civilized nations, suggesting that the Allies should have jurisdiction to carry out restitution.Another lawyer who made a study of restitution, setting out its principles and planning the stages of the programme was Dr.Siegfried Moses, a former leader of the Jewish community in Germany.The hope was that there would be unified legislation and one internetional body which would be entrusted with the imple- mamtation of the restitution laws.Instead, \u2018separate restitution laws were published by each Occupation Administration in Germany, the first in the American zone in 1947, then in the British and French zones.\u2014 URO ESTABLISHED in 1948, the URO was established in London by the Council of Jews from Germany to act as an international claims agency.Years later when the principie not only of restitution but also of indemnification was accepted by the Government of the German Federal Republic, finding its expression in the first unified Indemnification Law (Bundesentschaedigungsgesetz) published in October 1953, URO offices sprang up all over the world wherever the survivors of the holocaust had settled.The URO Central Office was located in Frankfurt a.Main, Germany, and regional offices were established in Berlin, Frankfurt, Hanover, Koein and Munich.Point 16.of Art li of the third amendment to the BEG states that the United Restitution Organization is authorized (without restrictions applicable to other organizations) to represent claimants in all matters governed by the Indemnification Law.URO offices were established in Germany, Canada, the U.S.A., Israel, France, Great Britain, Australia, Belgium, Sweden and several South American Countries.Where the number of Jewish refugees did not warrant the establishment of URO offices, special departments were attached to existing Jewish organizations.It should be pointed out that the initial principle of restitution (i.e.the return of confiscated property to its rightful owner, or compensation for it where restitution is nization receiving payment only on the successful completion of a claim and taking a small percentage of the amounts FEBRUARY/MARCH ing a small percentage of the amounts paid by the German Government in order to cover the cost of operation.The first years in Canada were financed by the Claims Conference because the URO had no income until about 1956.The funds advanced by the Claims Conference were administered by the Canadian Jewish Congress which also gave support by providing the URO with office space and clerical staff.Although it was expected that all claims would be settled by 1963 {and thousands of claims submitted by URO Canada were settled .it the time), the work of the URO continues.The reason for continuing URO offices is twofold: first, new legislation promulgated in the years between 1965 and 1970; second, claims which were not settled on an administrative level and have to be fought in court.: UROIN CANADA The URO in Canada can look back on ww = CJC representatives at International Meeting on Jewish claims against Ger many.not possible because property was destroyed or lost) proved insufficient when the atrocities committed against the Jews of Europe by the Nazi Government became known after the war.This was recognized by the Government of the German Federal Republic and the BEG (Indemnification Law) contains legislation dealing with the so-called personal damages suffered by the victims of Nazi persecution, i.e.loss of life, health and liberty, Most of the claims transacted by the URO in Canada are concerned with these personal damages.URO offices were established when it was recognized that a vast majority of prospective claimants, newcomers to a strange land, would not have the means to submit their claims through private lawyers and would therefore be easy prey to individuals who might use their mandate and the helplessness of the claimants to exact heavy payment for their services.Also, there were very few lawyers who were conversant with the very complicated Indemnification Law.The URO was, and is, a non-profit organization receiving payment only on the successful completion of a claim and tak- twenty years of service to the survivors of the holocaust, many successes which helped make the lives of thousands of uprooted {and now elderly) people easier and financially more secure.But its work, particularly in the last few years, was not easy and often coupled with frustration and heartache.The new post-war generation in Germany no longer feels quilty for crimes committed by their fathers.German authorities have become inured to the idea of moral responsibility for the crimes committed by the Nazis and are handling claims in a way which reflects this change of attitude towards idemnifi- cation.Despite new legislation or amendments to existing laws, claims submitted in accordance with these are being shelved or the demands for documentation are so exaggerated that it seems impossible to achieve positive results.Still, the work goes on and the role of the URO continues.And it is with some satisfaction that we can look back on twenty-year os URO activity, considering that during this time some $80,000,000 has been paid to victims of Nazi persecution now living in Canada, and millions of dollars are being paid annually to recipients of pensions.GDR Discussed in Ottawa During a recent meeting with the Honorable Mitchell Sharp, Secretary of State for External Affairs, CJC discussed the German Democratic Republic's res- ,ponsibility to the Jewish people.people.It was noted that in 1952 under the Hague-Luxembourg Agreements, the Federal Republic of Germany had paid D.M.\u2014 34 billion for the relief and rehabilitation of Jewish victims of Nazi oppression and in reparations to the State of Israel (about $80,000,000.was distributed through the U.R.O., Canada operated by the CJC for Canadian residents \u2014 as well as life pensions and compensation for sickness incurred as a result of incarceration).West Germany, which occupied two-thirds of the former Reich, had restricted its liability for certain types of claims to two- thirds of the amounts demanded.In view of the personal and.property losses suffered by Jewish communities in that part of the Reich which now forms part of the German Democratic Republic, Canada was urged to call on the GDR to undertake its obligations to the Jewish people.This is in the first instance a moral commitment of the German people for its crimes against humanity in the Hitler era.A detailed memorandum on\u2019 the moral and legal claim of the Jewish people against the GDR has been submitted to the Department.ale .f ga - °° ln vious 1936 inde ingo an: Jun com char It A who ho Sp em on os {he NS B Moy, nt ng te 0 fre y the V0 fonds it Phe His Con, by Ploy nd ly, il Claims LT ila yg the Ung ing Ug 08lton En 1965 Were not id hay back on à many, ors of which of up- grand st few upled na png the Come bility sand ects iif end- ited hot nai 10 ok | Les.Wh ih 3 m | ic GG 4 aid | | | | | | FEBRUARY/MARCH United Jewish Relief Agencies ; \" , SIGMUND UNTERBERG UJRA DIRECTOR Sigmund Unterberg, UJRA Executive Director, outlines UJRA\u2019s activities\u2014support in Israel of the aged, needy newcomers, the handicapped and needy students in Yeshivoth; assistance to needy individuals behind the Iron Curtain; assistance for newcomers in Canada; and Passover relief supplies for needy Jews at home and abroad.OBJECTIVES ACTIVITIES In may 1967, the UJRA of Canada, previously a committee of Congress since 1939, was incorporated and received an independent charter.The UJRA charter outlined the following objectives: To create, provide, enlarge and administer funds to be made up of voluntary contributions from the Jewish communities and others to be used for charitable purposes.Its activities include the following.A) Support in Israel for: (a) the aged who are in the homes for the aged and who are in no position to become self- supporting; (b) needy newcomers to enable them to obtain technical and vocational training; {c) higher education by way of scholarships to needy new comers; (d) the handicapped, the paraplegics.the blind and those otherwise disabled who are in need and require charitable assistance and hospital services.B) Assistance to newcomers to Canada, who are without resources of their own and in the initial stages of their integration require the support of the community's charitable organizations; such work being carried out by Canadian charitable organizations, mainly through the Jewish Immigrant Aid Services and the various Child and Family Welfare Bureaus in the major cities in Canada.C) Provision of interest free loans to Canadian immigrants without resources of their own who in order to establish themselves need credit facilities.In November 1967.the UJRA was recognized by the Department of National Revenue, Taxation Division, Section of Charitable Organizations as a charitable corporation in accordance with the provisions of Section 62 (1) (f) of the Income Tax Act under the registration #-136036- 03-08.ISRAEL In order to manage, contro! and supervise the activities of its Israel Programme, the UJRA of Canada established a committee in Israel of Canadian resident citizens which examines all projects and requests submitted by the JDC, ORT, OSE, Alliance Israelite, HIAS, etc.and makes its recommendations to the UJRA Board of Directors in Canada for its approval.Officers of the UJRA visit Israel from time to time for a close examination of the work there.The operations are conducted by the Director General of the UJRA operations in Israel who performs the same function for UIA activities in Israel.Disbursements of funds are made only upon approval of the Board in Montreal; financial recording is maintained in Canada including the original documents concerning the receipt of monies in Israel and the relevant reports.CANADA The UJRA extends help to needy newcomers through co-operating agencies such as JIAS and the Child and Family Welfare Bureaus across Canada.Monthly statements indicating, in detail, the amounts disbursed for assistance to needy newcomers are submitted to UJRA Headquarters in Montreal where the statements of account are examined and processed.Consultations are held periodically with the aforementioned agencies with regard to the nature of their expenditures, the share of professional and clerical salaries charged to UJRA for new immigrants, the components of the individual relief budgets, etc.Approval of the UJRA is sought for new projects on behalf of needy immigrants, and negotiations regarding those are conducted by the parties concerned.UJRA officials meet perjodicaliy with representatives of the Hebrew Free Loan Association in Montreal! and in Toronto as CONGRESS BULLETIN/$ well as the Jewish Loan Cassa, Toronto, to discuss their modus operandi and in particular the groups of cases in which loans are recommended.UJRA officials are in contact with the Family Welfare bureaus outside Montreal and Toronto, as in Winnipeg, Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver, regarding the funds which these agencies require to help needy immigrants in their respective districts.UJRA conducts a program of assistance for children of needy Jewish immigrant families in order to facilitate their educa- ton.UJRA supervises the administration of the United Restitution Organization (UROQ) which receives funds for URO purposes in Canada from URO Headquarters in Germany.UJRA prepares the annual budget for URO Canada\u2019s operations and handles all the financial matters involved, including reports to URO Headquarters in Frankfurt.UJRA arranges yearly for the Mo\u2018ess Chittin Appeals in Montreal, Toronto and Winnipeg.the proceeds of which are used for Passover Relief to needy Jews both at home and abroad.CUBA UJRA has been sending relief Passover supplies to Cuba since 1961 in response to urgent appeals from the Cuban Jewish community.In Cuba practical considerations make it difficuit to manufacture the supplies necessary for the traditional observance of Passover.Supplies include matzoth, matzoth meal, bottles of Passover wine, horseradish, tins of comed beef loaf and Passover oil, The matzoth and wine are shipped from israel.The Central Fund for Traditional Institu- tiqgs in Toronto extends help to needy students in the Yeshivoth in Israel through the facilities of UJRA there.JDC UJRA is in continuous contact with the JDC with regard to assistance to needy individuals behind the Iron Curtain in response to requests by and on behalf of relatives and friends in Canada.Jewish Education UJRA continues a program of assistance for children of needy Jewish im- igrant families in order to facilitate their education.During a recent meeting of the Board of Directors of the United Jewish Relief Agencies of Canada, it was decided to continue a program of assistance for children of needy Jewish immigrant families in order to facilitate their education.The amount allocated was the same as the previous year, i.e., $100,000 (Eastern Re- gion-$58,000; Central-$35,000; Western Canada $7.000).It was decided that the previous year's procedures would be adopted once again, i.e., the appointment of a special committee comprised of the Executive Directors of UJRA, CJC Eastern Region, Allied Jewish Community Services, and Jewish Immigrant Aid Society to deal with the matter of disbursing funds to students.The Committee finalized the questionnaire which JIAS, the organization most closely associated with needy Jewish immigrant families, forwarded to schools so that individual students might apply for scholarships.Following JIAS\u2019s submission of its findings, the Committee evaluated and forwarded its recommendations to the UJRA Board which then made grants to several schools in Montreal who accepted the funds on behalf of qualifying immigrant children. » 6/CONGRESS BULLETIN Looking at the issue in its historical perspective Canada has had no consistent policy in regard to population.Canadian practice has been a somewhat uncoordinated synthesis of divergent points of view.There are a number of issues involved in considering the population phenomenon; factual data and vital statistics; composition and characteristics; special and cultural distributions; quality; movement; social impact, etc.; ; Immigration is only one, albeit an important factor, in Canada\u2019s population development.From the very dawn of Canadian history immigration has been a distinct feature of Canadian life, and the emergence of Canada as a nation was the product of migration.Of late, under the impact of what is sometimes designated as the \u201cpost industrial age\u201d and the worldwide issue of population explosion, opinions have been expressed in favour of \"Zero Popuiation Growth\u201d for Canada.Itis our belief that Canada will require a sustained immigration program for its population growth, economic development and international obligations.URBANIZATION Experience has also shown that for many a newcomer, failure to adjust to a small community is not so much due to economic reasons, but rather because of difficulty in establishing social relationships.tis not easy to penetrate the native in-group.A sense of isolation ensues, with the consequent move to a larger community where the general atmosphere is more receptive and the presence of kinship groups makes life much more acceptable.We must also bear in mind that the mod- ernimmigrant very often moves to Canada from an urban milieu and is subject to the .same problems as any Canadian, when he has to move to a rural area.GLOBAL CONCEPT We recommend, as a result of the experience gained to date, that competent studies be commissioned to evaluate the impact of the changing sources of immigration, especially as it relates to inter- group relations and in terms of social psychology.Such studies can prove of great value in current integration efforts and future immigration planning.ENGLISH-FRENCH BALANCE Itis sometimes said that France is not a country of emigration.This is true only to a .Immigration CIC/JIAS Joint Submission | Canadian Jewish Congress and Jewish Immigrant Aid Society have presented joint submissions regarding changes in immigration policy for approximately thirty years.Once again CJC and JIAS have presented a joint submission, this time to the Federal Government's recently established Task Force on Immigration.The appointment of the Task Force followed an announcement by the Honorable Robert Andras, Minister of Manpower and Immigration, that the Canadian Governement is now embarking on a study that will eventually lead to the revision of the Immigration Act promulgated in 1952.The following is a summary of the CJC/JIAS submission.- certain degree.À number of French emigrate though not necessarily to Canada or specificaily to Quebec.In addition, there are a number of French-speaking countries in Europe as well as among the newly independent nations in Africa and the Islands.Moreover, there are also a number of countries of Latin cultural background with an affinity to French.These are countries of potential emigration.We suggest that the entire issue be explored with the Quebec Minister of Immigration.It requires careful evaluation and, above all, the full coopération of Quebec in carrying out an active process of public interpretation: a sustained program of reception and resettlement arrangements; and a general milieu of welcoming the newcomer as part of the Quebec and Canadian society.GUEST WORKER We do nou believe that the institution of inviting guest-workers, as it is practiced in Europe, is desirable or even transferable to the Canadian milieu.There are, of course, certain exceptions where such a project may fill a very specific need.But it would certainly be an error to invite guest- workers, as a general practice.A more effective and useful method in meeting the need would be to adjust the regulation so as to enable specific categories of immigrants to be admitted to Canada to fill existing labour shortages.IMMIGRANT SELECTION The \u201cpoint system\u201d of evaluating the admissibility of an applicant for immigration is aimed at reaching as much objectivity as possible by the examining officer.The experience gained during the past few years on the basis of the operational efficacy of 1967 admission provisions appear to point to certain areas which may require re-evaluation.There is, for example, as much danger in being too consciously selective as there is in being unselective.We recommend that the point system as contained in Schedule \u201cA\u201d be reviewed and a different scale value be introduced in evaluating the admission requirements.We would suggest reconsideration of the age ceiling to a higher level, a lesser emphasis on formal schooling; greater weight to the presence of relatives in Canada and to occupational and social history, etc.in other words, consideration should be.given not only to the segmented attributes of the applicant, but also to his \u201clife profile\u201d.ADMISSION OF REFUGEES Canada has a proud post-World War || record of refugee admissions; a policy which has not only enhanced the stature of Canada.but has also benefitted the country in its economic and social growth and sense of well-being.We propose that the usual norms for the assessment of immigrants be applied as a general guide in such cases without requiring the de jure or de facto refugee to obtain a specific number of assessment units.Canada should maintain and expand its tradition of granting immigration opportu- nities to refugees both by applying the criteria for refugee status set out in the Protocol and by formulating its own reasonably flexible criteria for refugee admission.While economic, political and social con- sigerations are no doubt important, the dominant ingredient in a policy of refugee admissions ought to be the humanitarian New Canadians approach.Canada has demonstrated this approach in the past, and our country is better for it.VISITORS CHANGE OF STATUS It is recognized that this is a complicated matter where a number or safeguards must be introduced to prevent deliberate and often unscrupulous promotion of circumventing the admission regulations.Hence.if is suggested that a special ad hoc committee, composed of government representatives and immigration experts be named to consider the matter and submit their recommendations to the Task Force to be incorporated into the Green Paper.\u2018GROWTH To establish objectives and plan Canada's future is a dynamic process of an ongoing nature.The vast changes in technological, political, and social circumstances which take place almost daily require a constantly evaluative process to meet the changing circumstances.Of necessity, the long term goals must consist of reasonable short term ones.Moreover, the issues involved reach much beyond the sphere of the Department of Man- Power and Immigration.The Canadian Immigration policy is just one of the growth - components.Growth is essential to Canada because without growth, stagnation is bound to set in.We believe that an active immigration policy is an essential part of Canadian growth.We would recommend that special consideration be accorded to the admission of specific groups such as refugees or victims of political or social upheavals whose situation necessitates special action.INTERNATIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES Emigration is not the answer to the immense problem of developing countries neither in alleviating over-population nor in achieving a more just society.The contention that Canada\u2019s selective FEBRUARY/MARCH policy drains off the trained and the profes- siomals, and thus harms the underdeveloped country, has never been substantiated to any degree of reliability.ADJUSTMENT INITIALSTAGE The extent of the Department's emergency aid has been stated to be as fol lows: The Department of Manpower and Immigration has assumed responsibility for emergency welfare, medical and dental expenses, when reguired for all indigent dependent immigrants from the time of their arrival until they have been placed in permanent employment.Once placed, any necessary welfare assistance is provided.by local authorities and the cost is assumed by the federal and provincial governments under the Canada Assistance Plan.The issue therefore relates to the question as to what minimal services does a newcomer require, following arrival, over and above the help now available at the Manpower Centres.We shall deal with this aspect in relation to a) Coordinated Bureau of Information Centres: and b) Relationship with professional social welfare agencies.It is suggested that primary consideration be given to the inauguration of a National Network of Central Community Information Services for Migrants and Immigrants.Area based, with neighbourhood branches, if indicated, the Information Centres should be autonomous in their operation, professionally staffed and directed, under the supervision of a Board of Directors, representing the community and the three levels of government authority.In our opinion a Central Information Service for Migrants and Immigrants is crucial.It will be of great help to existing services in the private and public sectors and will permit them to concentrate their efforts on migrant and immigrant adjustment, beyond the \u201cfirst aid\u201d stage.THE IMMIGRANT AND CANADIAN SOCIETY Much work has been done through the various government programs including recent efforts in the area of multiculturalism.Yet there are vast gaps, the fore- Immigrants arrive most of which is lack of coordination between the Federal Departments, Provincial governments and the voluntary sector.There is no lack of knowledge concerning the problems faced by immigrants.What is missing is an assertive, coordinated positive approach to meet these problems expeditiously and efficiently.CONCLUSION There are a number of other aspects of more specific legislative and judicial nature pertaining to the revision of the Immigration Act, which we have not discussed.However, as indicated in our preamble, at this time, in order to assist in the preparation of the Green Paper, we have confined ourselves to the issues posed by the Minister in his statement of September 17.1973.We are looking forward to an opportunity to offer our views on the other issues at a later time perhaps following the publication of the Green Paper or, when specifically requested either by the Task Force or the Minister.| 4 ! 4 - Thee gore A alae tie Food fence 10 jon wil sym tation uh Theo reget Fond à Food October \"3,0 being.food of Kah Koster pet, or à fon, 5 repré Iytooe Kosher UC gpd there À [, achie sion op hous part Sel Hy COS 1 as.À Mince go | Assn Othe ques CES dogs à ial ovr ¢ leat tye deal with Dordinateg Sand b) 0a wel | y consid- ation of 3 ommuy sand Im- bourhood formation hero and di- Bead | Ivy tauthor- imabon janis is 4 enstng | SCIONS fe her à adjust i oo | ing als oN er FEBRUARY/MARCH Religious Affairs ish Regulation Amourced CONGRESS BULLETIN/?The Department of Consumer and Corporate Affairs in Ottawa has announced that a new regulation has:been added to the Food and Drugs Act making it an offence to use the word Kosher in connection with any food: or to use words and symbols that imply a food is Kosher unless that food meets the requirements of Kash- ruth.The following is the full text of the new regulation which was issued under the Food and Drugs Act concerning \u201cKosher Foods\" as passed by P.C.1973-3326 on October 23, 1973.\u201cB.01.049.No person shall use, in labelling, packaging, advertising or selling a food that does not meet the requirements of Kashruth applicable to it, the word Kosher or any letters of the Hebrew alphabet, or any other word, expression, depiction, sign, symbol, mark, device or other representation thatindicates or that is likely to create an impression that the food is kosher\u201d.CJC, on a number of occasions, had urged the issuance of such regulations, as there had been evidence that some food products were represented faisely as being Kosher.The Department recognized the need to give the Jewish public assurance in the purchase of Kosher foods.CJC Expresses Appreciation Sol Kanee, CJC President, has forwarded a letter to the Hon.Herb Gray.Minister of Consumer & Corporate Affairs, expressing CJC's appreciation for the Department of Consumer & Corporate Affairs\u2019 decision to protect the appellation kosher under the Food and Drug Act.The letter continued: \u201cAs you are no doubt aware, Canadian Jewish Congress has been in touch with your Department for some time, requesting that the appellation kosher foods be protected by law.in that there are numerous cases of unscrupulous purveyors who describe their wares as kosher, where as in fact they are not.Such misrepresentation is serious, because members of the Jewish community are unwittingly actually paying higher prices for food whichis not kosher.\u201d Rabbi W.Gunther Plaut, Chairman, CJC National Religious Affairs Committee, will be in touch with Department officials in order to discuss implementation of the new regulation.CJC'S ROLE A meeting of the CJC Central Region Rabbinical Vaad Hakashruth, Orthodox Division, took place in Toronto, December 27.Saul Sigler, Acting Chairman, presided.Nachman Shemen, Executive Director, reported on the new kosher legislation and subsequent community reaction.Mr.She- men noted that a number of people had been instrumental in bringing about this legislation.In particular, a meeting with Government officials to explore the possibility of enacting such legislation had en place.Participants included Hy Bessin of Ottawa, Rabbi G.Felder, Chairman of the Rabbinical Vaad Hakashruth, Orthodox Division; Rabbi I.L.Hechtman of the Vaad Hair of Montreal; and a representative of the Winnipeg Vaad Hair.Mr.Shemen stressed the role of Congress noting that Saul Hayes, Q.C., CJC Executive Vice-President and Alan Rose, CJC Associate Executive Director, had met on several occasions with Government officials regarding kashruth in Canada.In addition, Rabbi Dr.W.Gunther Plaut, Chairman, CJC National Religious Affairs Committee, was active in preparing a definition of the word kosher for the Government.Legal Committee A special session of the Central Region Legal Committee took place in Toronto, February 1.The new regulation of the Consumer and Corporate Affairs Department dealing with consumer protection in res- \u2018pect to kosher food was discussed.The Committee was concerned with the legal aspect of interpreting and implementing the law.The Government had requested CJC to take the lead in organizing and coordinating a widely-based Jewish community delegation for a presentation concerning this matter.: Kashruth-CJC Central Region \u2018 The Canadian Jewish Congress considers the Kashruth Program as a vital achievement in the best tradition of Jewish communities throughout the world.The Canadian Jewish Congress has assumed the duty of ensuring the provision for the local Jewish community of kosher food and allied products, and helping to provide the necessary and appropriate rabbinical supervision over slaughter houses, meat markets and businesses where kosher products are sold so that that part of the public which demands kosher meat and kosher food should not be deceived and frustrated, and should be able to obtain these products with the greatest assurance of kashruth.THE KASHRUTH COMMITTEE OF THE CANADIAN JEWISH CONGRESS Participates in the Congress - Sponsored jétutisicart® Certifies that the WTR DTHHIND 2 D'OTFT Establishment ORT DEST DST ND GDOUR Displaying this Sign \"0 WT BUN FORKS 0X3 Kashruth Program.and CERI TRON is Under the Strict OBJET) OF TB HOOK GT Supetvision of Orthodox Rabbis.DY NX WIR TI OOK Authorities on Matters ol TFOTTNTOHS \"5BY20B Kashruth.DIM \u2014\u2014\u2014 ORY TT\" RIP OM DJDONP NII ve em TD IUT VISU POX TR TIE 0353 IB\" DFUROW OY mere era pare ame ae 8/CONGRESS BULLETIN ISIDOR WOLFE CHAIRMAN, CJC PACIFIC REGION ~DAVID SATOK CHAIRMAN, CJC CENTRAL REGION MULTICULTURALISM Contacts in the interests of multicultural concerns are actively maintained with a number of organizations and governmental agencies.A public Conference on \u201cThe Learning of Languages in Our Multicultural Society\u201d was convened on February 15 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Vancouver.The Conference was sponsored by the Centre for Continuing Education of the University of British Columbia.Participants included Dr.Joseph Katz, Conference Chairman; and the Reverend Dr.Richard Jones, National President of the Council of Christians and Jews, the featured speaker.The Vancouver Committee for a Multicultural Centre is in the midst During recent meetings of the CJC Central Region Officers\u201d Committee and Executive Committee, a number of issues were discussed.A summary of these issues follows.EDUCATION AND CULTURE Activity has included preparation of evaluation for the Ottawa Talmud Torah and the Ottawa Modern Jewish School following their requests for same; numerous activities held during Jewish Book Month: the T'Nach Study Group program of five excellent lectures since September, 1973: and Audio Visual Aids Committee meetings on nine different occasions in order to evaluate the purposes of the Committee, the use and availability of audio visual aids, the feasibility of creating an Audio Visual.Aids Centre, and the necessity of a budget primarily for securing a qualified professional to coordinate the project-the latter point resulting in a discussion which led to -the suggestion that such a venture be co-sponsored by CJC and an organization such as the Jewish Public Library.BUDGETING CONFERENCE Arrangements for a National Budgeting Conference are taking place.Participants will include such organizations as CJC, United Jewish welfare Fund of Toronto, Allied Jewish Community Services in Montreal and several commu- of preparing plans for the establishment of a centre in the False Creek area.À broad concept of the prospective function of such a Centre has been outlined and activities proceeding towards the development of this multi-million dollar complex are taking place.Members of the Executive Committee of the multicultural group include Dr.Joseph Katz, CJC Pacific Region Vice Chairman and Morris Saltzman, CJC Pacific Region Executive Director.: SOVIET JEWRY Funds to reorganize the Soviet Jewry Committee have just become available and the commttee will be increasing its activity.Sydney M.Harris, Q.C., Chairman of the National Committee on Soviet Jewry, was in Vancouver to confer with CJC Officers and the Pacific Region's Soviet Jewry Committee on programs for Soviet Jewry.He was accompanied by a prominent expert from New York.nity councils throughout Canada.A meeting of lay people is scheduled for January or February.YOUTH A final report concerning coun- ter-missionary activity has been presented, noting that missionary group activity in the Toronto area had not achieved much respense or success.In relation to general youth problems, it was reported a meeting of professionals was being arranged, to be followed by a joint meeting of CJC and United Welfare Fund officers in order to analyse community youth efforts.CHAPLAINCY Administrative arrangements have been completed in order to implement recommendations of the Chaplaincy report as approved by CJC Central Region Executive Committee.MYER SHARZER MEMORIAL AWARD A substantial amount of money has been received since the Myer Sharzer Memorial Award.The first annual award to a deserving student at the School of Journalism at the Ryerson Polytechnical Institute of Toronto was received by Christie Blatchford.KASHRUTH- Discussed were the new Federal regulations on Kashruth protection and the need for establishing criteria.Once established, the criteria will be submitted to the Honorable Herb Gray, Minister of Consumer \u201c Several meetings were held to promote activities on behalf of Soviet Jewry.; IMMIGRATION Congress's traditional role in assisting its sister organization, the Jewish Immigrant Aid Services, has been expanded in conjunction with the Jewish Family Service Agency.Current case loads are mostly from South America and Russia, CJC Also aids the Jewish Immigrant Aid Services in attempting to locate missing persons.: The Canadian Jewish Congress, jointly with several other organizations, sponsored a gathering of new residents in Vancouver which was attended by over three hundred persons.It is anticipated smaller gatherings will be held at quarterly intervals.WARSAW GHETTO MEMORIAL The Warsaw Ghetto Committee & Corporate Affairs, and officials of this Department.The submission is to be presented by a single deputation comprised of delegates from Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, Winnipeg and Vancouver.in addition the deputation will include representatives from both the Orthodox Division of the CJC Central Region Rabbinical Vaad Hakashruth and Vaad Ha\u2018ir of Montreal: Rabbi W.Gunther Plaut, Chairman, CJC National Religious Affairs Committee, Saul Hayes, Q.C., CJC Executive Vice President and Alan Rose, CJC Associate Executive Director.It was felt action regarding complaints or prosecutions should not be taken until regulations are clarified.During a meeting held in the CJC Central Region Office on January 8, attended by leaders of the women's branches of the Conservative and Orthodox movements together with a representative from one Reform temple, a recommendation was made that a Consumer\u2019s Panel be established to investigate and report on kosher food prices with particular emphasis on meat, poultry and baked goods.The recommendation, having been approved by the Officers, it was decided a chairman would be appointed shortly.A meeting of the Consumer\u2019s Panel would then take place.ARCHIVAL MATTER It was moved that CJC Central Region Executive Committee view with favour the retention of the Kiever Synagogue on Denison Square, one of the last remaining FEBRUARY/MARCH is actively planning the Memorial Evening for Aprit 21.As a forerunner to the Vancouver Warsaw Ghetto Memorial Evening on April 21, two films on the Holocaust were screened at the Jewish Community Centre and at the University of B.C.Hillel House.The films were from the National Audio-Visuals Committee and were entitled From the Ashes.an interview with Eli Wiesel and /t Has to be Told, a discussion with three other holocaust survivors who came to Canada under the Congress War Orphans Committee and who now reside in Winnipeg.It was noted that the audiences were predominately young people.The films were both well received.JUDAICSTUDIES A search is still underway for an - Academic to correlate the establishment of the Judaic Studies Program at the University of British Columbia.examples of synagogue architecture dating back to the immigrant period of Toronto's Jewish history, and that a sub-committee be appointed to discuss the matter with the Synagogue\u2019s executive.YIDDISH comprehensive report was.pweented describing the activities and programs of the Yiddish Committee as well as the growing interest in Yiddish as indicated by the increasing number of courses teaching the language.CANADA-ISRAEL COMMITTEE Meetings of the National Ca- nada-Israel Committee have been held on a regular basis.In addition, ¢¢tEMS discussed included energy crisis and resulting public opinion; media activity during and following the war: CIC commu- gnication with the Jewish commu %is; Canada\u2019s position vis-a-vis |s- rael following the war: and the reaction of labour and academicians to the Middle East situation.SOVIET JEWRY An updated report concerning \"Soviet Jewry indicated new trials were béing held with defendants being charged with criminal rather than political offences in an attempt to intimidate those wishing to apply for exit visas.The charge ae toliganism\u2018\u2019, usually resulting in a sentence of a fine or approximately fifteen days in jail, had resulted in a sentence of three and a half years in prison in one recent case.Ce No \u2014_\u2014 / = orig Go | Big.00 the at the and at louse, tong) 8 and és, an and ft À with vivons t the Mites pes.Ware 2 The | for an stat Pro itish was ities Com ie: y die ursés OM: 1 À wen fon.del publié ga me pa jsls ho ca\" FEBRUARY/MARCH CONGRESS BULLETIN/S in action MURRAY B.SPIEGEL, Q.C.CHAIRMAN, CJC EASTERN REGION OSCAR ANTEL CHAIRMAN, CJC WESTERN REGION castern?region western region PUBLIC MEETINGS The Community Services Committee, CJC Eastern Region, under the chairmanship of Mrs.Joey Richman, is planning a number of issue-oriented meetings to acquaint the community with the impact of new legislative enactments on communal institutions in Montreal.The first in the series of such meetings was devoted to the impact of Bill 65 on Jewish Health and Social Services institutions in Montreal.A community informational meeting on Quebec's Health & Social Services, Bill 65 (Chapter 48) was held in Montreal, February 20.Bill 65 is the Government measure reorganizing Quebec's Health & Social Services.The topics and participants included: The Law: An Analysis, Dr.Alex E.Schwartzman, Member of Council of Health and Social Services of Metropolitan Montreal: The Law; its Effect on Health Services, Bernard J.Fines- tone, Honorary Secretary, Jewish General Hospital and Member of Jewish General Hospital Centre Board for Bill 65; and The Law: Its Effect on Social Welfare Services, Oscar Respitz, Immediate Past President, Jewish Family Services.Mrs.Joey Richman will chair the meeting which is co-sponsored by Canadian Jewish Congress and Allied Jewish Community Services.A question and answer period followed the presentations.The Committee has also had a number of meetings with Sisterhoods and Brotherhoods on the work of the Canadian Jewish Congress and community involvement therein.This Meet the Congress Program is continuing.OTTAWA The Community Services Committee, CJC Eastern Region, in as- AWARD The Jewish community of Winnipeg has received an award as a result of the achievements of the Jewish Historical Society of Western Canada.The William J.Shro- der Award for 1973 was presented to Winnipeg by the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds in recognition of \u201cthe special significance of the establishment of the Jewish Museum of Western Canada and its first exhibit, Journey Into Qur Heritage.The award was presented to a representative of the Winnipeg delegation at the Forty-Second General Assembly of the Council of Jewish Federation and Welfare Funds in New sociation with the Jewish Community Council of Ottawa, arranged a Congress Institute in Ottawa held at the Jewish Community Centre.The program included An Overview of Congress \u2014 the structure, organization, constituency and general responsibilities of Congress, which was presented by Mrs.Joey Richman; a presentation On The Present Situation In Israel by Alan Rose.CJC National Associate Executive Director; and a presentation on The Canadian Jewish Family in the Seventies \u2014 an ex-amination of Jewish loyalties, Jewish survival, youth and the apathy of Jewish communities, by Rabbi Joseph Deitcher of Mon- _treal.The summation was provided by Dr.Sameul Lewin, Executive Director, CJC Eastern Region.A question and answer period followed each presentation and a number of suggestions were made by those present.The chairman of the Institute was Norman Za- german, President, Jewish Community Council of Ottawa.Jewish Education During recent meetings of the CJC Eastern Region Officers\u2019 Committee and Executive Committee, the question of Congress\u2019 involvement in Montreal's Joint Jewish Education Committee was discussed.The principal item was a request by the Allied Jewish Community Services in Montreal for changes in the structure of the Joint Education Committee.The Committee is comprised of an equal number of representatives of each of its three sponsoring organizations {CJC, AJCS and Canadian Zionist Federation ; its Chairman is appointed by CJC; the Committee operates out of CJC offices; and its staff works under the supervision of the CJC Eastern Region Executive Director.There is also the understanding that Committee decisions must be unanimous and decisions are not to be Orleans on Saturday evening, November 10.The William J.Shroder Award is presented annually in recognition of meritorious achievement by voluntary organizations under Jewish auspices in the United States and Canada.The award is made in three categories: (a) large cities, (b) intermediate cities and (c) small cities.The Winnipeg Jewish community and the Jewish Historical Society of Western Canada received one of the three awards made this year.Winnipeg is in the intermediate cities category.Journey Into Our Heritage was presented for six months in co- sponsorship with the Manitoba Museum of Man and Nature.It was funded primarily by a Federal Government multicultural grant to the Jewish Historical Society of Western Canada, which also benefitted from a Manitoba Government Cultural Affairs grant.implemented should disagreement occur as between CJC and AJCS.AJCS advised Congress it would continue on the Joint Committee only if the Committee would be given the opportunity of selecting its own Chairman (or if a chairman is to be named by Congress, that the appointment should have the previous ratification of AJCS and Canadian Zionist Federation) and if the Committee was requested to develop a plan for an independent committee for Jewish Education to be presented to CJC, AJCS and CZF within a year.Passed unanimously was the decision to reaffirm the present structure of the Joint Education Committee while indicating to AJCS that there would be no objection to having the Chairman appointed by CJC in consultation with AJCS and CZF.SOVIET JEWRY .A meeting of the Montreal Committee for Soviet Jewry took place in Montreal.January 24.Moe Seidman presided, substituting for Lee Gertsman, Chairman of the Committee.; A major program arising from the meeting was the Week of Concern for Soviet Jewish Prisoners of Conscience.Scheduled for the last week in March, it will take advantage of the Freedom Festival of Passover during the first week of April.The foilowing include some of the activities scheduled: (a) Boris Penson Art Exhibit featuring the paintings of a Soviet Jewish Prisoner of Conscience; (b) a medical petition on the treatment of the prisoners, with special focus on Sylva Zalmanson; (c) a dramatic representation of the treatment of the prisoners, via a demonstration in front of the Soviet Consulate, drawing attention to the starvation diet offered in the prison camps; and (d) a community meeting when a noted expert on Soviet Jewish Affairs will evaluate the The submission was made by the CJC Western Region and the Winnipeg Jewish Community Council, proposing the Jewish Historical Society of Western Canada and the Journey Into Our Heritage museum exhibit for the honour.PRESIDENTS COUNCIL JEWISH ORGANIZATIONS A seminar under the auspices of the Presidents Council of Jewish Organizations was held in Winnipeg.January 31.Topics discussed were Israel's past and present, Russia and the Middle East situation, oil embargo myths concerning Israel, and the Jewish community\u2018s approach to the non- Jewish community.Participants included Guy Kroft, CJC Regional Vice-Chairman: Gabe Broder, Chairman, CJC Western Region Yiddish Committee; lzzy Asper.Provincial Leader of the Liberal Party: Sydney current position of Soviet Jews in the USSR.JCRC A meeting of the Joint Community Relations Committee of CJC and B'nai B'rith, Eastern Region, was held in Montreal on January 21.Sidney Shulemson presided, substituting for Joel Pinsky, Chairman of the Committee.A unanimous decision was taken urging: that the Canada-Israel Committee constitute a regional committee to deal with public relations issues affecting Israel in the Region; and that a working group be established between CJC and the CIC to be in charge of public relations programming in the Region until such time as the committee is fully operative.Other matters on the agenda included the appearance in Montreal of Father Daniel Berrigan and press reactions to his statements on Israel; proposed submission on the Human Rights Code in Quebec; and a long range JCRC program in several areas.FOREIGH AFFAIRS A meeting of the CJC Eastern Region Foreign Affairs Committee as held in Montreal, January 22.Lou Zablow, Chairman, presided.A unanimous decision was taken to associate the Foreign Affairs Committee with the decision made by the Joint Community Relations Committee of CJC and B.nai B'rith urging: that Canada-Israel Committee constitute a regional committee; and, until the regional committee becomes fully operative, that a working relationship be established immediately between CJC and Canadian Zionist Federation on matters affecting Israel on a iocal level.Alan Rose, CJC National Associate Executive Director, reported in detail on the recent meetings of the World Jewish Congress held in Geneva and on the present situation of Jews in the Soviet Union andin Arab Lands.Spivak, Provincial Conservative Leader: Harold Buchwald, Q.C., Chairman, Winnipeg CIC: and Mico Kaftal, Executive Director, Canadian Zionist Federation, Midwest Region.Freeda Fineman, CJC Western Region Honorary Secretary, and Co-Chairman of the Presidents Council of Jewish Organizations, was coordinator.One hundred eighty persons attended.JCRC MEETING A meeting of the Joint Community Relations Committee of CJC Western Region and B'nai B'rith Winnipeg met in Winnipeg, January 30.J.J.Wilder, Chairman, presided.The past year\u2019s activities and events were reviewed.Discussed were future directions; supplemented by the Committee's reconstituted membership in preparation for an expansion of activities. 10/CONGRESS BULLETIN CODES OO AO a rE oa aa Lt) FEBRUARY/MARCH Yiddish Strengthening Vid by DR.ARTHUR LERMER CHAIRMAN, NATIONAL COMMITTEE ON YIDDISH The National Committee on Yiddish of Congress originated at the Canadian Conference on Yiddish Culture held in Montreal during May, 1969.During almost five years, CJC's.Western, Central and Eastern regions have developed intensive activities designed to strengthen Yiddish culture.Fortunately, this organized effort has coincided with a remarkable growth of interest in this rich heritage, so often described as Yiddishkeit, in many North American universities and other educational institutions.] It behoves Canada to be in the forefront, for it was in this country that pioneers laid the foundation for our Jewish school system, particularly in the Folks & Peretz sector.It was they who understood the importance of preserving Yiddish side by side with Hebrew.The impressive rise of appreciation for Yiddish in the various Departments of Jewish Studies across the country can be traced to the contributions of our Day Schools.NATIONAL COMMITTEE The CJC National Committee on Yiddish has became the recognized center in Canada for Yiddish activity.The Committee attracts dedicated supporters throughout Canada, thus providing an effective vehicle for the promotion of Yiddish.In addition, recent trends towards cultural pluralism in Canada point to a growing appreciation of ethnic diversity within the Canadian Mosaic, a considerable source of strength and inspiration for the Committee.ACTIVITIES Here are some highlights undertaken during the relatively short life span of the Committee\u2019 1) All organizations active in Yiddish culture have been grouped under one roof.2) Schools have been assisted through provision of Yiddish teachers, manuals, and other auxiliary materials.3) The Committee provides a great deal of effective assistance to Yiddish weeklies, especially The Kanader Adler which has encountered considerable difficulties.4) Tours of youth groups have been organized to visit summer camps, fostering as much Yiddish as possible within camp programmes._ B) The Committee has encouraged the development of Yiddish theatre in Montreal, Toronto and Winnipeg.6) A volume of Yiddish Canadiana is presently in the making and should be published at the end of the current year.7) Yiddish in the synagogues is being encouraged with the warm support of many rabbis.8) Success with English speaking groups should be noted, particularly in Toronto where a sizable group of professionals and others enjoy exposure to Yiddish and have been instrumental in introducing Yiddish as a credit course into the curriculum of the University of Toronto.9) The annual Yiddish festivals in Toronto and public functions in Montreal.usually organized in conjunction with the Annual Plenary Seminar of the National Committee, carry the message of Yiddish culture far beyond the confines of the Yid- dish-speaking sector: 10} Quite a number of Yiddish courses {Hillel, YMHA, etc.) have been organized or assisted.11) The very successful Yiddish Committee in Israel, under the American chairmanship of the immediate past president Zalman Shazar, in close contact with us.We in turn offer them help such as promoting the Yiddish Book Club established in Israel.12) Unfortunately all Jewish schools do notincluded Yiddish in their curriculum.We have and are determined to continue our efforts to persuade school leadership that Yiddish must be a part of every school curriculum.YIDDISH: A POWERFUL FORCE While the results do not satisfy us fully, some achievements are particularly encouraging.The Committee's short and long term plans extend beyond this brief account.Some tangible accomplishments are primarily due to our success in attracting many outstanding creative personalities to our Committee, especially writers, educators, and community leaders.We hope to have, at least to some extent, raised their morale and reinforced their faith in the enormous contributions which they render to the struggle for Jewish identification in our trying time.While we do not harbor any illusions about reviving Yiddish as a vernacular, the role of Yiddish as a basic component of the plural Jewish culture can hardly be exaggerated.Yiddish literature is still thriving.It is a powerful force against assimilation and thus should commend the maximum support of the entire Jewish Community.Our primary target is to increase the awareness of the significance of Yiddish culture in the ongoing quest for the strengthening of the Jewish Peoplehood in the Diaspora and Israel.~ Plenary.Session.Education.Publication.Newspaper.Committees.Drama The Annual Plenary Session of the National Committee on Yiddish took place in Montreal, January 12-13.The Session took place at the Jewish Public Library.Saturday evening, January 12, a lecture entitled Yiddish in the Diaspora and Israel, which provided a socio-linguistic analysis, was presented by Dr.Joshua Fishman.The quality of the lecture elicited unqguali- fied enthusiasm from the 150 persons present, many of whom participated in the question and answer period following the presentation.Dr.Fishman is presently involved in a Ford Foundation study concerning cultures and languages presently threatened, an effort which has found him in such countries as Pakistan, India.and Mexico.January 13, the Plenary Session turned its attention to reports and issues.Prof.Arthur Lermer, NCY Chairman, and Shims- hon Dunsky.NCY Co-Chairman, presided during the morning and afternoon sessions respectively.Present were fifty people from Toronto, Winnipeg and Montreal.Regional reports were presented by W.Litman, Winnipeg; Anne Glass, Toronto; and Sara Rosenfeld, Montreal.Reports including recommendations for future activity were: Yiddish in the Synagogues: Rabbi Allan Langner; Jewish Press, Dr.Joseph Kage; Yiddish In Elementary and High Schools, Shimshon Dunsky; Materials for Teaching Yiddish in Schools, Ja- Jacob Zipper, Youth, Judy Dumont; Rela- .tions with the Yiddish Committee in Israel, Sara Rosenfeld and publication of the Yiddish Anthology Canadiana\u201d.Supplemental reports were presented by Messrs.Katz of TORONTO AND Victor of Winnipeg.Numerous persons participated in the discussion following each report.A meeting of the Officers of the National Committee on Yiddish and a number of Rabbis tegk placeiin' Moptreak January 21.Professor Arthur Lermer, Chairman, presided.Rabbis present included Harry Kaufman, Michael Kramer, Allan Langner and Isaac Teicher.Discussed was the implementation of Yiddish cultural programs in synagogues.The Rabbis present responded warmly to the need for such programatic implementation, indicating that Yiddish was in fact a part of the activity of such synagogues as Beth El, Shaare Zedek, Shomrim Laboker- Beth Yehudah-Shaare Tefillah and Chevra Kadisha-B'nai-Jacob.Following a suggestion by the National Committee on Yiddish that an organized plan for the implementation of Yiddish in synagogues by developed, it was decided that a delegation of the Committee bring the plan to a meeting of the Board of Jewish Ministers of Greater Montreal.In addition.a survey will be conducted among synagogues determining the use of Yiddish.Sisterhoods will be approached with the request that they initiate Yiddish courses for adults, and the principals of synagogue schools will be asked to implement Yiddish in their curriculum.Called by the National Committee on Yiddish.a meeting was held.in Montreal on January 27 at the home of Melech Ravitch.Present were a number of Yiddish writers, members of the Committee and Shmuel Rozanski, Editor of the Muster Verkin in Buenos Aires.Discussed was the publication of Mr.Rozanski's projected anthology, Cana- diana.Mr.Rozanski has published close to sixty literary works in Yiddish.e \u2019 , A delegation on behalf of the Kanader Adler met recently with a sub-committee of the Allied Jewish Community Services appointed to investigate the Yiddish newspaper's request for financial assistance.*rhose present included Charles Bronfman, Irving Halperin, Joe Ain, Arthur Roskies, and Manny Batshaw (representing AJCS ; and Chaim Spilberg.Prof.Arther Lermer, Jacob Zipper.Issie Guberman, Leon Tei- telbaun and Moshe Sheskin (representing the Kanader Adler).The delegation discussed the importance of the Kanader Adler for Montreal's Yiddish-speaking population and the paper's financial difficulties during recent years.The AJCS Sub-Committee promised they would give serious consideration to the matter.Recently, approximately one hundred people attended a meeting of the Yiddish Cultural Committee at the Peretz School in Winnipeg.* Guest speakers at the meeting were Sol Kanee, CJC National President and Oscar Antel, Chairman, CJC Western Region, both of whom reported on the World Jewish Congress meeting in Jerusalem which they Had attended.Welcoming remarks were heard from George Skulsky, President of the Yiddish Cultural Committee.Greetings were extended by Gerald \u201c Lasensky, Executive Director of the Winnipeg Jewish Community Council and Berel Mayman, representing the Jewish Public Library.\u2019 The occasion presented an opportunity for the launching of the Yiddish Cultural Committee of the Winnipeg Jewish Community Council which has come into being as a result of the re-structuring of the Winnipeg Congress Council.The Committee will be responsible fof Yiddish cultural activities in Winnipeg while maintaining close relations with the CJC Western Region Standing Committee on Yiddish.A musical program consisting of Yiddish and Hebrew songs was presented by popular soprano Marcia Corrin with accordian accompaniment by Rochel Fink.» Toronto has reported the following.The Toronto Committee for Yiddish received a $3,000 grant from the federal multicultural fund for its drama group.Plans are under way for an evening of Yiddish drama at the St.Lawrence Centre, late in April.A Yiddish literature study group has been meeting under the auspices of the Yiddish Committee.Mr.J.Kligman has been leading the discussion on Itzik Manger and Leivik.A Yiddish course has been introduced into the Community Hebrew Academy of Toronto.The enrolment is 100.Courses in Yiddish at the University of Toronto will come under the direct responsibility of the Oniversity next year, jointly administered by the Linguistic Centre and the Anthropology Department.This will relieve the Jewish community of all financial obligation.Among those who attended the National Conference on Yiddish, sponsored by the CJC National Committee on Yiddish in Montreal on January 12, were Messrs.D.L.Victor.Vice Chairman CJC Western Region and W.Litwin, Executive Director, Winnipeg Peretz School.In an interview on Winnipeg's The Jewish Hour, a weekly television program set aside for various ethnic groups and conducted in each group's own language, Mr.Litwin described the Conference as being most beneficial.Mr.Litwin noted there has been increased interest in the Yiddish language.as indicated by the present enrolment of some thirty adults in a Yiddish class in Winnipeg.Mr.Litwin then described the various Yiddish cultural programs sponsored by the Yiddish Cultural Committee of the Winnipeg Jewish Commu- \u2019 nity Council, stating there is close collaboration between the Cultural Committee and the CJC Yiddish Committee.= = Y= \\ munify Fader ucat Frrent meshing fa thes nm ih ed Is.Tt Û This Rel, en 19, era Heil bon and Sc hey bese hag [LuAN es op ne ater rain Mealy Honing Toa t @ Beni Faces ite Vala dang th Yili 4.01, ig they lÉ Dig | \u2014 \u2018 Us ly aly ng term oun ents are acting altes to 5, educa- hope to 560 thei hm the By render ication in sions ul, the antofthe be erag: ng.lisa tion and Tm Sug it.ease the À Yiddish for the oplhood I Wing: dish 1& yo fede ma group.gal fit pe Centre.group hs gs of gran 18 on fo odie! cadeny d pipi d et rot ei ply (ae i This wl ofa FEBRUARY/MARCH CONGRESS BULLETIN/11 Jewish Education Regional Reports EASTERN The Joint Committee on Education (CJC, Eastern Region; Allied Jewish Community Services; and Canadian Zionist Federation) has projected a number of educational programs in Montreal.Recently the Committee held a number of meetings when budgetary requirements for these programs were formulated.A summary of the programs and other Jewish educational acfivity in Montreal follows.TEACHER-TRAINING UNIVERSITY LEVEL This program, which commenced recently, will be expanded in the school term 1974-75 and established on a fully operative basis.The program forms part of McGill University Department of Education and is closely related to the Jewish Studi2s Program of McGill University.It is a three-year program, one year of which is to be spent by students in Israel.In addition to this teacher-training program, CJC operates two Teachers\u2019 Institutes on a national level, one in Toronto and one in Montreal.The United Jewish Teachers Seminary in Montreal has two departments, its all-day department presently having eight students and its evening department fourteen students.In Toronto, the Midrash L'Morim operates on an evening basis.(The United Jewish Teachers Seminary in Montreal has been in existence for almost thirty years and has graduated over two hundred fifty teachers.During the last ten years, eighty teachers graduated and now teach in Montreal (48), Ottawa (3).Israel and the U.5.A.(9).Nine other teachers taught for a number of years during this period.) Also the Jewish Studies Program at various Montrea! universities has been functioning for a number of years with the assistance of the Allied Jewish Community Services.EDUCATIONAL RESOURCE CENTRE An Educational Resource Centre is now in the process of being established in Montreal as a central pedagogical library containing teaching aids, audio-visual materials, etc.; and as a centre for experimentation and service for the pedagogical development and progress of educational institutions.The Centre, directed by the Joint Education Committee, will be attached to the Jewish Public Library and housed in Cummings House where AJCS has provided space for this purpose.IN-SERVICE TRAINING In conjunction with the Resdurce Centre there will be a number of programs for continuing teacher education.In addition, arrangements are being made for teachers to attend pertinent credit courses at universities.This program was instituted last summer and the Committee has encouraged teacher participation by absorbing half their tuition, , \"7 4, AFTERNOON SCHOOLS A major concern of the Committee is the alarming number of children not receiving any Jewish education and the decline in number among those enrolled in Afternoon Schools.A program has been devised aimed at the retention of students in Afternoon Schools and the mobilization of the Jewish community for the concept of universal Jewish education.PROTESTANT SCHOOLS A few years ago CJC projected \u20ac fum- ber of courses of Jewish content in Protestant High Schools with a predominant Jewish student population.This program , is being reevaluated by the Joint Education Committee.The Comittee is also interested in the preparation of textual materials for the teaching of Hebrew {which has been recognized as a language option by the Department of Education of Quebec) and Jewish Heritage.Ben Beutel, President, Association for Jewish Day Schools.Chairing Meeting.CENTRAL ONTARIO COMMUNITIES Dr.Yehuda Lipsitz, CJC Central Region Director of Education.has circulated a tentative schedule of dates and times projecting his visits to various Jewish schools in Ontario communities.The purpose of the visits is to observe classes while in session, to gain an insight on what is happening in the classes, and to learn and discuss new methods and techniques that might lead to an improvement in Jewish education.Activities for each visit include meeting with rabbis and staff, class observation, an evaluation session with educators and meeting with Boards of Education and parents.The schedule of visits follows \u2014 JANUARY: Cambridge (Jan.10), Niagara Falls (Jan.15).Peterborough (Jan.17).Oshawa (Jan.22), Kingston (Jan.24).Bellevue (Jan.31), FEBRUARY: Kitchener (Feb.3), Brantford (Feb.7).London (Feb.10-11), Ottawa (Feb.17), Guelph (Feb.26).Oakville (Feb.28): MARCH: Windsor (Mar.4-5), St.Catharines (Mar.12).Sar- nia (Mar.14), North Bay.Sudbury (Mar 18-19); APRIL: Hamilton (Apr.21-22).Beamsville (Apr.28).OTTAWA TALMUD TORAH A report of a study of the Ottawa Talmud Torah Community Afternoon School has been submitted on behalf of the CJC Department of Education and Culture by Dr.Yehuda Lipsitz, Director of Education.Jewish Day School Status For a number of months Ben Beutel, President of the Association for Jewish Day Schools, has been negotiating with the Department of Education of Quebec on behalf of Montreal Jewish Day Schools with regard to associate status and recog- ° - nition of public interest under the Private Education Act {Bill 56).Culminating these efforts, a meeting arranged by Mr.Beutel was held February 4 at CJC headquarters in Montreal, between representatives of Jewish Day Schools and senior officials of the Department of Education of Quebec.Mr.Beutel presided at this meeting.In attendance were Therese Baron, Associate Deputy Minister of Education, the senior official concerned with Private Schools; Father Gaston Bibeau, Director of the Private Sector Section of the Department of Education; An- tonin Moreau, Deputy Director of the De- Department of Education, and Mauril Boivin, Secretary to the Minister of Education.The decision reached by the Minister of Education is as follows.a) The associate status of Jewish Day Schools will be extended on a phasing- out basis, thereby providing a transition period during which Jewish Day Schools will be able to adjust to new conditions.The phasing-out will start with Grade 1 on the elementary and secondary levels, one grade per year.Thus there will be a 5-year transition period in the elementary grades and four years in the secondary grades.Recognition of public interest under the Private Education Act (Bill 56} is predicated on the linguistic requirements of the Department with regard to French as a language of instruction in the elementary grades.The Minister of Education accepted the proposal of the Association as to the number of hours of French as a language of instruction (8 hours per week).This will enable schools to obtain recognition for public interest for the phased-out grades.The program will be evaluated at the end of the school term.There are no linguistic requirements attached to the secondary schools.The representatives of the Jewish Day Schools accepted the decision of the Minister.The Deputy Minister of Education said that immediate steps would be taken to carry out the décision.*> HE b = Following an \u2018extensive discussion of several areas of concern, the report provides comments and recommendations concerning teacher in-service education.curriculum, instructional effectiveness, enrolment practices, administration and supervision, and physical site and facilities.MINI-CONVENTION Recently a weekend mini-convention took place under the auspices of the National Council of Synagogue Youth in cooperation with the Department of Education and Culture, CJC Central Region.Fifteen teenagers and advisors from Toronto joined a similar number of persons in Oshawa.It is hoped that this initial program geared to teenagers in Ontario towns will be the first of many such efforts.Communities interested in following Oshawa\u2019s example are invited to contact: The National Council of Synagogue Youth, 365 Wilson Avenue, Suite #2.Downsview, M3K 1E3; or Dr.Yehuda Lipsitz, Canadian Jewish Congress, 150 Beverley Street, Toronto M5T 1Y6.T'NACH STUDY GROUP The T'Nach Study Group under the auspices of CJC Centrai Region began its study session in October-December of 1973, meeting the first and third Mondays of each month.Continuing its study of the \u201cBook of Joshua,\u201d the 1974 dates, lecturers and topics follow: \u2014 January 7.Baruch Rand (Chapter 6); January 21, David Newman (Chapter 7) February 4, Dr.Aaron Nuss- baum {Chapter 8); February 18, lecturer to be announced (Public Lecture); March 4, Dr L.Jacober (Chapter 9); March 18, Dr.Alexander Brown {Chapter 10); April 1, Dr Joseph Klinghofer (Chapter 11): April 15, Asher Wilcher (Public Lecture): May 6, Dr.S.Burak (Chapter 12}: May 20, Max Goody (Chapter 14).WESTERN CJC Western Region has reported the fellowing activity in Jewish education.TEACHER-TRAINING BURSARIES Teacher-training students presently studying in Israel, Winnipeg and California with CJC Western Region scholarship assistance include Miss Rishe Joffe, Teachers\u2019 College, Beersheba; Rosalind Marmel, .University of Judaism, Hollywood, California; and Judith Landman, University of Winnipeg.Upon completion of their studies, each of these students has undertaken to teach at an approved Jewish school in, Western Canada.Shawn Zell.a recipient of CJC teacher- training bursaries who completed his studies last year, is now on the staff of the Peretz Schoolin Winnipeg.JEWISH SCHOOLS The Standards Committee of the Board of Jewish Education has been meeting for the past few weeks, dealing with such aspects of the schools\u2019 operations as (a) the preparation of a uniform schedule of Jewish Holy Days to be observed by all schools vis-a-vis school closing and opening: (b) the proposed revision of the Code of Practice which governs the behaviour and duties of teachers and administration in the Jewish School System; and (c) the planning of Yom Ha\u2019 Atzmaut celebrations.ADULT EDUCATION Dr.Trude Weiss-Rosmarin, Editor of The Jewish Spectator in New York, will be speaking in Winnipeg on March 3.This lecture is a part of the Town Hall series of programs sponsored by Winnipeg's major synagogues and organizations.* CJC Western Region has arranged for Dr.Weiss-Rosmarin to include Calgary and Saskatoon in her lecture tour.in addi- tien, she will-be leaturing to a group-of +HH- el students at the University of Manitoba. i ÿ id 4 4 12/CONGRESS BULLETIN Jewish Music FEBRUARY/MARCH Its Origin Its History Reprint from Encyclopedia Judaica The most workable definition of Jewish music would seem to be the functional one proposed by Curt Sachs: \u201cJewish music is that music which is made by Jews, for Jews, as Jews\u201d {in his opening lecture, to the First International Congress of Jewish Music, in Paris 1957).This defines the scope of inquiry without prejudicing its results, leaving it free to undertake the tasks of description, analysis, and whatever conclusions may be drawn.As in all other national and ethnic cultures, the musical dimension of Jewish culture is both determined by its origins and modified by its history in proportions peculiarly its own.By dint of its origins, it kept to the same principles which obtain, in much the same way, in all the other descendants of the ancient Near Eastern \u201cHigh Cultures.\u201d The music itself is created, performed, and preserved by oral tradition.Its practice is supported, and to a great extent directed, by a general body of religious and ethical doctrine and by forms of verbal art (poetry and prose), which are themselves supported and directed by this doctrine; and both of which are preserved by a written tradition.The historical factor is that of the Dias- \u2018pora.Through their dispersion, the Jews came into contact with a multiplicity of regional musical styles, practices, and ideas, some of which were more closely related to their own patrimony (as in the Near East and around the Mediterranean) and others Pottery rattles.Left to right: Beth Shemesh, first half of first millennium B.C.E.; Gezer, first quarter of second millennium B.C.E; Gezer, last quarter of second millennium B.C.E.Bronze bell, from Megiddo, 10th-9th century B.C.E.intrinsically different (as in Europe north of the Alps and the Pyrenees).All these factors shaped the character of the mainstream of Jewish music.They have also determined the nature and location of the sources which the musicologist must explore in order to obtain his facts.The problem can be most easily understood by a comparison with the source situation of European historical musicology.There the sources of information can be ranked as follows: compositions by individuals, created and preserved by musical notation; theoretical treatises.historical documents: instrumental relics; evidence from the visual arts (iconography); and complementary evidence from the fields of religion, the verbal arts, philosophy.political history; and other complementary evidence exploited at the discretion of each scholar.Among the latter, the most important source is the folk music of the area.which survives both in tone and word by a purely oral tradition, except for a few accidental notations made in the past by curious savants, and is in itself the subject of a parallel discipline \u2014 ethnomusicolo- gy.\u2019 The source situation of Jewish music is completely different.All the factors listed above are present, but in entirely different proportions \u2014 both absolutely and for each Diaspora area and period.A particularly complicated case is that of musical notation.On the one hand, no tone script, in the European sense of the term (one sound \u2014 one symbol} was evolved in Jew- A concert in the Herodian amphitheater at israel, 1967.ish musical culture.Even European Jewry adopted the tone script of the surrounding culture only in a few communities during certain periods and only for certain sections of its total musical activity.On the other hand, the masoretic accents serve as universal indicators of certain melodic motives for the cantillation of some of the biblical books (according to principles basically common to all Jewish communities), and their syntactical and grammatical function, which came into being at the same time as, if not earlier than, their musical one, is supported by a written tradition of doctrine and discussion.Nevertheless the melodic content of this cantillation differs in each Diaspora area and is transmitted by a purely oral tradition (cf.Maso- retic Accents, Musical Rendition).Although this oral tradition cannot convey information of its own past, some motives (of both Ashkenazi and Sephardi tradition have been preserved in notation from the beginning of the 16th century onward.Thus even for this single category of Jewish music, the \u201cart\u201d and \u201cfolk\u201d components, the historical and ahistorical, musical and extra-musical, and the local and universal are woven together so tightly that no single strand can serve as the base for any generalization.As in all other parts of the mainstream tradition of music in Jewish culture, the notated document is not the point of departure, but a fortunate find which may occur on the way but more often is absent.The same holds for autonomous treatises on the \u201cart of music,\u201d whether technical or philosophical, for reasons which become clear when the history of musical thought in this culture is traced in detail.Literary sources of all kinds are the main storehouse of historical fact, and very often the only source, since it is here that Jewish life has always documented itself most fully, including its musical actions and thoughts.Yet another important source are the relics of actual musical instruments (especially for the biblical period) and the depictions of instruments and music making ranging from the sawn of history through illuminated manuscripts to the photographs of klezmer ensembles in Eastern Europe before the Holocaust.The living oral traditions preserved and studied through sound recording followed by sophisticated techniques of acoustical analysis and musical transcription are equal in importance to the written, notated, and visual relic, and the application of the historical evidence can very often give them a great measure of historical dimension.Finally, there are the external sources, both historical and ethnomusical.Judicious comparisons with the musical heritage of those cultures with which the Jewish people came into contact, taking and \u2014 especially in the case of the formation of Christianity \u2014 also giving, can yield valuable insights.In addition, through still wider comparisons, even with historically unrelated cultures, Jewish music can be put into the overall perspective of the music of mankind.Ceasarea during the Seventh Music Festival in | b IA we \\ cul sie AHN st Fst \u201csigegat Feb or Ti Sago Enr Februar Tort Februar Soniee,§ nef Ca again: Fébiuar fing Da Tro Energy Fer al an es He Feb Sa; Cates Fbugy Sage hey SUB pr Ting Sey 2g I Ying yy gn Hig M hi wi Cuir Cond Tg Con Hing i of p \u201cgy a \u2014 eat 4 fig * become kt ougy À Literary | IN store ?Den the Bish fg 0s! fly, | hough | the els \u2019 Specialy Elon Tangy limi i J'aphs ol 4 ope be- | ral tadi- thsound 1 td eh: J Musial tance to §| ole, 3nd | evidence measure there ae | nical and parisons cultures amg nto ly m the ] any \u2014 * sights.In parisons.cultures, re over ind .FEBRUARY/MARCH CONGRESS BULLETIN/13 Music Month Commemorations TORONTO CJC Central Region is celebrating Jewish Music Month, February 2 (Shabbat Shire} \u2014 March 16, the central theme being Our Yiddish Musical Heritage.CJC Central Region Jewish Music Committee has announced the following events in celebration of 1974 Jewish Music Festival as submitted by sponsoring congregations and organizations.February 1-\u2014Shabbat Shira Service, Cantor Tibor Kelen, Gabriel Kelen and Synagogue Choir; B'nai Israel Beth David Congregation; 8:15 p.m.February 2\u2014Shabbat Shira Services, Toronto Synagogues; 9:00 a.m.February 2\u2014Shabbat Shira Morning Service, Synagogue Choir under the direction of Cantor Moshe Katz; Beth Am Congregation; 9:00 a.m.February 3\u2014CBC-FM Radio Show, King David; Toronto Symphony and Toronto Mendelssohn Choir conducted by Elmer Iseler; 6:30 p.m.February 5\u2014CBC Radio.The Story of Saul; an epic drama by Canadian Poet Charles Heavgsege: 8:03 p.m.February 7\u2014CBC-FM Radio, The Story of Saul; an epic drama by Canadian Poet Charles Heavgsege: 8:03 p.m.February 8\u2014 New Music for the Synagogue (new U.A.H.C.Centennial Commissions); presented by Cantor Weingort, Temple Choir and organ, directed by Ben Steinberg; Temple Sinai; 8:30 p.m.February 10\u2014Ref/ections in Song, featuring Rabbi Herbert Feder singing a varied repertoire of classical art songs, can- torials, modern Israeli and Yiddish Folk, Music; with the Beth Tikvah Synagogue Choir conducted by Milton Barnes; Beth Tikvah Congregation; 8:30 p.m.February 15\u2014The Organ\u2014An Instrument of Prayer; organ demonstration by Dan Streinberg; Temple Sinar; 8:30 p.m.February 17\u2014Concert of School Choirs; chorai groups of various Jewish schools in Toronto sponsored by the Board of Jewish Education and .CJC; Shaarei Shomayim Synagogue; 2:00 p.m.February 18\u2014Concert featuring Russian Jewish Youth recently arrived in Canada; Beth Tzedec: 8:30 p.m.February 22\u20140Oneg Shabbat Cantata, Religious School Choir, Junior High School Choir directed by John Herberman; Temple Sinai; 8:30 p.m.February 24 \u2014Toronto Jewish Association of Hungarian Descent\u2014concert in celebration of Jewish Music Festival; Four Seasons Hotel; 4:00 p.m.March 1\u2014The Organ and Its Use in Jewish Worship, (lecture-demonstration; Douglas Brodie, organist; Holy Blossom Temple; 8:30 p.m.March 2\u2014Concert featuring Tony St.Thomas (black Jewish folk singer from the Islands), Tzachi and Yael (vocal instrumental duet from Israel}, New Horizon String Orchestra of Ontario (45 strings) conducted by Dr.Douglas Webb, Larry Alpert (Jewish Humorist); Adath Israel Synagogue; 8:30 p.m.; Admission $5.00 (reserved numbered seat), $3.00 (general admission).Students $2.00.April 5\u2014The Yiddish Heritage in Music, Temple Glee Club, guest singers and instruments; Temple Sinai; 8:30 p.m.Featured on May 12 at Temple Sinai will be the Premiere Performance of a new composition for Chamber Orchestra by Morris Surdin, eminent Canadian composer and arranger for CBC.Commissioned by CJC, Central Region, the com- _ position will be presented along with Bloch's Sacred Service and other pieces.Conducted by Ben Steinberg, participants will include the Temple Choir, Cantor Wei- ngort and soloists.(a) SHEMA VISAAEL : SEPHARDIM OF LEGHORN OTTAWA MONTREAL Commemorating Jewish Music Month, the Ottawa Jewish Community Centre Music Committee will present a concert of Jewish music featuring Miss Diane Loeb.The program will include Deux Chants Hebraique by Ravel, six Coplas Se- fardies by Hemsi, Trois Chants Insraelites by \u20acastelnuovo-Tedesco, The Dance of Masada by Weinzweig, five arias from Offenbach and The Hymn of Zion by Milhaud, together with five popular songs by the same composer.Miss Loeb, a mezzo-soprano.recently placed third out of twenty-nine contestants in the Metropolitan Opera District Audition held in Rochester, New York.She will be competing in the Regional Final in Cleveland, Ohio, February 10.ONTARIO COMMUNITIES The Toronto Council of Hazzanim in cooperation with CJC Central Region has an- \u2018nounced a community services program for smaller Jewish centres in Ontario.Haz- zanim are available for help in planning and executing such activities as concerts, Sabbath services, High Holiday services, Music Month programs, Brotherhood and Sisterhood programs, fund raising concerts and lectures.Honorariums will be kept within moderate limits, based on the congregation\u2019s- ability to pay.Funds received by the Council will be used for a scholarship fund for students pursuing a career in Jewish music and to help bring Jewish music to small communities in Ontario.For further information please write or telephone: Toronto Council of Hazzanim, 37 Southbourne Avenue, Downsview, Ontario (Tel.No.635-5340): or Canadian Jewish Congress.150 Beveriey Street, Toronto MST 1Y6 (Tel.No.363-7190).CJC Eastern Region Jewish Music Committee has informed the community that Jewish Music Month will be celebrated March 18 \u2014 April 6, the theme being \u201cOur Yiddish Musical Heritage\u201d.Observance of Jewish Music Month need not necessarily be confined to the date and theme indicated.The purpose of Jewish Music Month is to further the cause of Jewish music at its best, whether it be liturgical, folk, instrumental, vcal, choral or folk dancing.The following events will be Congress sponsored.March 14 \u2014 A Evening of Yiddish Songs, Cantor Solomon Gisser; accompanist, Esther Masters; Samuel Bronfman House; 8:30 p.m.March 21 \u2014 An Evening of Cantorial and Contemporary Music featuring Cantor Samuel B.Taube and Mrs.Belva Boro- - ditsky Thomas; Samuel Bronfman House; 8:30 p.m.: March 28 \u2014 Canadian Jewish Congress in association with the Saidye Bronf- man Centre is presenting a Children\u2019s Choir under the direction of Yehuda Vine- berg.The program will also feature young artists.Saidye Bronfman Theatre; 8:30 p.m.April 9-10: The Montreal Symphony Orchestra will be performing a work of Yiddish or Hebraic content during their regular orchestra series.April 15 \u2014 An Evening Dedicated to Contemporary Canadian Jewish Composers.The program will consist of works by Srul Glick, Marvin Duchow, Dr.Alexander Brott, Istvan Anhalt.The music will be performed by distinguished Montreal artists at Samuel Bronfman House; 8:30 p.m.i CJC is also projecting an exhibition Music of Ancient Israel and the Old Testaments in World Music to be held at the Samuel Bronfman House.A calendar-of-events will be compiled.CJC is prepared to help organizations and synagogues in their celebration of Jewish Music Month with ideas for programming and material.Shemp __ yusvasl___ WEST.ASNKENA2] She- ma Adosherm yisraël Ado- shem elohe-nu c) BENEDICTION OF THE PRIESTS - FERRARA ab 4745 Ye - va-re-khe- Kha weyishme-re - elohe- - mu Adoghem Ado- shem Chad_\u2014_\u2014! ehad .an MN (3) BENEDICT kha 1oN ON SHOFAR À MÉGILL À i Ba=\u2014=\"_ rukh a-ta _____ EASTERN ASRKENAZ) va-re-kne-kha .Old tradition of melodic extension.(a) Italian Sephardi, after F.Consolo, op.cit., Ex.4, no.12; Western Ashkenazi, after |.Lachmann, op.cit., Ex.4, no.8: (b) Western Ashkenazi, notated by H.Avenary: (c) Italian, after Mordecai Zahalon, Meziz uMeliz, Venice, 1715; Eastern Ashkenazi, after H.Wasserug, Schirei Mikdosch 1, 1878, no.65. 14/ CONGRESS BULLETIN CANADA'S ANTI-DISCRIMINATION LAW Referring back to the 1930's and the fight against discrimination in Quebec, Ontario and Manitoba, Lita-Rose Betcherman describes legislative efforts against religious and racial discrimination.Published initially in the magazine, Patterns of Prejudice, which is produced by the Institute of Jewish Affairs in association with the World Jewish Congress, the article is reproduced here.CJC activities throughout this period are noteworthy and can be summarized in the following way: (a) 1944\u2014CJC together with other legislators pressed the Ontario Government to enact the Racial Discrimination Act; (b) 1955\u2014CJC worked together with labour, church, youth and other groups, urging the Ontario Governement to enact the Fair Employment Practices Act which was the beginning of a long series of human rights laws culminating in the present human rights codes prevalent in most Canadian provinces; (c) 1953- 1970\u2014CJC was involved in efforts which brought about the Hate Propaganda Act prohibiting the distribution of religious and racial hatred.Canadian Jews now seldom invoke the provincial human rights codes or the federal anti-defamation legislation, nevertheless they were the prime movers in getting these laws on the statute books.Their pioneering efforts date back to the 1930s.the decade when antisemitism assumed worldwide proportions.Like other countries, Canada had never been immune to the disease \u2014 recurrent Anglo-Saxon nativism and French-Cana- dian nationalism had engendered a dislike of Jews and other foreigners \u2014 but the Depression and the contagion of Hitler's propaganda aggravated antisemitism to new heights.To protect themselves from fascist groups and from the prevalent prejudices of landlords, resort owners and employers.Jews across the country began pressing for anti-discrimination legislation.Their spokesmen were the handful of politicians in the House of Commons and the provincial legislatures who were elected from the Jewish districts of the larger cities.With one notable exception they were unsuccessful, yet they laid the groundwork for the corpus of law which today protects minority rights in Canada.QUEBEC The fight against discrimination began in the province of Quebec.Jews were particularly visible in monolithic French Canada.Not only were they regarded (along with the English) as les autres, but their habitual occupations as small shopkeepers and professional men made them the direct competitors of the French majority.This antagonism found expression in the /\u2018achat chez nous movement \u2014 a grass-roots campaign against Jewish merchants.The Depression sharpened both economic antisemitism and French-Canadian nationalism with its racial exclusiveness.À bas /es Juifs became a rallying cry of the ultranationalists, and in the early Thirties a few Montreal weekly papers were running non-stop hate campaigns.The poison pen behind this racist press belonged to Adrien Arcand, soon to emerge as the leader of a Nazi-style party.So virulent was Arcand\u2019s attack that a Jewish member of the Quebec legislature, Peter Bercovitch, introduced a group libel law in the 1932 session.He proposed that printed defamation of a racial or religious group should be stopped by way of injunction.His bill was supported by another Jewish Member of the Legislative Assembly, Joseph Cohen, and also by Dr.Anatole Plante, who represented a riding with a heavy Jewish vote.Although the sponsors were government members, the bill was killed when it came up for debate.The provincial press had mounted an alarmist offensive against it and the Taschereau government, growing timid with advancing age, was effectively warned off.In a long speech to the House, the Premier deplored hate propaganda but took the position that the rights of minorities were sufficiently protected by existing laws.He may have been thinking of a successful slander suit initiated many years before against the perpetrators of an attack of the Jews of Quebec City.But a favourable decision in that case (Ortenberg V.Plamondon), which dragged through the courts for years, was ultimately won only because the Quebec Jewish community was small enough to claim that each member was personally affected by the slander.The adequacy of the courts to deal with racial libel was soon put to the test by Joseph Cohen, the lawyer who had seconded the Bercovitch Bill.In the name of a Lachine merchant he brought an action against Arcand and his publisher for injuring the reputation of Jewish businessmen in the province.He sought remedy by injunction rather than damages because he knew from experience that the defendants would simply pay up and repeat the libel.The judge, who was given to philosophical disquisitions from the bench, called the Ar- cand articles \u201canti-social, anti-Christian and anti-national\u201d, but in the end he rejected the request for an-injunction and tossed the matter back to the legislature.The fact was that Canadian law offered no means of redress for a member of a defamed group.Libel was an offence under the federal Criminal Code, but unless a specific person was vilified the Code was of no help.As late as 1966 a special committee set up by the federal government found that \u201cthe Criminal Code, even on the widest interpretation, does little or nothing to protect groups from the evils of hate propaganda.\u201d Because there was no adequate federal legislation, Bercovitch had hoped to find a cure through a provincial statute.But in the 1930s provincial legislatures fought shy of such legislation.In so doing they were no worse than the courts.An authority on civil liberties in Canada, Douglas Schmeizer, has noted that \u201cthe judicial attitudes evinced towards minorities in most cases prior to the Second World War can hardly be described as sympathetic.\u201d The conventional wisdom of course was that you could not legislate against prejudice.In 1933.the year of Hitler's rise to power, Quebec Jews were feeling uneasy not only because of Arcand\u2019s hate propaganda but also because of the overt antisemitism in a new intellectual review, L'Action Nationale.Published by ultra-nationalist followers of the historian Abbé Groulx, the review's influence could not be measured by its circulation of about 2,000.Its real strength lay in the support it received from influential papers like Le Devoir of Montreal, Le Droit of Hull/Ottawa, and L'Action Catholique, anti-semitism went far beyond the /'achat chez nous movement.Writing in the September 1933 issue, one of its directors, Anatole Vanier, advocated depriving Jewish citizens of their full civil and political rights and treating them as a group apart.Not only did he want to cut off Jewish imigration at a time when refugees were starting to flow out of Nazi Germany, but he wanted to deny naturalization to Jews and to take away from the Canadian-born their franchise and rights of citizenship.According to the editor of L'Action Nationale, the Vanier article was \u201cmuch appreciated.\u2026 and received favourable comment in local papers.This was far from reassuring to Jewish residents of the province.Nor were their fears entirely groundless.Since civil rights fall under provincial jurisdiction, it was not impossible for a province to pass legislation which discriminated against a minority group: British Columbia had done so with regard to Asiatics and Doukhobors.PETER BERCOVITCH ONTARIO Meanwhile in Ontario a small step had been taken in the direction of positive legislation to provide equal rights for all citizens, regardless of race or creed.in the 1932 session of the Ontario legisiature, a Jewish government member, E.F.Singer.introduced a bill designed to end the racial and religious discrimination that was then commonly practised by the insurance companies.The House was clearly sympathetic when Singer gave instances of the difficulties fared by reputable Jewish businessmen in obtaining fire insurance.All of the eight members who debated the question supported the principle that unfair discrimination against Jews and other religious groups should be stopped, but there was some attempt to quash the bill by questioning its practical value.Notwithstanding these last ditch efforts, with the blessing of the Conservative Government the law was passed and Ontario's Insurance Act was amended to read: Any licensed insurer which discriminates unfairly between risks within Ontario because of the race or religion of the insured shall be guilty of an offence.The following year a broader human rights bill made a fleeting appearance in the Ontario legislature.Early in the 1933 FEBRUARY/MARCH session, a young Conservative non-Jew, Argue Martin, strongly suppoted by Singer, introduced a bill to prohibit advertisements and notices which discriminated on the basis of race and religion.The proposed bill had teeth init, with fines ranging from $50 to $500.What Martin and Singer were trying to do of course was to rid the landscape of those offensive signs in front of resorts, factories and apartment houses which announced that \u201cGentiles only\u201d would be accommodated or \u201cNo foreigner need apply\u201d for work within.\u201cHelp wanted\u201d ads in the newspapers often bore similar messages.The liberal-minded Toronto Star hailed the Martin bill as \u201cA Worthy Measure\u201d and agreed wholeheartedly that discriminatory notices were \u201can unfair and oppressive situation.\u201d They hurt the feelings of a class of people and spread the infection.of prejudice.Notices which excluded the Jewish people probably inflicted the greatest pain, just now when a once great and enlightened nation in Europe seems likely to give \u2018dictatorial power to a madman, who professes to be bent on reviving the hideous medieval persecution of the race that has laid the world under greater obligations than any other, and when in a neighbouring province there is going on a persistent attempt to kindle the same foul flame in Canada.Written by the radical social reformer Salem Bland, the column is a resounding credo of liberalism, yet it clearly reveals the limits of even the most advanced contemporary thinking in the field of human rights.Although landlords, employers and resort owners might not advertise their restrictive practices, the Rev.Bland took it for granted that they were quite within their rights to discriminate on the basis of race or creed.Readers were assured that the right of an employer to decline an applicant for any reason that seems good to him is not infringed by the bill, nor the right of hotel managers and of proprietors of apartment houses, office buildings, tourist stops, amusement places to refuse as tenants or visitors people deemed unwelcome or undesirable: the bill merely insists that such a refusal must be made as quietly as possible and not proclaimed to the world on a sign board, through circulars, or by way of broadcast or newspaper columns.If the \u201csmall1\u201d\u2019 liberal press was ready for such a law, the Ontario legislature was not.Despite eloquent pleading from its sponsors, the Legal Bilis Committee threw it out.The chairman stated that while appreciating the point of view of the proponents of the bill, he doubted if it would accomplish the goal set for it.The most that the committee was prepared to do was to present a resolution to the House.strongly condemning the practices which Martin had sought to eradicate through his legislation.MANITOBA In 1934 Manitoba actually passed the kind of anti-hate law that Peter Bercovitch had unsuccessfully tried to bring in Quebec.Once again the sponsor was a Jewish member of the provincial legislature \u2014 Marcus Hyman.Although Hyman, who sat as an Independent Labour member, lacked the apparent advantage of belonging to the party in power.his bill won government support.The explanation is that the Bracken administration was being attacked by the fascist press end wa nted to stop its nasty tongue.Thus for once the Jews had a powerfutally.bo fa | A0 1» WIRCUS Tea fst, win Can Tégiiso Fed: Fabsher ako ht Ted bisiaeg dou, disorder; The la De case bil he ths à Month] Hage aly Hi Hig tg fy tn (gy EI Hay ih ing te Ney | itty \"yin Hig, ly Uy Piggy \u2018sk fre \u201crot by | Ly Li = \u2014_\u2014 fF en, Sing Crise.led on ie: ing Sng: fond sn ment endles Hoto- \"Help bie had Band faloy est: Jassof f pr: Jewish St pain, might lo give 1 pro- ideas | at has ations hbour- sistent ame In former nding reveas ad con human ars and fi re took it win ysis ed thet and good to peng! ets louis 58 yet is qu gode yrs pa 95 rest pre vs from Ils go re ynie ir : pop ad as 18 0 was tv od Lu is 95 sd fe pro = = \\ 55 - = = = a a a =, = = = an # 1 FEBRUARY/MARCH CONGRESS BULLETIN /15 eseeeneenee |19 EARLY HISTORY MARCUS HYMAN The Manitoba Defamation Act was the first and, until 1970, the only group libel law in Canada.It allowed any member of a religious or racial group that was being defamed to sue for an injunction against the publisher or author.The plaintiff did not have to prove that he was personally affected: it was sufficient cause if the published statements were \u201clikely to expose\u201d his race or religion to \u201chatred, contempt or ridicule, and tending to raise unrest and disorder among people.\u201d The law was tested that same year in the case of Tobias V.Whittaker and Neu- feld.The cause of complaint was a slanderous article appearing in a fascist monthly, The Canadian Nationalist, which \u2018charged Canadian Jews with practising ritual.murder.Since this slander sheet had a wide circulation and was sold openly on Winnipeg streets, a prominent Jewish lawyer and former Member of the Legislative Assembly decided to take court action.Captain W.V.Tobias, a World War hero who had been decorated with the Military Cross, had the necessary prestige to champion a minority cause.Invoking the new legislation, he sued William Whittaker and Herman H.Neufeld, editor and printer respectively of The Canadian Nationalist, for the defamatory article on the Jewish people.Whittaker, an out-and- out fascist.commanded a Brownshirt organization called the Nationalist Party.Neufeld, the other defendant, published a Mennonite paper strongly slanted in favour of Nazism.The case was heard in the Manitoba Court of King's Bench in February 1935 by Mr.Justice Percival Montague.who found the defendants guilty and issued an order perpetually restraining them from further publication of such libels against the Jewish race.He also awarded $300 in costs to the plaintiff.The Winnipeg Tribune praised the judgement and gave a thoughtful assessment of the legislation: Appeals to race prejudice, always harmful and despicable, are particularly out of place in Canada.They are difficult to deal with in law, because democracy calls for the utmost freedom in discussion of public issues, and anything that tends to hamper full political discussion is to be avoided.But this extension of the libel law isin no sense a gag on debate.ONTARIO The Ottawa Journal applauded both the legislation and the judge.pointing out the need for such a law in Ontario.In 1935 antisemitic pamphlets, published by Arcand in Montreal, were circulating throughout the capital.The Journal hoped that \u201cpossibly they do little harm, because racial prejudice is foreign to the Canadian tradition and abhorrent to all instincts of fairness and decency\u201d, but, the editorial writer warned,\u201d such attacks do representa deplorable attempt to duplicate in this country bitterness and enmities that have their origin in other lands and they should be suppressed sternly.\u201d One libel making the rounds was\u2019 a vicious attack on A.J.Freiman, the owner of Ottawa's largest department store and president of the Zionist Organisation of Canada.The disseminator was a former policeman, Jean Tissot, who had been suspended from the force for distributing fascist propaganda.Tissot was actually running in the 1935 federal election (as an independent favouring H.H.Stevens\u2019 Reconstruction Party) when Freiman launched a libel suit against him.Not surprisingly.Tissot lost both election and lawsuit.A jury at the Ontario Supreme Court assizes found him guilty of criminal libel.At the trial it came out that he had attempted to incite non-Jewish merchants against Freiman.The managing director of a large store testified that Tissot had tried to solicit funds from him to form an association of Christian merchants whose objective it would be to drive all Jewish storekeepers out of Ottawa.Tissot, however, had misjudged the spirit of competition among Ottawa businessmen, for the witness fold the court he had promptly informed Mr.Freiman of the slander being spread against him.Freiman\u2019's successful resort to the courts was possible only because he was personally named in the hate propaganda; but Arcand\u2019s continuing antisemitic rant = US +, NAZI PARTY MEETING,TORONTO,1965.could not be stopped.Editorial comment in the Ottawa Citizen reflected on the unfortunate situation and its implications for national security: It is astonishing to find Canadian people lendingthemselves to .racial an- imasity in this country.Canadian economic conditions are sufficiently deplorable without being made worse by internal strife based on nothing more substantial than the colour of a man\u2019s hair or the accident of birth into one religious faith or another.Seeds are sown, however, for civil disorder on this basis of race prejudice.There is evidence of it even in Ottawa.where an appeal is being circulated particularly to French-speaking people by a vile propaganda sheet from Montreal.It is so obviously designed to distract Canada with difficulties at home, when the Nazi bid is made for world power, it is difficult to believe that Canadian people would allow themselves to be misled by it.In Toronto the influential Globe (later the Globe and Mail) took a stand contrary to the Ottawa papers.In February 1935, when a Jewish Member of the Provincial Parliament, John J.Glass, announced his intention of introducing a law against racial slander into the Ontario legislature, the Globe made light of the idea in an editorial entitled \u201cWhy Be Touchy?\u201d In the first place, according to the Globe, such legislation was out of place in this country and (repeating the familiar error) present laws provided redress anyway.\u201cNo community, race or creed is the worse for a little criticism and surely none will claim to be above reproach,\u201d the editorial writer stated.He advised the Jews to take such remarks in the same spirit as the Scotch or the Irish, who enjoyed a good joke on themselves.To assume that Jewish-Cana- dians had the self-confidence of the British in the dominant British-Canadian culture of the Thirties betrayed a considerable lack of sensitivity.Nevertheless, the \u201cbe-a- good-sport\u201d advice was also meted out by other papers of the province.Public opinion in Ontario, with its United Empire Loyalist stock and its militant Protestantism, appeared to divide into those who had no need of protection against discrimination and those who might have.A spokesman for the Orange- men told the Toronto Star that group libel legislation would be a curb on free speech and deplored the idea.On the other hand, the president of the Catholic Tax Payers, Association was favourably inclined.(Similarly in the House of Commons that same year, a Ukrainian Member of Parliament, Michael Luchkovitch, angered at a slur against his people by a judge, moved an amendment to the Criminal Code to cover defamation of persons or groups on account of race, colour or religion.His bill did not reach second reading.Perhaps out of discouragement, Glass did not introduce his bill in the 1935 session of the Ontario legislature, but two years later he tried again.Antisemitism was on the rise in Canada in 1937.Nazi literature was being widely circulated in Toronto.A declared fascist was running in the provincial election and building his campaign on a boycott of Jewish stores.Labour leaders and the liberal clergy were expressing their grave concern.Under pressure from these quarters, the Toronto City Council sought legal advice on the matter but found that the libels could not be suppressed through existing procedures.It was at this point that Glass, on the eve of an election, assured his Jewish constituents that the provincial Liberal Government was thinking of introducing legislation to outlaw hate literature.Mitchell Hepburn, the controversial and colourful Premier of Ontario, was returned in a landslide victory.Glass was reelected and, early in November, he announced that he would ask the legislature to pass a law which would place a recognized group on the same footing as an individual in the matter of libel or slander.The Globe and Mail reacted sharply.Such legislation was \u201cnot the British way\u2019.It would be \u201cmischievous, undemocratic and anti-British.\u201d A law to curb so- called antisemitic activities would give all groups, including Communists and Fas- ciasts, the right to protection.(The editorial writer did not pause to reflect that onl falsehoods were potentially libellous.There would be no limit to what might be construed as \"'anti\u201d in court actions.This law would lead to fascism itself.The writer advised \u201cthe Hebrews\u201d to ignore the propaganda and, pouring salt in their wounds, went on to say that \u201cif the Fascists have not a worthwhile idea in baiting the Jews it will die anyway.\u201d The editorial concluded: The thought of invoking legislation which can have no other effect than to stir up and emphasize racial bitterness, with possible far-reaching ramifications, is contrary to British ideals of Justice.In his rebuttal, Glass told the G/obe editor that he had obviously misunderstood his proposal.He simply proposed to deal with attacks on members of religious or a racial group collectively instead of individually.And he cited the Manitoba legislation.JOHN J.GLASS But Manitoba was to stand alone in the prewar period in the field of anti-dis- crimination legislation.The Glass bill was never introduced.Although it was fully prepared and entered on the Order Paper of the House, its sponsor had second thoughts on being advised by Hepburn that government legal counsel were doubtful of its constitutionality.After a private canvass of constitutional experts confirmed that the bill probably trenched upon federal powers.Glass abandoned the idea.The unresolved problem was that no federal criminal law existed to curb the masses of hate propaganda in Canada in the 1930s.SECOND WORLD WAR The Second World War was the turning- point for human rights legislation in Canada.Henceforth government stepped in to actively protect the rights of their minorities.In 1944 Ontario passed the Racial Discrimination Act (spearheaded by a Jewish Labour-Progressive member, J.B.Sals- berg), outlawing the posting of signs and notices excluding\u2019 a racial or religious group.It was the Martin-Singer Bill of 1933.\u2019 In the post-war period, federal and provincial legislation prohibited the discriminatory practices in housing, public accommodation and employment, of which the signs reading \u201cGentiles only\u201d were simply the tip of the iceberg.Finally in 1970, thirty-five years after Bercovitch in Quebec and Glass in Ontario had pressed for such legislation, the Criminal Code was amended to prohibit hate propaganda. «eee mme at CANADIAN JEWISH CONGRESS, 1919 oo f ASG af aa .- ra ét té SIN3C 1S 00/41 S3N0IQ0Iy3d S30 1d30 627 ewig J2383N® na FTYNOILVYN 3NB3HLIO0INEIS Published monthly except July and August by the Canadian Jewish Congress to report on the activities of Canadian Jewry and matters of interest to them.National Président Sol Kanee National Executive Vice-President .Saul Hayes.Q.C.Postage-paid-in-cash ot third class rates \u2014 Permit No.10,019.Bulk \u2014 en nombre.Return postage guaranteed.CONGRESS BULLETIN, 1590 McGregor Street, Montreal H3G 1C5, Quebec SALI Bas SRST.; Sw Vol.28 No.7 cong SAULT STE MARIE published by Canadian J tess bullet ewl CJC TRIENNIAL PLENARY KINGSTON e sh Congress TORONTO; JUNE 15-16, 1974 CHARLOTTETOWN swum ASSEMBLY ' SYDNEY GLACE BAY February/ March 1974 ST.JOHN'S "]