Congress bulletin, 1 décembre 1953, Décembre

[" iy \u2018 - 3 C-43 ob A + I VOL.8 JONGRESS BULLETIN MONTREAL, DECEMBER 1953 N In this issue: Samuel Bronfman \"We Are All Partners.\" Page 2 The Rt.Hon.Vincent Massey On the Meaning of Judaism in our Times Page 4 Dr.Nahum Goldmann The Theme of Our Decade Page 13 Hon.Michael Comay Jewry's Misery in Israel Page 15 Officers and Dominion Council 1953-1955 Page 16 The Views of Canadian Jewry On Education | On Public Relations On Fair Employment On Discrimination in Housing On Overseas Relief : On Immigration On Finances ! On the N.C.L i On Arts and Letters On Israel On the Iron Gurtain On the World; Congress On Jerusalem On the Coronation Forest On Claims against Germany, Austria On Community Organization On Teacher Training On Research On Adult Education On Youth On Libraries On Radio Programs On Teachers Salaries Page 20 Symposium : Saul Hayes On the Nature of the Community Page 8 A.B.Bennett On the Ideas that Made Congress Page 10 Canadian Jewry Passes Tests From time to time, the World Jewish Congress Organization surveys the Jewish communities the world over.At each such survey we are happy to note that the Jewish community of Canada, one of the medium-sized communities now numbering nearly 210,000 Jews, ranks among the best-or- ganized, most responsible and efficient Jewish centers.This, we feel, is certainly the indisputable merit of the Canadian Jewish Congress and its leadership.The 10th Plenary Session of the Canadian Jewish Congress further bore out this conviction.Generally speaking, we can take four criteria by which the efficiency and responsibility of the Canadian Jewish Congress can be measured.Positive and constructive results emerge from such analysis.First of all, there are the duties toward Canada.It is a matter of course that such duties come first with all citizens.As we can see from the manifold, and very enlightening, reports of the Canadian Jewish Congress, Canadian Jews fully meet thei, duties as citizens in every phase of the country\u2019s activities.In its printed report to the Plenary Session, the Canadian Jewish Congress makes it clear that in this respect the Jews of Canada act as individuals, in line with their political convictions, and that Canadian Jewish Congress in no way tries to mold the Jews of Canada into a political minority .And rightly so.(Continued on page 7) Jewish Agency Observer : Canadian Jews Show it Can be Done The Canadian Jewish Congress deserves the attention and study not only of Canadian but of Jews everywhere, and particularly in the U.S.In some respects Canada and the U.S.may be considered as a single geographic and social unit.In a certain sense Canadian Jewry may even be an intellectual province dependent upon the U.S.Jewish community.But it is a serious error to note the similarities and to disregard the differences.For the differences are fundamental.In mere numbers we note a great variation, a variation which must result in qualitative No.1 \u2018 The Congress Viewed from Outside ~ World Jewish Congress : differences.While the total population of the U.S.is approximately ten times that of Canada, the Jewish group is 25 times larger.One might be led to believe that there is more assimilation in Canada, and this is true in one sense \u2014\"but not in others.Canadian Jewry \u201cskipped\u201d the period of the dominance of the so- called \u201cYaduhim.\u201d The influences have come more from British conservatism than from German reform.Social distinctions are nowhere so profound.The idea of Jewish community organization never had to break down the high wall of vested interest and the resistance of groups which are still the occasion of so much bickering in the U.S.Immigration is still influential in Canada and in recent vears Jewish population figures have increased by 20 %.One result is that Yiddish \u2014 still beset by many problems \u2014 is still a lively force in the community.This is apparent at meetings of the Canadian Jew« (Continued on page 7) A a Te PVC RCE EI Report Issue, Tenth Plenary Session, Toronto President\u2019s Statement is Valuable Survey \u2014 \u201cWe Are All Partners In a Precious Heritage\u201d States Samuel Bronfman Congress President The burdened chapter of the past decade of world .Jewry has not been closed, Samuel Bronfman stated in his presidential address to the Canadian Jewish Congress: \u201cMany ofthe duties which we assumed during the past decade have not yet been fully accomplished.There are, still demanding solution the problems of those of our wards who, though brought to their various places of sanctuary, have not yet become self-supporting.There is, in a category apart \u2014 for this is a creative and gratifying responsibility \u2014 the State of Israel, which leans, and must for some time continue to lean, upon our moral and financial support.And there are the many residuary tasks \u2014 the Malben service, the ORT program, the JDC work, .the settlement of national and individual reparations \u2014 which still must challenge our sense of foal performance,\u201d Mr.Bronfman said.I am happy to be able to state, however, that though the change from the restorative efforts that follow in the wake of war to the constructive efforts which mark the prevailing of peace have not yet been fully effected, the transition from the one to the other is well on the way.We no longer labor in an atmosphere of constant crisis.The haunting fear of deadlines which bedevilled our rescue work has somewhat lifted.Today we revert to our historic role: \u2014 Partnership in a Heritage! That heritage, consisting as it does of our Canadian way of life, our Jewish traditions, our place in the British Commonwealth of Nations, our New World hopes, is a heritage of many mansions.To - develop that heritage .to collaborate with our fellow-citizens towards the enhancement of all things Canadian and with our fellow-Jews for the promotion of all things Jewish .to preserve the values which our traditions represent, and more than that, to seek to create, out of changing circumstances and expanding opportunity, new values, new standards, new traditions \u2014 these are the ultimate objectives to which our immediate efforts must now tend.Let it not be imagined that because these tasks do not lend themselves to a melodramatic exposition that they are any the less to be heeded.Page 2 RR ASTI A I ONU CR CONGRESS BULLETIN Not by the single sensational event, not by the \u2018isolated stirring episode, are the happiness and progress of a people advanced.These are advanced, rather, by the painstaking accomplishment of the duties of every day, by the patient performance of routine tasks, by the slow but certain increment of continuing effort, increasing skill, growing talent, augmented devotion.It was by a most happy coincidence that this change in the emphasis of our work came together with the ushering in of what has been universally hailed as a new Elizabeth era.When, as representing the Canadian Jewish Congress, I had the honour to be present at Westminster Abbey at the Coronation ceremonies of our young and radiant queen, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, it was with a sense of elation that I observed how this great event sent a surge of high optimism, a forecast of great promise, through the assembled representatives of the Empire.Here, in impressive and exalting convocation there were gathered together the emissaries of Her Majesty\u2019s far-flung domains, men differing as to creed, as to color, as to walk of life, but all, beneath the symbol of the Crown, to one purpose united.All, too, felt in the midst of that august ceremony that they stood upon the threshold of great events yet to come, and all, IT knew, then and there reaffirmed their resolve to play their parts, each as representing his own people and his own group, towards the fulfillment of the grand Elizabethan promise.The heritage of which we speak and which we now, seek to cultivate, a heritage which glories in the names of Disraeli and Reading, Montefiore and Monash, is not the least of the elements to enter the wide prospect of this Elizabethan future!\u201d Mr.Bronfman told of the work of the adult and youth education programs, the teacher training facil ities set up by the Congress, the absorption of refugees in Canada in conjunction with the Jewish Immigrant Aid Society of Canada and the various welfare agencies, the public relations program carried out in conjunction with the Bnai Brith and with the Jewish Labor Committee and of representations made DECEMBER 1953 yn?qu i qui ah if i qu gpl pans pen Ÿ fre ofa the Com fons] the Comm yh val 8 risory ity § gress J tle Thay direct yifh Funds rev fie IT rélatio Congr voiki : Jevis estab Our 1 Mater compl omg Want tinal The 4 din iy B fy À Îtren, Ivy Ment Way HY oy Chi le, ful, te, ~~ Diy (at Ta : De 51h ve ae] » to various government instances on a number of current questions, \u201cPartnership in a Heritage \u2014 it was not wholly accidental that the Canadian Jewish Congress went into partnership with other organizations \u2014 it was part of the design, part of the plan.In the early twenties it was the partnership with the JDC and the ICA that was first formed to persist through the years.More recently the outstanding partnership has - been with the B\u2019nai B'rith.Over a period of nearly twenty years the conduct of public relations in Canada has been the combined effort of Congress and the B\u2019nai B'rith; the National Joint Public Relations Committee is the product of this harmonious relationship.There was, as well, an arrangement through the cooperation and willingness of the Jewish Labor Committee to conduct the public relations programme with labor, resulting in fruitful endeavours in this vital area.As a result there is the.Joint Labour Advisory Council which carries on this important activity whose composition is the Canadian Jewish Congress and the Jewish Labour Committee.More recently, a similar collaboration has taken place with the Jewish Immigrant Aid Society.Through a common bond of interest and interlocking directorates a close cooperation has been effected with the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds and in certain aspects of youth work there prevails a mutuality of interest between ourselves and the Council of YMHA\u2019s and YWHA's.I wish also to make reference to the many fruitful relationships existing between the Canadian Jewish Congress and organizations in other countries.The working arrangements which we have with the World Jewish Congress and which go back to the days of its establishment are useful and mutually productive.Our relationship with the JDC and the ORT very materially aided these two organizations in the accomplishment of their tasks.We are also indebted to many organizations in the United States for the warmth of their close liaison with us.I cite as principal among these \u2014 The American Jewish Congress, The American Jewish Committee, The Anti-Defam- ation League of B\u2019nai B\u2019rith, The National Community Relations Advisory Council, The United Service for New Americans.More recently we were associated with the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.I wish in this connection to signalize the achievement of an objective which must be causing the late unlamented leaders of the Nazi Reich to turn in their graves \u2014 German payment of Jewish material claims, accompanied by legislation designed to aid individual claimants.Certainly the confession of guilt and defeat which is explicit in these partial payments \u2014 full payment belongs to God \u2014 is a far cry from the premature exultations of those who sought to DECEMBER 1953 CONERESS BULLETIN destroy us.Already the first payment has been shipp- - \u2018ed, with condign justice, to the renascent State of Israël, Probably the most extraordinary example of a people come into its inheritance is in our times afforded by the miraculous rebirth of the State of Israel.From its earliest days the Canadian Jewish Congress has stood committed to the support of this high aspiration.It is now a reality, and it is with the greatest sense of fulfilment that we welcome His, Excellency the Minister of Israel, the Honourable Michael Comay whose mission to our country, for the first time in history, establishes full diplomatic relations between Israel and Canada.That reality, moreover, must not be permitted to weaken or wane.Accordingly, the National Conference for Israel and Jewish Rehabilitation, of which Congress is a co-sponsor, has continued, since its inception in 1951, to press for the implementation of its four-point program \u2014 the solicitation of gift dollars, the sale of Israel Bonds, the promotion of trade, and the urging of private investment.To these pursuits we have been impelled by at least three motives.The State of Israel, apart from its existence as a sovereignty, stands as a symbol of Jewish continuity throughout the ages, and as such, must evoke a thrill of pride in the hearts of all Jews, everywhere.The State of Israel too, is the sanctuary of .the greatest number of those of our brothers whom in the past decade we sought to rescue, and as such must continue to involve our responsibility.The State of Israel moreover stands as type and example of a true democracy which the West has helped to establish in the Middle East, and as such must engage the goodwill and the support of all people, everywhere who love freedom and pursue progress.Out of the partnership of organizations, out of these traditions, Congress has not only fashioned its agenda.It has thence also acquired its character.That character is, because of these many associations, a multiple one \u2014 in its day-to-day work, it is functional; in its general interests, coordinative; in its periodic campaigns budgetary; in its occasional interventions, protective; in its major dedications, cultural, and in its essence, representative.But multiple though it is in its activities and partnerships, it is one, single, united in its purpose.That purpose is the cultivation of our Canadian Jewish heritage, and a heritage is not simply that which we receive from our fathers, it is also that which, in the fullness of time, we must transmit: to our sons.It is not only something which we preserve, it is something which we build.It is the thing which will show, whether in the pages of history, or in the memory of men, or simply in the daily conduct of those who follow, that our generation laboured, achieved, did not let its forebears down.This is a sacred trust.This is an inspiring challenge: I know that, without fanfare or sensationalism, but day by day, and item by item, we will take up that challenge and fulfil that trust! Page 3 The Address of the Governor General Profound Statement on the Meaning Of Judaism in Our Times The Rt.Hon.Vincent Massey, Governor General of Canada, \u2014 a man already greatly distinguished in several areas of high endeavour \u2014 has revealed himself a profound student of Jewish historical philosophy in a great address before the Canadian Jewish Congress in Toronto.His Excellency began his address with a tribute to the Canadian Jewish Congress: You are, I understand, an organization representing every conscious Jewish community in Canada.Through local groups in each of our great geographic divisions you keep in touch with the needs and interests of all Canadian Jews and are in a position to speak for them on national and international occasions.This is an achievement distinguished and even rare.In our country we struggle for articulation and coherence against many forms of isolation.Canada owes much to great cultural and religious groups such as yours, which spare neither time nor money to make their solid contribution to our common national life.I remember with pleasure my meeting with a representative of your own organization.I recall his very able presentation of the purposes of the Jewish Congress \u2014 to develop the highest standards of citizenship by encouraging, and by actively participating in, all those national activities patriotic, cultural and humanitarian, which serve to promote the spirit of understanding and good-will between diverse racial groups.He pleaded for special measures towards mutual understanding and good-will; for the easing of tensions as we face the fact of tension, accepting it and dealing with it as the price we pay for the wealth and variety of experience that is ours.Surely, no one could be better equipped to discuss such a matter than one of your people, in every country a minority, scattered throughout the nations of the world \u2014 no more than one-half of one per cent of the world\u2019s population, I am told \u2014 and yet always bearing in the person of every loyal Jew that sense of oneness, that conviction of destiny which has, in .our age, been partly realized.And yet as a lover of history, and as one who has been able to enjoy many aspects of the great civilization which is a part of our Canadian heritage, (Continued on Page 5) Page 4 ee 00 TO a ue el ye ge el CONCRESS BULLETIN \u201cOne of Chassidai Umoth Ha\u2019Olam\u201d His Excellency spoke under the chairmanship of Esmond Lando, president of the Congress on the Pacific Coast.He wag introduced by Samuel Bronf.man, national president of the Congress, who adverted in his words of appreciation to Mr.Massey's profound interest in the nature of Canadian.society: \u201cHis Excellency\u2019s analysis of the relationship of the Jewish people to the country of which they are proud to be citizens constitutes, to our mind, an utterance upon the subject so profound, so sensitive, and so thorough, that it leaves nothing to be desired, and comes as the result of many years of fruitful meditation upon the great theme which has been his all-engrossing interest, What it means to be a Canadian.\u201cTo the exposition and illustration of this theme His Excellency has devoted many years of honored public service; the gist of the Massey Report presents a view of the Canadian cultural future which derives from a preoccupation with this theme; and here, in his most recent address, His Excellency, reviewing Jewish history across time and space, has brought a special understanding to the role which our people have played, and play, | in our country and our generation, \u201cIn the vocabulary of our tradition there is a signal designation reserved for spirits great and noble, of whatsoever faith they be.They are called Chassidai Umoth Ha-Olam, \u201cthe pious of the nations of the world\u201d, and their status-in the aristocracy of the elect is of the highest.The address of the Gov- ernor-General of Canada establishes him firmly among the foremost of that illustrious company.\u201d Rabbi Reuben Slonim of Toronto delivered the benediction at the luncheon.\u2018 DECEMBER 1953 PR fo ni! {hes pal di (ons fi {he Jus fit sie Jui _ J ot (Continned from Page 4) I must suggest that the role of the Jews in any national community must be far deeper and broader than that of merqly one small minority group among half a dozen others.I would like, from the viewpoint of history and of the philosophy of our civilization to consider with you briefly this greater role.It is impossible to do so without touching on painful subjects, but I believe that the greatness of the theme will atone for its tragic aspect.May I suggest that throughout the whole history of our civilization the Jews have been \u2014 unconsciously perhaps \u2014 both suffering for humanity and serving it.A well-known French commentator sees the Jews as representing one of three streams from which western civilization flows, the others being the Greeks and Romans.The Greeks and Romans achieve immortality through their work alone; the fertilizing stream of Jewish origin is still with us even though the very magnitude of this contribution has added to the perils and hardships endured by Jewry.A recent writer speaks of \u201cthe Jews who have influenced well-nigh the whole world by their unswerving belief in one God, Lord, Providence and Judge of all\u201d, The very earliest history of the Jewish people, as we all know, sees the gradual and cumulative revelation of the one God, holy and righteous, which has been appropriated by the whole western world.How few Gentiles acknowledge or even know their debt to the Jew who daily repeats: \u201cHear O Israel, the Lord thy God is one God\u201d.I need not remind this audience of the early conception of One God, of the jealous God who claimed the allegiance of all men; nor of the law which translated His will to His chosen people.This has given us the supreme concept of one moral law; a law binding on all men, everywhere; a law, too, righteous and merciful, binding men to each other as well as to God.On the idea of this one moral law emerging from the living God so vividly portrayed in the Jewish Scripture is based primarily our conception of a common humanity.From that comes a common obligation of every man to all men regardless of race or language, regardless even of any personal quality.This first, this fundamental Jewish contribution to western civilization lays not only all westerners but all men everywhere under a permanent debt to the Jewish people.The Jews, I know, are aware of this, and it is perhaps inappropriate for me to dwell on it here.Yet it is, perhaps, not inappropriate for one Gentile publicly to acknowledge the debt ignored by so many.The story of the Jews in Christendom during the long period of the Christian era, the formative period of western civilization, is both painful and difficult.Even if I were able, I would not attempt to deal with it here.During this period there was intermittent suffering and persecution.There was also, although DECEMBER 1953 When the Governor General addressed the Cane adian Jewish Congress : His Excellency, the Rt.Hon.Vincent Massey, O.M., (right) chatting at the reception tendered him before the address with Esmond Lando of Vancouver (left) who presided at the luncheon; Samuel Bronf- man, national president of the Congress, and Saul Hayes, national executive director.The address of His Excellency has already entered the record as one of the notable statements on the philosophy of Jewish historic experience.CONCRESS BULLETIN : Page 5 ee EN RE NE gy I ry TR TES RES Sen SH rE varying with time and place, a'steady and persistent contribution in every field to a civilization of which Jews were a part, and yet not a part; a civilization in which they made themselves at home in every country and yet remained apart.They formed, one might say, a fruitful and fertilizing stream.I shall discard the metaphor for a noble simile which must be familiar to all here.They were \u201clike a tree planted by the rivers of water\u201d.One may speculate whether their remarkable contributions to arts and letters, philosophy and science may be attributed not only to their .great tradition and special gifts, but in some measure to the peculiar and difficult character of the life they .lived.\u2018The individual who is separate is invited to reflection, If he can respond to the invitation he must see more than other men see.And the Jews all the \u2018way down the ages from the great lawgivers and prophets have translated their poignant experiences in terms of astonishing clarity and beauty.\u201cTribulation\u201d, said a Jewish writer, \u201cworketh patience and patience, experience.\u201d Through the experience of tribulation, perhaps, Jews have enriched every people among whom they have dwelt.as strangers.: : In speaking of the Christian era, I have, in my own mind, excluded the present age.Effectively, and taking into our view the whole of the western world, it must surely be described as non-Christian, if not anti-Christian.In this age, as all here know too well, the Jews have been the victims of the greatest, the most hideous crime that human history records.I wonder if we Canadian Gentiles are fully aw are of the magnitude of this crime.We know something .of the quality of it.Few in our day have not read of the horrors of the concentration camp and of the death chamber.; Ce 0 On the other hand, probably very few have any true conception of the\u2019 extent of a destruction which .\u2026 staggers the imagination, c Let me add immediately that I have 1 ne thought - \u2019 of isolating the crime in one country.It is a blot on: the whole of our western civilization and the symptom of à disease which has infected\u201d \u2018all of us more : or less.\u2019 It is perhaps the greatest case of moral retrogression that the world has known.It was a deed committed in the midst of western society which knew and professed the principle of humanity, and of love which its members dared to call Christian love.It was a crime against the light and, in this, it constituted the true and ultimate blasphemy.Page 6 CONCRESS BULLETIS Accepting, as we do, the principle of the oneness of humanity, no human being can contemplate it without a personal sense of shame.One of our own Canadian poets, a Jew, has,given moving expression to what all must - feel: \u201cAnd on that day, upon the heavenly searp, The hosannahs ceased, the hallelujahs died, And music trembled on the silenced harp.An angel, doffing his seraphic pride : Wept; and his tears so bitter were and sharp, .| That where they fell the blossoms ; shrivelled and died.\u201d Can we, in face of this crime, associate the noe tions of suffering and of service without what must seem like a callous attitude?Is this a kind of sterile crime, a dark blot which must be covered over and forgotten, a deep gulf over which we must cross without looking down?One might be inclined to say yes, and to pass on, Jeaving this iniquity in oblivion; and yet no such a course is possible, * ,Ç 4 .This event has, I believe, had a profound effect on Gentile thought.It has been one factor \u2018in the .reawakening of our conception of the active spirit of evil in the world.It has helped, 1 believe, in the \u201cprocess which we now.observe going on about us, the flight from that easy and flabby morality expressed in some such terms as: \u201cBe good to everyone and they will be good to you\u201d.It has led, I am sure to a new conception of the depths and heights of the \u201chuman spirit, to a new awareness of spiritual forces.In Canada we have no dreadful scenes of horror, but we have ourselves been part of the background.~ Canadian Jews have suffered and Canadian Gentiles have blushed for this crime, We have, in our \u2018own community, friends and \u201crelatives of the victims and indeed victims themsel- \u201cves, We are challenged to use our peace and our relative security not to deny or ignore our religious differences but completely wipe out that pride, which is both un-Christian and un-Jewish, and to eliminate the qualities which are false to the best in both our communities, and could mar our common relations.- We are called on to unite in what is the glory of the Jewish and I dare also to say it, of the truly Christian tradition, the love of humanity and dedication to the true servige of humanity to which we are all committed.As you know, Jewish literature abounds in precepts of mercy and justice.- DECEMBER 1953 = == mn hun hn fie TX qo The aie TT ki ain ar UB - = \u201cWhat doth the Lord thy God require of _ thee but to do.justice, to love mercy \u2018and to walk humbly with thy God?\u201d This noble \u2018precept every one of us knows \u2018and reveres.Christians, by their profession, accept it and have striven, if unworthily, to build'on-it.This is the bond between us.It is a bond that was never needed so much as it is today, when synthetic slogans and artificial groups tend to suppress the individual, the individual heart and conscience, and the truest and best individual emotions on which humanity rests, .Holding and maintaining this great tradition of humanity, Jews have seen themselves scattered over the length and breadth of the earth.They have, as I have suggested, made noble contributions.to the communities which they have made their homes.oo tte of They :haye instinctively and.of necessity combined and used their own peculiar national spirit as a \u2018bridge between nationalism and internationalism.| It might indeed seem that the wonder of our own age, the dream of a score of centuries, the foundation of the state of Israel, would bring this strange Jewish nationalism down to a level with the nationalism of more recent times.History and geography alike forbid this.While the Jews remember their history, while they find themselves still integral parts of nations over the western world, they must be the first and the greatest of internationalists.Their tradition at its best meets the ideal of all nations in the twentieth century.And this century, this period for Canada of unprecedented power and - prosperity and unparalleled responsibility, offers an AE re \u2018These contributions, too, have been made not as aliens but as members.Yet their own tradition and the will to survive have given them always another and a wider loyalty.¢ inspiring opportunity of service to every member of her Jewish communities.they will render.And Canada will be the greater for the service World Congress .{Continued from page 1) The second criterion is: to what degree does Canadian Jewry respond to their domestic communal obligations ?Here again, we are impressed by the growing efficiency of the Canadian Jewish Congress in on a relatively wide, democratic foundation, at the same time making its budget cover various fields of activities, namely, social, religious, educational and cultural.More can be done, of course, and will certainly be done in the future.The Canadian Jewish Congress pursues its struggle against the forces adverse to the Jewish community with courage and dignity, - persistently, yet with restraint, .always mindful of the democratically minded forces, friendiy to the Jewish community that exist in this large country, with its bright presence and more illustrious future.The third criterion is: to what degree is Canadian Jewry an integral part of the historic entity, known as the Jewish people?It is clear that the Canadian Jewish Congress is doing its best to fulfill its obligations to the Jewish people.Whether it is in securing Jewish immigration into Canada; whether in financial support for some Jewish organization abroad; whether it is in the positive solutions like restitution from Germany and Austria; whether it is in active participation in Jewish Jewish Agency.(Continued from page 1) ish Congress, a reflection of the extent of the Jewish educational system in the country.This network is much more extensive than in the U.S.and also much more intensive: Four thousand enrollment in day schools \u2014 not only in French influenced Montreal but no less in Winnipeg.The day school is becoming accepted in Canada as the effective solution to the problem.Statistics indicate that a better educational system slows the rate of intermarriage, conferences like the one held recently in Geneva; whether it is in active cooperation with the Jewish communities of the British Commonwealth the Canadian Jewish Congress is always there and constructively helpful.The fourth criterion is: to what degree does Canadian Jewry consolidate the State of Israel?Here again, Canadian Jewry occupies a highly respected place among those Jewish communities in the world which are true to our everlasting responsibilities.It can be said that the Canadian Jewish Congress, the representative body of Canadian Jewry, passes the test in all four decisive fields of activities which, taken together, make up the sound synthesis of a responsible, Jewish\" community.Dr.I.Schwartzbart DECEMBER 1953 already all too high.Within this framework the Canadian Jewish Congress functions as the spokesman of the community.True, it has not attained internally the authority it has as its representative to the world outside it, but even here it is extending its scope.It maintains no schools but it is becoming felt in the educational sphere.Congress has not sought to replace any institutions.It is coordinating them and it has learned to utilize specific groups for specific purposes., Thus, Congress has avoided fragmentizing and shattering the community with the consequent loss of energies in bickering and strife, There has not brought about the totalitarianism or autocracy which is feared by American Jews who are opposing the establishment of a similar unifying body in the U.S.There is no less voluntarism in Canada than in the U.S.No Jew- \"ish group in Canada has ever felt that the Congress has violated its principles or undermined its existence.All ideological differences to be found elsewhere also exist in Canada.But the Congress has .shown that Jews can organize centrally, nationally, democratically, freely in a democratic country without resort to sanction or to obsolete forms of Kehillah organization.B: Sherman, CONERESS BULLECIN Page 7 Symposium \u2014 | A On the Nature of the Community Canada can serve as an outstanding example of cultural, linguistic and -educational integration, The settlement of Canada by the British in 1759 after the capture of Quebec; the Capitulation of Montreal in 1760; the treaty terminating the war, as well as the Constitutional Act following it, ali lay down a cardinal principle of protection of these rights to the French Canadians.Herein lies the cultural pattern of Canada.The Jewish people of Canada always found it fairly simple to continue these traditions of integration without in any way giving up their ethnic or cultural integrity.Canada has always been a home for Jews where they know that they are an economically important element and live as of right and not on sufferance.There have been no great historical incidents which have driven a wedge between the Jewish community and its neighbours such as the social and political an- ti-semitism of Austria and Germany in the latter half of the 19th century and, of course, again in Hitler's days, or as in France with the bitter anti-semitism leading to the trumped up charges against Captain Dreyfus.What the Canadian Jew has had to content with have been simply his own integration and vitalization; and social discrimination where he has been exposed to the ill effects which America generally developed regarding members of minority groups such as the Irish in Boston, the Poles in Pennsylvania or Michigan.The position of the Jew from his earliest days in Canada has been a simple one of an adjustment to a new environment and settlement without the enormous handicaps which traditionally existed in Europe.The facility of settlement did in no way, however, attenuate the characteristics which make Jews easily identifiable.Religion is the by SAUL HAYES principal factor in this identification, From the non-Jewish point of view they are identified as members of a religious community and they are not regarded as an ethnic group, e.g.Ukrainians, Po~ les.The identification of Jews with Jewish religion is inescapable.It has been pointed out that it is a great social leveller in Jewish life where thousands of agnostics, non-believers, non -reli- gious people are members of synagogues.Even the secularists now believe that without some religions identification, the Jewish community cannot survive and, for this reason, religion is eoming back as a pivotal part of Jewish life, As I see the picture today, Canadian Jewry shapes up as follows: A.The majority of Canada\u2019s Jews are not awaiting assimilation at all but want to remain as Jews.Consciously or subconsciously, they are dedicated to the prevalent Canadian theory of the recognition of multicultural patterns.B.Most Jews look for identification and the synagogue and Jewish education are symbols of identification.C.There is a considerable influence in Canada of the French Canadian devotion to its culture, its language, its religion.D.Many Jews \u2014 far too many \u2014 are apathetic.A considerable devotion to Jewish education may influence the next generation.The leadership of our generation must work for this next generation.E.There are thousands of people who have come here since 1933.Many have come since 1946.Yiddish is to some considerable extent their cultural expression.Canadian Jewry has to recognize this.F.Basically all Jews, the apathetic, \u2018the antagonistic, the community leaders, are all regarded by the non-Jewish world as members of a group practising Judaism, Canadian Jewry, with but 200,- Page 8 CONCRESS BULLETIN Le 000 members cannot permit any considerable proportion to remain disinterested.Necessarily it has to labour to maintain an organization that would tie together al groups in the country.: Hence, the problem of community organization is of prime concern.On the national level, this is translated into the search for a form of organization or co-opera- tion whieh will tie in all the communities across the nation, the large with the small; and the search for instruments whereby common consultation can be developed and the consequent means of implementing the decisions thus reached.Here ther® are specific problems of day-by-day Jewish living, the nature of the synagogue to be maintained, what type y teacher to be hired, which local institution to have priority, for what causes campaigns are to be condueted and when; how to interest the young in community affairs and how deeply \u2014 not to speak of the basic question of who shall be who.The area of community organization has become a catchall for the assorted wishes and ideals of all who are devoted to community work.| In recent months, with the growing importance of \u2018fund raising for Israel and for overseas relief needs, a serious effort is being made in Canada by the Congress together with the Zionist movement, the welfare funds and the Bnai Brith to tighten up on the standardization of fund raising throughout the communities.Uniform norms of giving and procedures of campaigning are being devs eloped.In general, it can be asserted that a basic instrument in community organization in each centre is central fund raising institution which necessarily knits together all participating citizens and all significant agencies.There is a tendency for this body to touple the evaluation of agencies with its process of budgetting and D, DECEMBER 1953 =.£3 EEE e 2 £37 > = EF.' (+ os 5 of seeking to ensure that funds generally contributed are efficiently disbursed.These local fund-centred institutions are joined in these functions by the more broadly constituted national Jewish organizations.These institutions thus exert a considerable influence on the local communities, above all in maintaining some norm of contributions, some uniformity of local trends, a fact-gathering and dis- Ë, Seminating service, an informal pool of professional staff for local needs, The entire trend is motivated by general awareness that under present circumstances within the developing Jewry in the western world, a tighter organization of the comumnities is of prime importance if they are to perform their historical function and if they are to contribute to the sta- \" bility \u2018and the profoundest inspiration of the Jewish citizen.Secondly, in the local communities, Congress is not, nor should it be, an external organization.It is an integral part of the local community, There is a considerable amount of local organization and very good it is \u2014 community councils in Windsor, Hamilton, London, Halifax, Calgary; welfare funds in Toronto, Winnipeg and elsewhere, which indicate a serious and useful step in some areas of community organization, Thirdly, the real question is whether there is to be mere lip service to the ideal of planning and co-ordination or whether it is to be undertaken seriously and effectively.If the community means business, who is to be entrusted with the difficult and often invidious task of incurring the displeasure of vested interests in order to bring about the necessary changes and who is to decide the priorities?Congress ought not to, nor indeed can it, impose rules and regulations.Congress\u2019 role is to work out these relationships in consultation with the various communities.How then, are we meeting the challenge?We in Canada do not believe in a monolithic structure.It is partnership which makes of Congress a unique experiment and \u2018which leads us without too much self-righteousness or complacency to believe that we have madé a contribution where others have failed.We have created unity where others have struggled to have a common denominator, and we have engaged ourselves in a common enterprise where others are engaging in a battle of words.In the past, communities had gone off in all directions.Strife had been the word of the day, and generally, the communities\u2019 desires and responsibilities had been left unfulfilled.Those communities which have a semblance of community organization find that their own frustrations are less and their own sense of accomplishments are greater than where there is complete anarchy.The job of the Canadian Jewish Congress is not only to encourage such community organization but even to take active steps to produce it.A partnership agreement for this aspect of our common heritage exists between the Canadian Committee of the Council of Jew- .ish Federation & Welfare Funds and the Canadian Jewish Congress.Field staff is employed to advise and guide communities and to \u201cinterest them in the manifold advantages of orderly procedure.The Committee on Community Organization recognizes that its job may, in fact, be the sum total of a lot of other jobs and particularly the setting up of organizations so that they can initiate Jewish program in their communal life, better their educational facilities, find greater nobility in Jewish existence and not unimportantly at all, raise more funds for those causes which it is accepted duty of Jews of this generation to support.The Canadian Jewish Congress, while unwilling to get into matters of doctrine or theology, must recognize that religious welfare in a community is one of its principal aims, We must surely, through the efforts of our Religious Welfare Committee where national planning and national action has to be taken, accept the need for protecting the religious integrity of the Jewish community.In the field of international responsibilities, it is obvious that no national organization can make any claim to dispatch a function unless in co-ordinative partnership with others.So we have a long and old list of agreements with the World Jewish Congress, the World Ort Union and the OSE.In 1939, we entered into an agreement with DECEMBER 1953 the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee as the result of which a very proud and noble chapter in Jewish history has been written.The Canadian Jewish Congress could not have done the job it did for the relief of overseas Jewry during the frightful years from 1939 without the JDC.But it is equally true that the scissors requires two blades and without the organization of the Canadian Jewish Congress, the JDC would not have been able to effect that which it did.The most recent example of close co-operation and the striving to accept the role which destiny has laid at the doors of Canadian Jewry arises in the Conference of Material Claims Against Germany and the Committee for Material Claims Against Austria.The Canadian Jewish Congress from the inception of the plan has worked closely with American, British and other organizations.From the founding of the.Canadian Jewish Congress, through its aims and objective stated on its reorganization, right into the present days of its corporate structure and in the text of its Charter, the JCanadian Jewish Congress has proudly proclaimed its task of assisting in the creation of a Jewish homeland, assisting the Jewish Agency in its program and, latterly, the State of Israel.The Zionist Organization of Canada has a long and -proud history and is uniquely devoted to these objectives.This has not meant friction nor collision, it has meant very useful working arrangements whereby the Canadian Jewish Congress has been called upon by the Zionist Organization whenever this latter organization has felt that a solid front should be created and where representations required joint action.This was so on innumerable occasions.Many representations both to Canadian government and internationally have been made as a result of this fruitful co-operation.Latterly, that is to say in 1950, it was agreed that the United Zionist Council and the Canadian Jewish Congress create the National Conference for Israel and Jewish Rehabilitation and invited the Bnai Brith and the Council of Jewish Federations & Welfare Funds to join in the enterprise.(Continued on Page 12) CONGRESS BULLETIN TE pence ame - rater \u201c Page 9 Symposium \u2014 Il * The Ideas That Made.Congress The Congress is not just a run of the mill group unit, representing an isolated impulse, or a limited motif.It is an organization with a storied past, summating in its constituence a saga of inspired visioning, ideological adventuring, patient planning, fanatical devotion, practical enterprise.Thinkers, idealists have cherished, exalt: ed notions of Jewish destiny.Men of affairs have schemed designs for constructive unity in the realm of Jewish communal concern.All of them, in their diverse places in the Jewish economy, have labored.after their own fashions, to build this great symbol and instrument of Jewish self-realization.The conventions of the Congress are gatherings of devout pilgrims in the temple of Jewish survivalist service, Since the Congress is reflective not of an isolated mood or, a localized need, we must look for its motivation \u2018and sanction in the broader areas and deeper recess of Jewish group relevancies.The Congress is supposed to represent, in its range and manner, the essential characteristics of the process of Jewish living as an historic entity in the Canadian milieu.Its continuance and value are predicted on its faithful performance of this function.Is it living up to its high purpose ?Does it maintain contact with the spirit of its constituency, register its trend and urgencies, and instrumentally promote their effectuation ?Or is it now but a relic feeding on the glory and - prestige it earned during the years of crisis ?Further, is it possible to achieve \u2014 if need there should be \u2014 programmatic reorientation to restore it to its former role of service and value ?Let us take a look at the picture of Congress in its earlv formative days, during the latter years of the first great war and the years immediately following its termination.The Congress we ha- by A.B.BENNETT ve now is a continuum of the Congress of the first war epoch.True, there was a spell of interruption, comprising a stretch of some ten years, in the active life of the Congress.It is my contention that the Congress of the first era and the Congress of the present era are one and the same entity.The Congress today is physically better equipped to cope with practical realities than was the loosely assembled apparatus of the early twenties, But the idea of the Congress, the pervasive essence that gives it vitality, is the principle that was gestated in the turbulent years of the first war.What were the basic characteristics of the Jewish scene in the fateful years of the first war ?In the U.S.second decade.of this century witnessed the revolt of the Jewish immigrant masses against the hegemony of the German-American notables in the domain of Jewish affairs.The tides of Jewish immigration from eastern Europe in the period between 1891 and the outbreak of the war had brought to these shores masses of people seething with energy and aflame with pioneering zeal.Hundreds of thousands settled in the large centers.They appropriated entire areas and were able to fashion institutions and mores according to their own predispositions.The difficulties of readjustment sharpened susceptibilities, and called into play reserves of creative impulse.The new arrivals soon developed\u2019 a civilization of their own.They .created a typical literature\u2014news- papers, periodicals, books, poetry of a high order.They built a trade union movement.They established synagogues, centers of learning, and a host of ideological coteries.There were tragedies, and frustration, and traumatic gashes.But there was vigor, and the jubilance of conquest; a vivid dynamism of spiritual thrust.There were also present a Page 10 ya tionist movement.group of old settlers surfaced with the gloss of emancipatory exper- lence in Germany, or protectively adapted to the coloration of the American world.These men had, acquired position and wealth, and\u2019 they assumed, perhaps naturally, that theirs was the prerogative to act as spokesmen for the Jewish communion as a whole.They were at home in the institutions of the country and they could make themselves articulate to their neighbours.Their Judaism was a state of habituation to an endemic condition to which they had #o reconcile themselves, It was there, inescapable, perforce to be endured.For a time, the immigrant Jews tolerated the.leadership of the notables.In the course of time, however, they began to develop a sense of security, of rootedness in their new setting.And with this feeling came a sense of revolt against the pretentiousness of the oldtimers.Their Jewishness was dynamic.The Jewism of the so-called \u201cYa- hudim\u201d was sterile.Democracy in Jewish life became the slogan of the new libera- What did it mean in terms of practical action ?It meant that the men of Jewish folk had to organize themselves, in approved democratic style, to choose their own spokesmen and their own leaders who would speak and act according to the wishes and thinking of a properly processed majority.The schematic deployment of the forces of revolt, strengthened by the doctrinated sanction of Wilsonian preachment, was carried out under the banner of the American Jewish Congress.The disturbance which was going on in Jewish life in the United States naturally had its repercus- CONGRESS BULLETIN | \u201c DECEMBER 1953.gs ac \\ pel bt Mon fe i oi fhe than ¢ head Her paf di young frat yal of and Bra who in lt der Rauf ist min Hass Br ed th enthr in de ish 0 the (wi as more I Mot dr st the a Cour (ite Yen diff esta al il dt self Woy cu np ony 1 the the co] wi (ape toy he ik sions on the Canadian Jewish scene.And it so happened, quite adventitiously, that we had in our midst æt that time two important figures who were able to incite the incipient stirrings of revolt in the soul of our Canadian Jewish masses into a clamouous urge to action.=» Reuben Brainin, the great Hebrew writer, had discovered in Montreal that there was more Jew- .ish vitality and dynamism among the hosts of the common people than among the notables at the head of the communal hierarchy.He was aided in his erusade on behalf of the masses by his brilliant disciple Yehudah Kaufman, a young scholar, who had\" been attracted by the presence in Montreal of the master, to settle there and pursue his studies at McGill Brainin was essentially an aesthete who loved the beautiful and novel in literature and art, with an underlining of austere Hebraism.Kaufman was a philosophie socialist who ennobled Marxian determinism with a liberal admixture of Hassidie humanism.Brainin and Kaufman organized the crusade in Canada for the enthronement of the democratic in Jewish life.The Canadian Jewish Congress was the projection of the doctrine of Wilsonian democracy with its trust in the fundamental soundness of the instincts and mores of the masses.In Canada the idea of a democratic Jewish instance actually did not encounter any serious opposition as did the movement in.the United States.Most of the so-called Westmounters and their counterparts in Toronto and other cities dignified the Congress movement with their devastating indifference.The struggle for the establishment of the Congress was a unilated one.The task consisted mainly in arousing the interest of the potential supporters, and in setting up an institution that would reflect all the facets of the cult of democracy, in its general implications, as well as its Jewish connotation.The only novelty of action that the Canadian Jewish Congress and the American Jewish Congress could.offer.that Was - congruent with the full extensity of Jewish capacity and Jewish urge wad in respect to the implementation of the Balfour Declaration and: the protection to Jewish minorities in lands of oppression.But when this job was done, the Congress in Canada and in the United States had nothing left to live for.They had come into being on the issue of democracy.The issue was no longer pertinent.The American Jewish Congress then proceeded to go into a decline.The Canadian Jewish Congress proceeded to die; or perhaps, more truthfully, to go into a state of suspended animation.In Montreal, Caiserman strug- _gled valiantly to keep the feeble corpus alive.In Winnipeg, the late Bill Keller and Ben Sheps and several others tended and nursed the frail organism with parental solicitude.In Toronto, too, Morris Goldstick, the late Rhinewine, the late Moses Gelber, Joe Bochneck, - Sam Shapiro and myself hung on for years in the hope that by some miracle, the congenital weakling, issue of Canadian Jewry\u2019s great emotion, would become transformed into a virile champion of the Jewish democratic way of life.~ Eventually, Caiserman in Mont- \u2018real capitulated.The last ditchers in Winnipeg threw in the sponge.The faithful remnants in Toronto surrenderd.Our typewriter in Toronto was claimed by Rhinewine \u2014 he was an editor and presumably he coul® use the machine for the enhancement of Jewish literature.The financial residue of some twenty-six dollars (residue, not deficit) was turned over by the financial geniuses of the executive, Gelber and Bochneck, to the Brunswick Talmud Torah.Who said that the Congress is not and was not always for Jewish education first and last ?The ideal of the Congress, the vision of a community realizing its destiny in the simple processes of folk living, true to its primal nature and urgings, did not die.The body had spent itself in its orgiac burst in the blinding flash of the emergency.The principle of Congress, purified by disaster remained alive as a challenge, a beacon to guide our communal processes.Then came the plague of Hitler- I :recall a meeting one - very warm early summer evening in the old Zionist Institute in Toronto.A delegation of Congress enthusiasts had come up from Montreal to meet with the Toronto disciples to discuss methods of launching DECEMBER 1953 ~~ CONGRESS BULLETIN the Congress movement here.Speeches were delivered.Plans were proferred.Ideas were bandied.It was long past eleven.Then our dear friend, Sam Bel- kin, got on his feet to present a memorandum.I looked at the sheaf of papers in his hand.A memorandum, indeed! A document, voluminous, ample, solid.In Canada, the resurrected Congress quickly gathered under its control the whole manifold of activities required to cope with the problems of Hitlerism.It had the entire field all to itself.The Jewish community was face ing a crisis.The question of democracy was not a paramount issue.It resolved itself into a matter of methodology; a means of reaching as many of the peaple affected by the threat as possible, alerting them to the danger, and organizing them for effective action.The third important epoch of Congress, marking a radical change in our group psyche, came with the outbreak of the second war.Several months prior to that, the Congress organization gained significant reinforcement in the accession of Mr.Bronfman to the presidency.The Congress had been gradually establishing itself as a fairly satisfactory instrument of Jewish policy.The public loved the Congress.They felt that the institution, loyal to the traditions of democracy, was theirs.However, the advent of Mr.Bronfman gave the Congress a new tone of realism, a touch of hard practicality that made for enhanced effec- liveness and stability.When the war broke out, the mood of the Jewish community underwent a decisive change.The feeling of helplessness, of alone- ness in a world of cruelty gave way to a spirit of Militancy.The Jews had allies in the fight against Hitlerism.Mr.Bronfman quickly oriented himself in the new situation.The Jewish community had a paramount job to do, transcending every other task in importance; the job of helping to win the war.The Congress swung into action.There.was a call, resonant with the overtones of Jewish destiny.The answer was prompt, decisive: \u201cReady, aye, ready.\u201d (Continued on Page 12) Page 11 Hayes (Continued from Page 9) Planning is possible, priorities are possible and such ideas can be enforced.This is the value of the philosophy which permeates the thinking of the officers of the Canadian Jewish Congress.The Canadian Jewish commun- ada.The overwhelming emergen- ity is looked upon as an integral cies from overseas had let up a part of the Canadian community.little.The Jewish Congress undoubtedly The 899 delegates who met in has taken the leading role in Toronto were able in good cons- bringing this about, If the Can- (ience to devote an Oneg Shab- adian Jewish Congress had ac- bat session to questions of youth complished nothing in its long his- organization across the country.tory out the end result of obtain- The session on education under in e recognition by the non- ; .1 Jews of this country organization- the chairmanship of Edward E.ally, governmentally and in thousands of cases individually, it would have deserved the applause of the Jewish community.Actually the Canadian Jewish community is one of the three groupings of the country, Sometimes the results g Ogden, M.Menachowski, S.Harare direct and easy to assess; yey and M, Selchen, A workshop sometimes they are more subtly ypder the chairmanship of Layy indicative of lasting value but not M, Becker continued the delibera- necessarily open to immediate cal- tions.culation, This nevertheless remains one of the real purposes of the existence of the Canadian Jew- The problems of Canadian Jewry at last have come into their own.All observers of the last plenary session of the Canadian Jewish Congress noted that \u2014 at last \u2014 it became possible to discuss the « Wide range of interest and the progressive thinking that ani- the community.Among those who took part in this discussion were By the same token, the public relations sessions \u2014 there were conditions of Jewish living in Can- \u2018Gelber was most spirited.The re- - solutions adopted there show the mates, the education workers of Canadian Issues Preeminent two of them \u2014 evoked the keenest interest.Prof.J.Finkelman reported on fait employment legislation.A.Simkin presented a more general report and S.D.Cohen presided over a breakfast worshop.There Rabbi B.Baskin, F.Catz- man, Q.C., Prof.A.Lermer, C.Paltiel and M.Finestone, S.Harris, M.H.Myerson, J.Berstein and M.Garfunkle discussed a variety of subjects ranging from educational methods in Jewish - schools to the revision of the criminal code in effect federally.The delegates expressed keen concern with current dangers to freedom of thought and expression in Canada and, at the same time, sought means of preventing abuses of such freedoms to the detriment of the citizenry and the state.The key questions of community financing was thoroughly discussed under the leadership of Lavy M.Becker with the participation of J.B.Lightman, M.Newmark, Gurston Allen, E.E.Barkoff, Miss Faigie Hutner, Donald B.Hurwitz, .Joseph H.Fine, QC.and Aaron Feld, * ish Congress \u2014 to be the voice \u201cof Canadian Jewry, to interpret Canadian Jewry to Canada and te the rest of the world; to articulate the hopes, and aspirations of Canadian Jewry.What is our final judgment?Bennett (Continued from*Page 11) After the war, the Congress was strong.It had done an excellent job.What did Jewish life want of it, expect from it, now ?The cessation of the war had brought into focus the enormity of the catastrophe that had befallen the Jewish communities of eastern and central Europe.What could the Jews of America \u2014 of Canada \u2014.do about it ?The answer was: raise money, vast sums for relief, raise vast Our work does not involve a final judgment nor a definitive position on the prevailing social, political and economic ideologies.In Canada the Jews are and always will be a.small minority group of persons individually integrated into the social, economic and political life of the country while, as a group, they strive to retain their religious and cultural identity in a democracy which permits them to worship and to live their lives in accordance with their traditions and religious principles.® tion.We can survive and continue to develop as Jews only by deliberate choice and not merely through the accident of birth or environment.There are many \u2014 problems which face us as an integral part of Canadian life, of tes the maintenance of our cultur- Canadian Jewry, and as members al and religious identity as a group of the world-wide community of in an active and vital form, We Jews.have reached the stage when scat- We can tackle them only through tered and fragmented.efforts the instrumentality of an organiz- alone \u2014 no matter how sincerely ed, representative, nation - wide motivated and ably made \u2014 can- Canadian Jewry which recognizes not be relied upon to meet the the basic principles which charact- needs of Canada\u2019s Jewish popula- erize us as Jews and Canadians.Our survival as Jews necessita- sums for Palestine \u2014 later, Israel.It is noteworthy that during the past few years, sensing the impact of the Israeli challenge on Jewish life, the Congress has lent its resources to the furtherance of the Israeli:cause.Here the Congress reestablishes its identity with basic motivations in Jewish life.But the work which Congress \u2018is now doing in the domain of Israeli help properly belongs to the program of the Zionist organization, and the Congress may sooner or later find itself on disputed ground.Realizing the primacy of the money endavours in the setting of our needs, some Congress leaders have sought to gain prestige for the Congress by hitching its waggon to the Welfare Fund star.However, it is obvious that important and urgent as it is to mobilize financial support, there are values in the Jewish life processes that transcend the significance of the philanthropizing mood.There are spiritual kinetics in the trends in our life, that trace the constructive strands in the pattern of our \u2018existence.CONCRESS BULLETIN 7 Page 12 DECEMBER 1953 qu 1 \u201cRehabilitation of Jewry Is Theme of Dr.Nahum Goldmann said that it is the duty of the Jewish people to save what they could from the holocaust set by the Germans: \u201cWe must save whatever material goods we can snatch from the catastrophe; we must rehabilitate the survivors and we must rebuild Jewish culture and Jewish order after all the chaos and destruction.Above all, we must consolidate the state of Israel.The material aspect of the problem is by now more or less completed.The agreement with Germany is now operative; the indemnification bill is now German law; goods for many millions of dollars have now been delivered, much of it not of German manufacture.In some points the restitution goes beyond the current clauses of the agreement, Dr.Goldmann said._ The\u2019 remnants of the German D.P.camps have been removed and have been brought to Israel or elsewhere by the Jewish Agency, the Government of Israel and by the Joint Distribution Committee.Israel urgently needs a few years to consolidate itself.It has overextended itself to the breaking point in every respect in a superhuman effort.Israel must have peace.It must be integrated into the Middle East.It will be up to the Jewish people everywhere to convince the great powers of the western world that such a peace must come to the region.At present the Arabs feel that time is not working against them.Such a peace is an essential to world peace and to the sound organization of that part of the world.Dr.Goldmann said the Arab countries \u2014 still formally at war with Israel \u2014 would make peace with that country if the Western nations, especially the U.S., would hold back arms delivery and economic aid.The armistice between Arabs and Jews was interrupted every week by border clashes, he said.Western nations could exert their influence with the Arab world by refusing to send any more arms shipments until a peace treaty was concluded.* \u201cThe Trieste question is not bethe Decade\u201d ing settled by Italians and Yugo~ slavs alone, neither are the problems between Great Britain and Egypt,\u201d Dr.Goldmann said.\u201cThe United States has a deep interest in these questions and are, informally using their influence with the parties concerned.\u201d Left alone, it will take five or ten years to solve the Arab-Jewish problem, Dr.Goldmann said.\u201cIt is only fair to ask the U.S.to do in the Middle East what it has done in other areas of the world,\u201d he said.Dr.Goldmann deplored the \u201clukewarm attitude\u201d which Jews take toward their religious obligations, \u201cThere 1s no passion for discussion, ideas and convictions compared to 20 or 30 years ago,\u201d he said, \u201cThere has been a great change and we are all part of it.We must face the fact that we have become a small people.Six million Jews were lost in the Nazi holocaust.How many thinkers, poets and politicians were included 77 \u201cIn Montreal, 70 per cent, of Jewish children receive Jewish education, which is remarkable,\u201d he said.\u201cIn the U.S.we have made surveys and the results are shattering.The same holds true for Latin America.\u201cYou will be surprised to learn Israel has benefitted more financially from non-Jewish sources than from Jewish people,\u201d he said, and mentioned German reparations which go beyond what is legally required, \u201cWe must rebuild what can be rebuilt after the destruction by Nazis,\u201d he said, \u201cand we must build up Israel.We have to concentrate less on the relief of displaced persons now and build up the centres of culture and learning which were destroyed so that new generations of Jews will have knowledge of Jewish traditions and values,\u201d he said.\u201cBut I think our largest task is in the economic field.The large immigration has created a difficult economic and financial situation, but the large deliveries of German reparations are beginning to be felt.For the first time now Israel is really planning her economy.\u201cThe Jewish state is not a luxury but a moral answer to a moral problem; it is the resolution of millenia or Jewish homelessness, a problem that only recently cost 6,000,000 lives.\u201cIsrael must consolidate itself into one people, into one human element.It must develop a single mode of life, a single approach to life.The future of Israel depends on this sociological and cultural consolidation.\u201cOne of the greatest forces operative in the country to-day for such assimilation is the army An informal glimpse at several members of the executive confering during a Congress session : À.E.Gelber (left) prominent in refugee settlement work; Michael Garber, @.C., chairman of the national executive, and | Joseph H.Fine, Q.C., national treasurer.DECEMBER 1953 DOI NES Lt a a Ee - CONCRESS BULLETIN Page 13 ne POUR RSS PE NE ERP PES EE SRE PC SEE DE EEE EEE PIE EE PE PE PE ads a ss RY I: D oc I Be gl Bou D: pau | TL \u2019 i 50 i.he a Da Gi Ses SEE RER a fi 98 pi NE y of the Haganah, one of the greatest educational agencies in the world.\u201cJewry is faced with long range tasks which we have not yet begun to discharge.It.is a historic and titanic task\u2014building Jewish life with Jewish values on the ruins of the Nazi period.It is a task and a responsibility worthy .of the Jewish people.\u201d TRIBUTE TO GOLDMANN Michael Garber, Q.C., of Montreal, who presided at the dinner session addressed by Samuel Bronfman and by Dr.Nahum Goldmann, said that Canadian Jewry was maturing and \u201cwas coming around to the old cultural traditions of our people: the traditions that it is a disgrace to be an Am Ha'aretz, that man and a community do not live by bread alone, that it is no longer possible to maintain the right not to know either Hebrew or Yiddish.\u201cWe are beginning to grope into our literature, We are becoming reacquainted with the values of our heritage\u2014whether you choose to find them in the Commentary or in the Tog or in the Congress Bulletin\u2014values which add up to the totality of Jewish culture.\u201cCanadian Jewry is not a hysterical Jewry.We do not live in a hysterical country.Somehow we come to assume the character of soundness in the eyes of the world.It is like a pillar becoming imbedded.\u201cNor is it a matter of individuals.Vilno was not the Jerusalem of Lithuania because of the Gaon of Vilno but because of the training of an entire community, with a profoundly creative Jewish instinct and interest.\u201d Mr, Garber paid tribute to the courage of Dr.Goldmann who dared the anger of those who set themselves up as being arbiters and voice of Jewish honour, Jewish dignity and Jewish sensitivity.He has vindicated himself with the successful results of the negotiations in regard to the Jew- The The Plenary Session of the Congress remembered the men and women of Jewry who have passed on after giving years of service to our people.The delegate paid tribute in respect and silent reverence to: Dr.Chaim Weizmann of Reho- voth, Israel, Chaim Greenberg of New York, Philip Abbey of Montreal, B.Becker of Montreal, Sender Greenfeld of Montreal, Michael Hirsch of Montreal, Percy N., Jacobson of Mont- .real, Jack A.Klein, O.B.E., of Montreal, Jacob Pascal of Montreal, Dr.J.Rosenbaum of Montreal, Community Remembers Joseph Schubert of Montreal, M.Abramsky of Kingston, Lou Bernstein of Toronto, Mark G.Cohen of Toronto, L M.Granatstein of Toronto, Lou Isaacs of Toronto, Max Kaplan of Kirkland Lake, Sam Kruger of Toronto, Sam Lent of Toronto, Rabbi Samuel Levine of Hamilton, Noah Sadowski of Toronto, Frank Silverman of Toronto, E.F, Singer of Toronto, Dora Wechsler of Toronto, A.H.Aronovitch of Winnipeg, Per¢y Buckwold of Dauphin, Ben M.Cohen of Winnipeg, Mrs.Sarah Goldenberg of Saskatoon, Sam Kanee of Winnipeg, Samuel Rosner of Winnipeg.ish claims upon Germany.Rabbi Maurice N.Eisendrath, one of the founders of the Canadian Jewish Congress in 1934, came to Toronto for the Congress session.He said that there were still forces in U.S.Jewry who were fearful of the consequences of setting up a body similar to the Canadian Congress.U.S.Jewry suffers much as a result.He \u2018adverted to the spiritual character of the Jewish .people and said that this spiritual heritage enters into the political and economic problems of our agenda.Even the leaders of Israel are too sanguine and optimistic.There are grave spiritual and cultural needs there that place the very survival of the state in danger, he said.It is essential that there shall be fuller participation by Jewry in the majestic reconstruction program of the Israeli people, a participation which must not be limited to contributions from our material superfluity.\u201cWe may have a state for Jews, but what the Jewish people have always dreamed of was a Jewish state; more than a refuge for Jews; a'state motivated by Jewish Page 14 Rabbi M.Eisendrath ideals.They there feel the need for this higher reality.\u201cBy the same token it is our responsibility to be more than a Congress of Jews but a Jewish Congress.\u201cAfter the emancipation of the Jewish individual citizen has come the emancipation of the Jewish people as a nation, in Israel.Now there must come the emancipation and the fulfillment of the Jewish spirit, its implementation in life, in the life of our people and in the woild insofar as we can affect it,\u201d Rabbi Eisendrath said.CONCRESS BULLETIN DECEMBER 1953 g ?d pb anti ÿ Cons (pale fh je Cou afi ith al,\" : wl boop 40 spores raf jo feding ld, be Ista gid ofher There ofher con nl, pa grosse fare 0 recat te job leve Ist There 1s safe hay is done à ela or | des to y | But tf sid Mo k Have her lhusiast serious penditur frose fo \u201cWhat Jey beep till by That Ni fiom 0 Mis fg Hllg 7 Jen ai wi happy den I inky hilly ly Tes dey, Ep, Mtge The 4 i Israel Shou Jewish misery of the world has, in a sense, been transferred to Israel and diverted from other countries, such as Canada, Michael S.Comay, minister of: Israel to Canada; said in his address before the Congress, \u201cIf it has not been for Israel,\u201d he said, \u201cthe displaced and other Jews would be knocking at your door and you would be having sleepless nights because of them.\u201d In a frank declaration of Israelite feeling towards the rest of the world, he said there were times that Israel Jews felt Canadian and other Jews overlooked them.\u201cThere is an impatience against other communities abroad in Israel, partly because we are engrossed with tremendous problems.I have found a certain lack of appreciation in parts of Cahada of the job we are doing.I believe Israel's people need help.There is some feeling that the state having been set up the job is done and you can sit back and relax or devote your main energies to your concerns at home.\u201d But that is not the case, he said.\u201cNo Israelite can see what you have here and still be greatly enthusiastic.He feels there is a serious imbalance between expenditures in this ceuntry and those for Israel.\u201cWhat would the world map of Jewry be like if Israel had not been established?Would Jews still be rotting in prison camps?That-misery has been diverted from you, in a sense, and placed on us to provide these people with refuge and safety.\u201d Jews throughout the world, he said, will be judged by what will happen in Israel.He explained that Israel's policy in international relations was not fully understood.\u201cWe try to preserve some independence of judgment in an independent state.It is a delicate course to steer,\u201d he said.The Jews of the free world were Israeli Minister to Canada Michael S.Comay, (right) wel- comed to the Congress by Sol Kane of Winnipeg (left) national vice-president of Congress.in the centre background is Michael Garber, @.C., of Montreal, chairman of the National executive committee.one of Israel's greatest assets; the young nation ean not achieve much without them, Mr.Comay declared.Discussing the matter of funds, Comay said \u201cThere is a serious imbalance even between your expenditures in this country and the funds you make available for Israel .Noting the \u201csplendid insitutions that I have seen here,\u201d Comay said \u201can Israeli feels a little heart- sore æ.because he feels Israel is being left out.\u201d Dedaring that a similar \u201clack of appreciation\u201d of the position of non-Israeli Jewry exists in Israel, Comay asserted, however, that \u201cThe mutual involvement, whether we like it or not, of Israel and the Jewish communities in the free world is the central fact of the Jewish world today and will remain so for some time to come and instead of shrinking from this, we should welcome and embrace DECEMBER 1953 it, and boldly together work out the implications for yourselves and ourselves.\u201d Arthur.Gelber reported on the work of the refugee relief committee of this session, noting the accession \u2018of new blood in an organization, with many of these valuable persons beginning to give leadership.\u201d He stated that in the partnership that is the refugee program many had learned to think in new terms.\u201cThe community has learned to appreciate the human values of professional social work, the value of the skills of the persons engaged in this work.The community has also learned to adjust itself to the newcomers and to their views of Jewish communal aspirations .Many of our social workers learned to converse in Yiddish in the process.\u201d Mr.Gelber stated that \u201cthe smaller communities played a relatively negligible role in the absorption of the refugees.\u201d CONGRESS BULLETIN \u2018 * Page 15 Officers and Dominion Council Of Canadian Jewish Congress Elected At Plenary Session For National President: Chairman of National Executive: National Vice-Presidents: Samuel Bronfman Michael Garber, Q.C.Monroe Abbey Sol Kanee E.Lando J.I.Oelbaum National Treasurer: National Secretary: Chairman of Eastern Region: Lavy M.Becker Joseph H.Fine, Q.C.Moishe Dickstein Chairman of Central Region: J.I.Oelbaum Chairman of Western Region: David Slater Chairman of Pacific Region: Esmond Lando Honorary Vice-Presidents: Montreal S.Belkin Allan Bronfman B.Robinson, Q.C.Halifax N.Heinish- Toronto A.B.Bennett E.E.Gelber I.Freeman S.Kronick B.Sadowski, M.B.E.S.M.Shapiro Winnipeg B.Sheps M.A.Gray, M.L.A.Calgary B.Pearlman Edmonton , W.Margolus Regina A.D.Samuels Saskatoon E.Bricker Vancouver Charles Walfish Additional Members of The National Executive: Abe Bronfman, Montreal David Kirsch, Montreal J.Reich, Montreal B.Robinson, Q.C., Montreal Noa Heinish, Halifax , Nathan Green, Halifax Chairmen of Committees, Eastern Region: Public Relations Education Youth Community Organization Research and Archives Committee on Refugees - S.D.Cohen Ben Beutel Harold Lande, Q.C.E.E.Barkoff Moishe Myerson S.Harvey / Page 16 .1953-1955 Office DOMINION COUNCIL MONTREAL B.Aaron - M.Amsel .D.Augenfelt E.E.Barkoft Justice H, Batshaw David Becker J.Berman Ben Beutel Wolf Bialik © Sam Black Mrs.J.Blanshay - Ben Block B.M.Bloomfield J.H: Blumenstein I.M.Bobrove M.Breitman Jack Breslow 8S.Broder A.Bronfman Rabbi S.Cass Mrs.H.M.Caiserman Percy Caplan L.Cheifetz Israel Cohen Prof.Maxwell Cohen S.D.Cohen Leon Cresthol, Q.C., M.P.Mrs.Leon Crestohl B.Diamond Mme.C.Donalda A.Eaton I.Eiley Phil Fainer Phil Finestone A.Feigenbaum J.N.Frank Mrs.H, J.Freedman Nathan Gaisin M.Ginsburg Harvey Golden S.Goodman S.S.Gordon À.Greenfeld H.S.Greenwood J.Grossman S.Harvey Mrs.Saul Hayes A.A.Heaps G.Hollinger M.Honigman D.Hurwitz S.Jacobgon David Kirsch Milton Klein Mrs.F.Kravitz : (Continued on Page 18) - CONCRESS BULLETIN \u201cDECEMBER 1953 pi a.= pi (on publ | | We j Pers publ Rest Tnt Tha fol by dei 7 : Amal | Albert Gir \u2014 u ! \u201ceur LH L Pay À Pa tJ Rup Sd | M Da EDMoyT | HN JD] | X, Lig L Pa § Ou th \u201ca 1165 bo ~ Officers Central Region Chairman of Executive Committee: Arbitration Committee Chaplaincy Committee Educational & Cultural Committee Community Organization Public Relations Legal Committee Mo'ess Chittin Personnel Committee Publicity Committee Research Committee » United Jewish Relief Agencies Youth Committee The following Chairmen are elected by their respective constituencies: Amalgamated Dawes Road Trustees: Albert Ginsburg, Chairman.DOMINION COUNCIL (Continued) CALGARY L.M.Fradkin, Q.C.L.Paperay A.Pearlman J.Rubin S.Saper N.Zeamans EDMONTON H.Balban J.D.Dower, O.B.E.M.Lieberman, Q.C.L.Pekarsky S.Ostry M.Stochinaky LETHBRIDGE J.Ghert J.Klinger M.E.Moscoviteh, Q.C.MEDICINE HAT J.Levinson VEGREVILLE H.Olyan ASSINIBOIA M.Wise EASTEND L.M.Vogel Prof, Jacob Finkelman Henry R.Rosenberg Chairman Wolfe Goodman Vice-Chairman L.J.Zuker Shammai Ogden Sydney Midanik \u2018Fred Catzman, Q.C.Prof.Bora Laskin Sol Sigler Hart D.Wintrob Mort Margolius Dr.Albert Rose Arthur E.Gelber Chairman Jack Shindham Vice-Chairman Sol Grand Chairman Sydney M.Harris Vice-Chairman Division of Orthodox Congregations: Meyer Gasner, Chairman, Toronto Jewish Youth Council: Stanley Shier.ESTEVAN H.Mandel HUMBOLT H.J.Richman LEADER S.W.Kersten MELFORD BE.Vickar MELVILLE \u201c E.L Lier MOOSE JAW J.Dorfman W.Libby .NORTH BATTLEFORD W.Grobman PRINCE ALBERT H.Cohen S.Lifshitz REGINA A.Abrams S.Karby D.R.Levene S.Promislow V.Samuels B.8hapira A.Schwarstijeld DECEMBER 1953 SASKATOON Dr.D.M.Baltzan S.Hearn F.G.Miller N.W.Shaffer Dr.A.Singer M.Spector SHANNAVON N.Nadler SWIFT CURRENT S.Feinstein WEYBURN W.Abells YORKTON Mrs.H.L.Portnuf! HOFFER J.Hoffer PREECEVILLE S.Kazakowich KAMSACK M.Brownstone Speakers at Congress Session Rabbi B.Baskin of Hamilton CONCRESS BULLETIN DOMINION COUNCIL (Continued) L.Kronitz Harold Lande, Q.C.Dr.A.Leith Prof.A.Lermer S.Lerner Sam Levine Rabbi M.Levittes Mrs.I.Lieff - 8.J.Littner Leon Levin M.Magid Solomon Magid Mrs.Wm.Malus H.Maisel | H.Maydeck .I.Medres J.L.Mendelsohn, Q.C.H.A.Miller S.I.Mirman LS Capt.W.Sebag-Montefiore, M.G.L.Moss M.H.Myerson A.Nissensohn M.Oberman A.Ostrofsky Mrs.A.D.Paltie!l M.M.Peters Prof, J.H.Quastel I.Rabinovitch Mrs.A.Raginsky J.Reich Mrs.Wm.Riven H.Reisler Mrs.B.Robinson E.I.Roll Mrs.E.Rosalinsky Julius A.Rosenfeld Rabbi J.Schwartz A.Shaikoviich Louis.Shif£ Sam Shiff Councillor Max Seigler Mrs.F.Segal Jerry Segall J.Shapiro, Q.C.E.Shuchat Rabbi W.Shuchal A.Shurem Harris M.Silver Sam Silver Mrs.H.Singer L.Sirkin .Mrs, À.Slavousky A.Sobel J.Sternthal B.Tannenbaum J.Torchin M.Trossman B.Usheroff Mrs.S.Vineberg I.J.Wainer S.Wasserman S.W.Weber, Q.C.S.Winkler S.Wiseman Charles Wolfish P.Wolkovitch \u201c Max Wolofsky Rabbi &S M.Zambroysky J.Zipper .TORONTO Wm.Ackerman Gurston Allen A.B.Bennett Mrs.A.B.Bennett K.Berger S.Berger L.Borsook T.M.Catzman,Q.C.Col.David Croll, Q.C., M.D.Dr.J.Diamond Max Federman Prof.J.Finkelman L.Frechtel I.Freeman M.W.Gasner A.E.Gelber Edward E.Gelber Marvin Gelber B.Godfrey Samuel Godfrey Mrs.J.B.Goldhar B.Goldstein Wilfred Gordon M.Goldstick Solomon Grand S.J.Granatstein Alfred Green D.Lou Harris S.M.Harris Louis Herman Dr.S.B.Hurwich Mrs.S.B.Hurwich Miss F.Hutner J.P.Katz H.Korolnek S.Kraisman Mrs.L.Krakover Mrs.M.Kramer S.Kronick Prof.Bora Laskin Mrs.A.Levine J.Levine D.Litman S.Lunenfeld M.Margolius J.S.Midanik Rabbi D.Ochs J.I.Oelbaum L.Offman S.Ogden S.Posluns Rabbi A.A.Price .I.Rabinovich : Dr.Albert Rose H.S.Rosenberg, -Q.C.J.Rubin B.Sadowski, M.B.E.Mrs.H.H.Sam&el Rabbi H.Shapiro J.Shindman Mrs.I, Siegel H.Simon Rabbi R.Slonim Mrs.A.L.Soles Saul Spivak H, Steiner H.Max Schwartz Mrs.S.Strauss P.Walerstein I.Weinberg Hart D.Wintrob S.J.Zacks L.J.Zuker are shown Isaiah Rabinowitch of Toronto, world famous Hebrew author and winner of the Lamed Prize for literature, with Melech Ravitch, of Montreal, no less well-known in the field of Yiddish prose and poetry.Page 18 CONGRESS BULLETIN DECEMBER 1953 Dr Xo F, Kir Mrs, À IS.À Ka {Las Ale D, Le Harm, SM hl Mrs, AN MN Xi SR, Hp Mr, Ae Ng SN _ Digg Le \u2014\u2014 at = ES CANORA La Frank BEAUSEJOUR G.Grubert BRANDON M.Rabinoviteh DAUPHIN S.Katz PORTAGE-LA-PRAIRIE J.H.Greenberg WINNIPEG B.Adelman B.Aisanstat L.Bell S.Boroditsky S.D.Brookler- Max Brooks M.Cantor S.M.Cherniack J.Chernack Rabbi A.Chiel D.Cohen Mrs.Edith Cohen Max Cohen Mrs.Thelma Cohen J.Erlichman S.Feldman Mrs.B.Freedman J.Fleishman J.Gershfield Harry Golub B.Jackson Dr.M.E.Kahanoviteh F.Kirshner Mrs.A.Klonoff Dr.S.Kobrinsky A.Kushnerov C.Lessez A.Levadie D.Levin, Q.C.Harry Levine S.Mazo N.Medzon Mrs.B.Miller A.Micay M.Nathanson M.J.Nitikman S.B.Nitikman H.Peck CL Mrs.B.Plotkin A.«Schwartz N.Selchen S.M.Selchen M.+Sharzer George Sheps Mrs.Sara Shloss B.Shuster Jack Silverberg A.Simkin Gt.Skulsky Mrs.S.Skulsky J.Solomon Mrs.Goldie Steinberg J.Steinberg G.Stern D.Waldman Mrs.M.Wolinsky H.Wright S.Yaffe VANCOUVER | Peter Herschora H.Allman H.I.Jacobson H.Freeman Robert A.Kanigsberg Paul Heller David Zive M.Jacobson : TRURO L.Le Fohn Bernard Goodman srs.jean Rose NEW WATERFORD J.Satanov Hy Columbus S.Tenenbaum BE SYDNEY Dr.J.White Ted Bond Gordon Elman » VICTORIA Dr.A.Gaum S.Bricker Jack Leviten QUEBEC CITY BATHURST O.Miller Louis Shrier M.Pollack FREDERICTON STE.AGATHE Frank Budoviteh H.Berger MONCTON H.Sourkes Reuben Cohen SHERBROOKH Isadore Fine M.Smith M.M.Baig THREE RIVERS SAINT JOHN Charies Kraft Mitchell Franklin GLACE BAY Benjamin R.Guss Wm.Chernin Wm.Kaplansky Louis Dubinsky Dr.J.Tanzman H.F Jacobson Milton Zides Max Lubetzky ST.JOHN'S HALIFAX Dr, J.Grobin Earle Goldberg : CORNERBROOK Dr.Jason Greenblatt Ben Lavin WESTERNS AT THE CONGRESS The west is always well represented at meetings of the Canadian Jewish Congress in spite of the distances involved.Shown here are Frank Miller of Saskatoon (left); M.Averbach of the western office of the Congress, and M.Selchen, editor of the Israeli Press of Winnipeg.DECEMBER 1953 CONCRESS BULLETIN Page 19 The Views and Decisions of Canadian Jewry Adopted by Delegates to the Last Plenary Session of the Canadian Jewish Congress Her Majesty The Canadian Jewish Congress renders homage - to Her Majesty and expresses its loyalty and devotion to Her Majesty and its wishes for a happy and prosperous reign.On Education The idea of Community Responsibility for Jewish Education has been carried out in many communities of this country; In communities that have introduced the principle of moral and financial responsibility for Jewish education better facilities and results in Jewish formal and adult education have been achieved; The Congress calls on all Jewish communities in this country that have not as yet been able to accept this principle to its fullest extent to make every effort towards this important goal; All measures must be adopted to assure Jewish education for every Jewish child including those who reside in small Jewish communities as well as those whose parents cannot afford to give their children a proper and adequate education; The Canadian Jewish Congress, through its National Education Committee, shall act to interest the various Jewish communities so that they fulfill their responsibilities in relation to Jewish Education and to assist them in evolving and establishing the necessary facilities; The educational field service of the Central and Western Divisions of the Congress shall be continued and advanced wherever possible and the Eastern Division shall be encouraged to provide similar services; The Canadian Association of Hebrew Schools (IGUD) must be encouraged to continue its program and its services be utilized wherever deemed advisable; and encouragement must be given the endeavours to organize an Association of Jewish Schools for services to schools which would be in affiliation with it; Congress recognizes the contribution of Jewish day schools to the intensification of Jewish education.Encouragement must be given to the continuation of the program and to the developmené of Jewish day high schools wherever there is both need and demand for them; Page 20 CONCRESS BULLETIN * The National Executive of Congress should plan for the financial existence of Jewish educational institutions of all types on a national level; All Jewish educational institutions in Canada are to be congratulated in their successful efforts for the advancement and development of Jewish education in.Canada and the leadership of these institutions is to.be encouraged to continue with their important work.v On Public Relations The program of the Canadian Jewish Congress in the field of public relations work has been widely commended for its sound approach and the value of its action in a wide variety of matters including submissions to government on the revision of the Criminal Code, the attack on anti-Semitic propaganda, work in group relations, legislative and social action; The Canadian Jewish Congress shall continue its program as carried on by the National Joint Public Relations Committee of the Canadian Jewish Congress and the B\u2019nai B'rith and in the special field of labour relations and action with the Jewish Labour Committee.On Fair Employment The Canadian Jewish Congress has worked assiduously for the enactment of laws guaranteeing fair employment practices and is gratified at the passage of such legislation by the Parliament of Canada and by the Legislature of Manitoba as well as the issuance of the order-in-council requiring the incorporation of non-discrimination clauses in contracts made with the federal government; The Joint Public Relations Committee of Congress and the B'nai B'rith is instructed to urge the various provinces which have not yet done so to pass similar legislation.On Housing Discrimination 1t is desirable in a democratic society that housing be available without discrifnination as to race, .national origin, colour or religion.J Such discrimination is doubly offensive when practised in housing projects sponsored by governmental agencies.- [| Instances have been reported in which such discrimination is being practised by some private construction companies in Canada who have received federal assistance; DECEMBER 1953 pe ee ESE TSS i hes tines ied J a nig! The ê qus \u2018 pet j the G ah Hh jo Unf diel & fr ge il (ongre {pon ert Unite ] out C Appez vorke ment be gs Ca poner] Th innigr i wit Th by the act nition - - 1 Ing Cou] dt] lady dong Jewish With Imes Wie 3 of x { the as, an 00e Joint Fish al Fal a i The Canadian Jewish Congress urges the Federal government to amend the National Housing Act by the insertion of .a non-discrimi- nation clause which would effectively eliminate abuses of this kind.: \"On Overseas Relief The situation of Jews in many parts of the world continues to be grave.Those Jews still have to be assisted in their rehabilitation and in their plans to emigrate; The Canadian Jewish Congress fully recognizes the outstanding work of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee in mobilizing world Jewry\" in the cause of rescue, relief and rehabilitation \u2014 with this work the Canadian Congress, through the United Jewish Relief Agencies, is proud to be closely associated.These objectives continue to call for huge expenditures; The Plenary Session of the Canadian J8wish Congress calls upon every Jew in Canada and upon every organized body in the community to exert every effort in support of the work of the United Jewish Relief Agencies of Canada; It urges all spiritual and lay leaders throughout Canada to co-operate with the United Jewish Appeal with a view to the recruitment of more workers in these campaigns so that the attainment of each community\u2019s campaign goals can be assured.On Immigration Canada needs a greater population.This is now generally recognized., The record shows that.the integration of Jewish immigrants into the general population can be achieved with ease and benefit to the Canadian ecbnomy; The Canadian Jewish Congress has been asked by the Department of Citizenship and Immigration to act as the coordinating agency for Jewish organizations interested in the movement of immigrants and on all matters of policy concerning Jewish groups on immigration; The Canadian Jewish Congress and the Jewish Immigrant Aid Society of Canada, consequent upon an agreement between them, made joint submissions to the Canadian Government on such matters and have been recognized by the Canadian Government as official coordinating agencies in their respective fields, on matters of Jewish immigration to Canada; The Canadian Jewish Congress has working arrangements with the social and welfare agencies of the Jewish Community of Canada which have.been co-operating whole heartedly in settlement of new arrivals and their adjustment in Canada; The Jewish community pledges its resources for the absorption of a maximum number of Jewish immigrants including some displaced per- \u2018sons who by reason of age or physical handicap would not ordinarily find admission; DECEMBER 1953 CONGRESS BULLETIN On Congress Finances The program of the Canadian Jewish Congress is vital to the attainment of our goal of a unified, democratic and mature Jewish Community; : : This program is the direct responsibility of and benefits all our Jewish communities and demands their adequate financial support; The Congress calls upon community leaders throughout the country to affirm their recognition of the value to Jewish life in Canada and elsewhere of the multi-faceted Canadian Jewish Congress Program by assuring it the necessary funds.The Canadian Jewish Congress is grateful to the Government of Canada for its recognition of the position of the Jewish Community and its cooperation and assistance in immigrant projects in which the Jewish Community has been vitally interested; Congress is grateful to those Jewish organizations which work in close cooperation and association with the Canadian Jewish Congress and which made possible the successful absorption of the new arrivals into the Canadian pattern.It calls upon the National Executive Committee to continue such agreements and policies under such terms and conditions which it deems appropriate.On the National Conference For Israel and Jewish Rehabilitation The Canadian Jewish Congress was instrumental jointly with the United Zionist Council, B\u2019nai B'rith and the Canadian Committee of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds, in calling into being the National Conference for Israel and Jewish Rehabilitation in March 1951, at which time a four-point program was adopted; Much of the programme of the National Conference for Israel and Jewish Rehabilitation has been successfully implemented; The Canadian Jewish Congress pledges itself not to relax its efforts on behalf of Israel and for Jewish Rehabilitation.If the other cosponsors indicate their desire to continue it beyond the date of its termination (March, 1954) the Canadian Jewish Congress agrees to do so, on condition however that the fund-raising phase of the National Conference for Israel and Jewish Rehabilitation not prejudicially affect the fund- raising needs of the Canadian Jewish Congress.The Canadian Jewish Congress should be allocated a specific share of the funds collected by the National Conference for Israel and Jewish Rehabilitation and each community be so advised.Page 21 4 On Jewish Claims Against Germany, Austria * The Canadian Jewish Congress was one of the sponsoring groups of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany which negotiated with West Germany on Jewish reparations.These negotiations have led to the conclusion of an agreement with regard to payment by Germany for material losses inflicted by Nazi Germany on Jewish people by way of federal legislation for individual claimants and an agreement for the payment of $822,- 000,000; The Canadian Jewish Congress continues to participate in the corporation which succeeded the Conference as the recognized body for handling of the payments by Germany (outside of Israel), it being expressly understood that German reparations can in no way be accepted as expiation for the massacres and horrors inflicted by the Nazis on the Jewish people; _* Negotiations have been\u2019 initiated with the Austrian Government for reparations for losses inflicted by the Nazi regime in Austria; The Canadian Jewish Congress approves wholeheartedly of the actions of the National Executixe committee and its special appointees in these matters; | The Canadian Jewish Congress will continue to ~ participate in the conference of organizations negotiating with Austria; , The Canadian Jewish Congress shall further enlist the support of the Canadian Government for the successful outcome of the negotiations with Austria, On Community Organization The Canadian Jewish Congress and the Canadian Committee of the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds have established a joint Committee to assist Jewish communities in Canada on matters of local community organization; The Canadian Jewish Congress, through this community organization committee, renders valuable services to communities across Canada in making available professional personnel in all phases of communal endeavour; _ All Canadian Jewish communities are urged to utilize the services of the community organization committee and its staff so as to obtain assistance in acquiring a high standard of community performance.On Teacher Training The shortage of teachers continues to affect the growth of educational institutions in Canada: The J ewish Teachers Seminary supported by the Canadian J ewish Congress offers training facilities for those desiring to take up the teaching profession ; Page 22 .CONCRESS BULLETIN »* The Bureau of JewisH Education in Toronto with the support of the Canadian Jewish Congress has \" instituted a Herbrew Teacher\u2019s Midrasha in Toronto; The Jewish communities in Canada wish that teacher.training facilities be available in Canada; .\u201d The National Executive of Congress is urged to maintain its interest in the teacher training program and budget accordingly; .Communities and individuals should be encouraged to provide bursaries and scholarships for student teachers; Consideration should be given to the possibility of obtaining official recognition for the Jewish Teachers Seminary leading to academic degrees; Consideration should be given to ways and means of attracting Canadian Jewish youth to enroll as teacher candidates and to fake up the teaching pro- ession; Coordination of aims, principles and curricula betweem the existing Jewish Teachers\u2019 Seminaries in Montreal and Toronto should be introduced so that a common basis for teacher training in Canada is worked out; - Extension courses of Jewish studies should be organized with the existing seminaries open to larger \u2018circles of the Jewish population; The Canadian Jewish Congress will consider the formation of a National Central Teachers\u2019 Placement Bureau which would direct teachers to smaller communities as well as to larger ones.On Research The Bureau of Social and Economic Research of the Canadian Jewish Congress has been doing valuable work on a national basis in providing factual and scientific background material on the many aspects of Canadian Jewish life.~The Research Committee of the Central Region has been carrying out smaller research projects on a regional basis.The Canadian Jewish Congress will continue to give full moral and financial support to research work carried out on national and regional levels.Communities, organizations and individuals who are the beneficiaries of such research work shall be asked to stimulate its continuation and assure its practical character by seeking its guidance based on scientific research.On Adult Education The Canadian Jewish Congress is familiar with the adult education programs carried on by groups and Jewish communities throughout Canada; The Canadian Jewish Congress is urged to stimulate other organizzation, both national and local, also to become active in the field of adult education ; Since numerous organizations are engaging in fund-raising combined with cultural activities geared to the adult Jewish community, it is suggested that DECEMBER 1953 alls nl jes il (an a pro vou the atio este Ong bi Nat ct nt of si] I Ath ol i an conference be called of all these groups by the Canadian Jewish Congress in order to co-ordinate these programs, avoid duplication of effort and \u2018ensure broader coverage, particularly of the smaller - communities; a _ \u2018In view of the fact that great progress in the field education has been made in the creation of Jewish program materials in the audio-visual field, (films, recordings, film-strips, ete.) which are useful for general enlightenment as well as entertainment, the Canadian Jewish Congress will consider the establishment of a Bureau of Jewish Audio Visual Aid Materials which will bring together in a central source the available visual aids to be made accessible and evaluated for the use of Jewish groups, : On Youth , The Canadian Jewish Congress has recently established a special department in thé field of youth and adult education programming service with professional expert services available for Jewish Communities and groups throughout Canada; The Canadian Jewish Congress will establish a Canadian Jewish Youth Commission in order that a full study of the needs of Jewish youth and the - program necessary for the cohesion of the Jewish youth body in Canada be evaluated.The findings of the Youth.Commission shall be fully studied by - the Congress for such action as it may deem proper; \u201cThis Youth Commission shall invite the cooperation of the leading groups in the communities interested in Jewish youth, such as B'nai B'rith, Zionist Organization of Canada and other Zionist bodies, YM-YWHA\u2019s and Jewish Community Centres; National Council of Jewish Women and Jewish Educational organizations, etc., in the studies and deliberations of the Youth Commission.On Jewish Radio Programs Jewish radio programs are being sponsored privately over many stations in Canada.Radio programs can be useful for the deepening of cultural values; - The National Executive of Congress shall consider the advisability of the development of radio programs on a high cultural level.+ On Jewish Libraries The Jewish community.of Montreal is congratu- tated by the Canadian Jewish Congress on the erection of a flew building for the Jewish Public Library.The Canadian Jewish Congress through its interest in the Jewish Public Library in Winnipeg has manifested its concern with the cultural problems of the community.On Teachers\u2019 Salaries The future spiritual welfare of our younger generation depends to a large extent on the sound Jewish DECEMBER 1953 CONCRESS BULLETIN BEC CR (iris be cal He LG oie co (Eels education of our children educated by well-qualified teachers ; It it most important to attract to the Jewish teaching profession candidates with high personality qualifications; Such teaching staff can be recruited only if the social and économie standards of the Jewish teaching profession are raised in our own Jewish community to its well-merited level; The Canadian Jewish Congress will coordinate, guide and support efforts towards securing adequate salary standards for the teaching profession.On Arts and Letters Expression of Jewish living and Jewish thought through arts and letters is a most important factor in strengthening, deepening and beautifying Jewish hfe; The Canadian Jewish Congress has through its Publication Committee assisted creative effort in the field of letters and scholarly research; The Educational and Cultural Committee of the Central Region has during the past three years within a very limited budget successfully ventured into the field of creative effort in Jewish arts and letters by commissioning ten original compositions; Festivals of Jewish culture and Jewish music and exhibits of work of Jewish painters have been sponsored by Congress in Montreal, Toronto and Winnipeg, The Canadian Jewish Congress shall extend moral and financial assistance to worthy creative achievements in the field of letters, music and visual arts; The Publication Committee shall be transformed into a National Committee for the support of Jewish Arts and Letters, enlarge its membership by inviting outstanding specialists from the different fields to serve as adjudicators on this Committee and shall be given an adequate budget to enable the Committee to stimulate and support creative work in the fields of Jewish Arts and Letters.- On Israel The Canadian Jewish Congress sends sincere and heartfelt greetings to the State and people of srael.?We once again solemnly affirm our devotion to and support for the State of Israel.We call upon the Jewish community of Canada to stand resolutely behind Israel and continue to aid it in every possible Way.On the Jewish Press The Congress recognizes the importance of the Yiddish and Anglo-Jewish press and pledges its support to it.Page 23 On the Iron Curtain The position of the Jewish communities in Soviet Russia and the satellite countries arouses great concern because of their inability to develop a free Jewish life and to participate in affairs of world Jewry; The Canadian Jewish reaffirms the need of Jews behind the Iron Curtain to be permitted to maintain and to develop a free Jewish life and shall take whatever steps it can, both alone and with other bodies, to further this end.On the Press of Canada The Canadian Jewish Congress expresses its appreciation to the daily press of Canada, the national magazines and the national press services for their useful coverage of matters of importance to the Jewish community and to the National Film Board, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and the private- ly-owned radio stations for their signal contribution in advancing the message of intergroup relations.The Congress suggests that they intensify their efforts towards the goal of a united Canadian citizenry living and working together in full equality based on an appreciation of the peoples\u2019 different origins, traditions and cultures.Ways and means will be found Lo use the medium of television as an additional resource for this high purpose.On the World Jewish Congress The Canadian Jewish Congress has worked closely with the World Jewish Congress since its establishment.Such cooperation has manifested itself in participation in its meetings and conferences and in support of its general program; The Third Assembly of the World Jewish Congress in August 1953 adopted resolutions of concern to the Canadian Jewish Congress, particularly on missing persons and other international conventions; The Canadian Congress extends to the World Jewish Congress its greetings and assurance of appreciation of its endeavours; The Canadian Jewish Congress in principle declares itself in accord with the resolutions adopted at the World Jewish Congress Third Assembly; The Canadian Jewish Congress will continue its cooperation with the World Jewish Congress, where and in what manner deemed advisable, and will take appropriate action to lend support to the resolutions of the World \u201cJewish Congress in international matters.A ee ae Page 24 ge inh JAR 25 154 \u2026lished at 493 Sherbrooke .- \u201cconcRes BULLETIN On Jerusalem The Congress shall consider means of marking the 3,000th anniversary of the founding of Jerusalem.On Hebrew The Hebrew Language and culture symbolize Jewish continuity as a unifying force in Jewish life and serve as the cultural link between Israel and Jews in the Diaspora; The Hebrew Culture Organization of Canada is the recognized agency of (anadian Jewry to promote and further the Hebrew language and culture; The Canadian Jewish Congress notes with great satisfaction the\u2019 work and accomplishments of the Keren Hatarbut, On U.S.Jewry The Jewish Community of the United States, the largest in the world, is about to celebrate the 300th year of its establishment.The connection of the Canadian Community with that of the United States has always been a close one from the earliest days of the Montreal community of the 18th century lo the present.~The Congress shall transmit, on the occasion of the Tercentenary celebrations, the warmest expressions of fraternal greeting.On Yiddish The cultural heritage of ages of Jewish life finds much of its expression through Yiddish.The Yiddish language is the medium of expression of a considerable portion of the Canadian Jewish community; The Congress reaffirms the importance of the Yiddish language and urges the National Executive to consider ways and means of maintaining its position, and strengthening the cultural values symbe- lized by it.National Executive of Congress shalb continue to use Yiddish in its activities wherever possible.: Congress Bulletin pub- PR TR Sas\u201d Rite re ri St.West in Montreal in ony 173031008 the Interests of (Can Jewry as organized DANS AY opeuv]és3 66t+ Canadian Jewish * A3RIQYT OTISUA nsyEeL gress, Entered ag second class mail with Ganadian Post Office.DECEMBER 1953 "]