Page 4-The Canadian Jewish News, Friday, October 5, 1973
Editorial page
An independent Community Newspaper serving as a forum for diverse viewpoints.
Directory: Donaia Carr, Q.C. Murray B. koffler Albert J. Latner Ray D. Wolfe
Editor,, RalpM Hyman Assistant Editor, Lewis Levendel Director, Quebec Bureau, Mark Medicoff Advertising and Business Manager, Douglas G. Gibson ""
.       VOL. IX, NO. 39 (764)
Published by The Canadian Jewish News ' (A corporation without share capital) at 22 Balliol St.. Toronto M4S ICl, Ont. Toronto 481-6434
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Guest editorial
A revitalized Jewish community needs departure from status quo
By RUPERT SHRIAR
"I didn't know about that" - or "'tliey won't help you anyway" - or "who cares what I think!"
Some expressions of futility heard only too often in reference to Jewish o*»nmun-ity services and those who run them! And with a growing population moving into new and disparate areas of Metro, the sense of frustration is Ijecoming even more vexing, for everyone - wealthy, middle-class and poor.
How then can the 113,000-strong Toronto Jewish community overcome the ever more pervasive and fi-agmenting effects of current trends toward bigness, social distance and individual isolation? How to recapture that shtetl spirit which stimulated the co-operative efforts to establish the present system of religious, cultural, educational, social, welfare and health institutions which have until now so effectively and uniquely served the varied needs and aspirations of the community''
Surely top priority must be to a commitment to re-establishing a recognized . central organization responsible for addressing the overall questions of the quality of Jewish communal activity and the satisfaction of the individual and social life of each of us.
Such a planning, policy-making, priority setting, implementing, evaluating, budgeting and fund raisingcommunity-wide based Jewish Community Council would locate unequivocally the central source of responsibility; provide for representation from the widest cross-section of interests; offer opportunity for highly committed lay and professional leadership to address most effectively the essential questions of Jewish creative growth and development.
Such an idea relies heavily on two basic precepts, however. First, that both formal and informal channels of communications - the information base - be greatly expanded. And secondly, that real opportunities to participate in questions and issues of substance be equally enlarged.
This means developing better eyes and ears, much more sensitive to what is really going on among those involved in . Jewish community living, as well as among those determining Jewish com-
munity policy, and making Jewish communal decisions. It also means a special emphasis in trying to reach everyone -the uncommitted, the uninformed, and those with special interests and requircr ments.
In Toronto an effective experiment in community dialogue - Town Talk - is already proving its value in this regard. A rhethod of reaching out to groups of all types, this pilot project has over the past year and a half made contact with some 20 ideological, service, social ^nd religious groups.
One result has been to significantly affect the communications between a wider cross-section of the, community and the United Jewish Welfare Fund through its social planning committee, which, by conducting the experiment, has been able to make assessment and recommendations based upon a broader base of contact and of information.
This concept of Town Talk - or communal dialogue - could, through increased contacts between representatives of central Jewish Community Council and individuals and organizations, increase greatly the awareness of community concerns and issues; encourage continuing reassessment, of services, of attitudes and of values;- help undergird leadership at many levels; and involve in a personal way larger numbers of people than ever before in overall community concerns.
Useful guidelines; results of the recent attempts to initiate this new approach-knowledgeable leaders in the use of sophisticated techniques of group discussion; audio and visual stimulation; adult education processes and public relations, all exist.
What is needed now, on the one hand, is a pei-ceptible demand for inclusion by significant numbers not satisfied with the status quo; and on the other hand, vested interests and a willingness to share some of the action by those who now wield relatively unchallenged power and control. Nothing can be lost - rather the prize can and should be a revitalized Jewish community life with both participating in and leading!
Mr. Shriar is a Jewish community social planner.
Once thriving community
End of an era sees Vegreville without erim^ jews fm^
• There is. always a certain amount of sad^ ness when an era comes to an.end and this was the case recently in the town of Vegreville, Alberta, which is about 60 miles east of Edmonton. .
At one time, Vegreville. had a thriving Jewish community - large enough to be included inthecircuitforvisitingspeakers from" Israel and major U.S.-and Canadian centres. Most major, -fund-raising campaigns operated in Vegreville and its Hadassah chapter was one of the most active in Alberta. —
As early as 1919 Vegreville had a syna^ gogue and by 1929 the community had grown so substantially that a new, larger one was built.
But all that is past. Now there is only a ■ handful of Jewish families inthetown-not ■■■■, even enough for a minyan. The synagogue /property has been sold and the building is to be demolished. On June 10 the final minchah service was held, the shofar was sounded and Congregation Israel passed into the history of Canadian Jewry. What is significant i^'tHatwhile the Jews ;^ \, of Vegreville were deeply devoted to the Jewish way of-life, they were still able to ' play an ini^portant^vole in building the / general cdmmunity. The Vegreville Ob-: 'server, commenting on the closing of the'\ \ synagogue, noted that")...it was always V-, the wish of our citlze|is to be proud of theirUown, to make ityk worthwhile place to live-in. The Jewish community was no exception in. this respect /.. It would be . difficult to enumerate the many men and
women of the Jewish community who excelled themselves in every endeavor to further advancement of our town; to leave something of themselves for the good of Vegreville. . ."
Many-of the Jews-Of Vegreville have . gone on to help strengthen the Jewish communities of the larger Western Canadian centres. They are communal leaders in Edmonton/Calgary, Vancouver and other large cities. This is pretty well the pattern for Western Canadian Jews, you build a life in a small town and then-often reluctantly r carry on in a larger city because, after ail, Judaism flourishes best in the larger centres.
It seems a shame that the closely knit and warm smallrtown life of Jews cannot continue forever, as it does for many non-Jews. But the perils of assimilation are great in the small towns - even in such a. flourishing community as Vegreville's -and it becoines almost imperative to congregate inTEe.cities if Jews are to main--'^tain their identity.
It would be nice if the smaller Jewish communities were still vjUible. They would probably be ideal retirement centres for many city Jews who want to get away from the big city pressures in their sunset' years.
. Perhaps some day the Jewish commimity planners will take a long, hard look at th^' Canadian past and find in the history a solution to the growing problems of the future.
ask the rciiDbi
reader asks
David Markidi, the writer who recently came to Israel from Russia, went throu^ an Orthodox wedding with his wife Iren. The couple were married in a civU ceremony while still in the Soviet Union. Performmg the wedding is Rabbi Lau. (IPPA)
ins his series
A.J.
of Jews in Canadian history
A.J. Arnold was western regional director, Canadian Jewish Congress, with headquarters in Winnipeg, from 1965 until his retirement last January. He is executive secretary of the Jewish Historical Society of Western Canada. Mr. Arnold has held numerous public service posts and his career has included journalism and considerable writing on a variety of Jewish and general topics. His articles will appear regularly in The Canadian Jewish News.
By A.J. ARNOLD
In recent years Jews have been getting more than their share of headlines in the Canadian press and feature treatment in other media. This arises from a variety of major issues: Israel and the Middle East; the situation of Jews in the Soviet Union; the po- A. J. Arnold sition of Jews in Quebec; or simply from the prominence of individual Jews in so many areas of Canadian life. It is self-evident that "Jews make news" - and sotne would undoubtedly say "toomuch."
What is less well known, however, and very little understood is the extent and nature of the involvement of Jews in more than 200 years of Canadian history. It is therefore timely to undertake a column on the central theme: What really happened in' Canadian Jewish history? Specific topics will relate as often as possible to contemporary events. This introductory column deals with a rather lamentable effort to introduce Canadian Jewish history
to school children.
■*■.*.■   *    *.   ■ *    »    * »
Many existing works of Canadian Jewish history abound in myths and mistakes arising largely frqm incomplete or faulty research. This was well illustrated in a recent edition of Jewish Current Events (April 16-30, 1972), "the students text for home and school," which is apparently quite widely used in Jewish schools in Canada and the U.S. In an article of some 700 words on how Jews settled in Canada there were no less than seven inaccurac^ ies of some consequence;;' "Few Jews were permitted to settle under the French," the JCE article stated. Actually Jews were prevented from settling in. New France, as Canada was then known, by a French royal decree of 1627, barring non-Catholics and particularly directed against Huguenots. As for Jews, _ if there were any rare exceptions, they were Marranos or their descendants.
According-to JCE, ^'the first Jewish arrivals were British military men ..." Aaron Hart, one of the first Jews to arrive with the British in 1759, has been described as a "commissary officer" in the army. According to Jacob Marcus, director of the American Jewish Archives in Cincinatti, Hart was merely a civilian supplier of goods for the army. British law barred Jews from any office or place of tmst,: either civil or military. The one Jew definitely with the British forces was Alexander Schomberg, commander of the frigate Diana during the attack on Quebec. Schomberg had converted to Christianity, the only way a Jew could achieve high office in those years.
JCE gives 1838 as {he date of thebuild-ing of the first Canadian synagogue in Montreal.' This is wrong by a mere 60 years!. Shearith-Israel, the first Jewish congregation, was^founded in Montreal in 1768 ;and erected its\ first synagogue buildiiigin 1777.-\ \
Neit the JCE relates, that David Oppen-heim^, one of the founders of Vancouver; "was the_first Jewish njayor in Canada." This"~would-<be correct if the words -after confederation -^were added. In 1858
William Hyman was elected mayor of Cap des Hosiers, a French village in the Gaspe. and on Vancouver Island Lumley Franklin served as mayor of Victoria in 1866. JCE-also says "both Montreal and Toronto have had Jewish mayors." This is half-right since the city of Montreal has never had a Jewish mayor, though Samuel Moscovitch has been mayor of the Montreal suburb of Cote St. Luc since the early 1960's.
Turning to land settlement, JCE states that farming "became the main occupation of 340 Jewish arrivals who reached Winnipeg in 1882 ..." These escapees from the Russian pogroms did go west
with the object of settling on the land but most of them never did because no land was made available for two years. By then only 28 of the original groups were still ready to try farming.
Finally the JCE says "Winnipeg recently honored the memory of its first Jewish settlers (the Coblentz brothers) at an exhibit." That particular exhibit, mounted in 4967, actually dealt with 90 years of Jewish life in Western Canada, but to the JCE it was a book with only one page!
This is page one of What Really Happened in Canadian Jewish History? There will be many more.
(Copyright, A.J. Arnold, 1973)
1. As a Sephardi Jew it irritates me to fiearit said ttiat the Messiah will be an Ashkenazi.Js there any basis for this?
As an Ashkenazi Jew it irritates me stiM more to think that some of my fellow-Ashkenazim should have been guilty of such nonsense. They need to be reminded that Elijah, the herald of the Messiah, came to reconcile the divisions among our people: "And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers" (Malachi 3, 24) and, it is permitted to add, the heart of Jews to their fellow-Jevys of every tradition.
It is worth noting in this connection that it is the Sephardi version of the kad-dish which contains a prayer for the coming of the Messiah - "ve-yatzmach pur-konav," a version adopted by the Chas-sidim, though they were Ashkenazim. What you say reminds me of the story of the little Chassidic boy who asked his father whether God is a Chassid or a Mit-naged. The father replied that He must be a Mitnaged, otherwise He would say "ve-yatzmach purkonav" and the Messiah v.ould come.
2. It was reported in the Jewish Chronicle that the Falashas of Ethiopia are now recognized as Jews by the Israeli rabbinate. Can you explain the reasons for and against this recognition?
The argument against accepting the Falashas as Jews is that there is evidence neither of them being descended from Jews nor of being converted to the Jewish faith. But as early as the sixteenth century the famous rabbinic authority, David Ibn Abi Zimra, ryled that the Falashas are Jews descended from the tribe of Dan. This opinion was quoted by the late Rabbi Kook and is evidently tjehind the decision of the Israeli rabbinate to accord recognition to the Falashas as Jews.
(Copyright by the Jewish Chronicle Newsservice)
Up to expectations as a person who speaks his mind
By CHARLES HYAMS CJN British Correspondent
LONDON-'
Anglo-Jewry's fund-raisers for Israel are still recovering from the impact which Shlomo Goren, Ashkenazi. chief rabbi of Israel, made during a brief five-day visit here on their behalf.
Goren, with a reputation for saying what he thinks, was invited to come to Britain to launch the annual Kol Nidre Appeal. Shortly after his arrival, he was told that the target for the appeal was half a million pounds. In disbelief, he asked at a public meeting of rabbis and lay leaders: "Is this the achievement of the whole commurtity? You ought to raise double or treble that amount."
What the distinguished visitor did not know was that modest target itself, if . reached, would be a record for the Kol Nidre Appeal. Last year, with the sanie target, only a little over 400,000 pounds was raised. And, perhaps, ever more disturbing, half the worshippers in synagogue when the appeal is made on this most solemn of occasions, ignored Israel's needs completely and contributed nothing.
In the face of Rabbi Goren's (justified) reproach, the organizers of the appeal got into a quick huddle and announced later that same day the target wasbeing doubled.
Though Rabbi Goren made a great impression on all his audiences, it is extremely-unlikely that the new target will
Rabbi Shlomo Goren .
be reached. Cynics are doubtful whether the original 500,000 pounds will be reached, even though the slogan this year is "Every worshipper a contributor" and the theme.for the campaign is the urgent need to provide Israel with financial help so that immigrants can continue to come out of the Soviet Union and other countries of oppression. Though Goren  has  been to England
Letters to the Editor
before, he has never come in the role of chief rabbi. Indeed, Anglo-Jewish historians were scratching their heads to discover whether any Israeli chief rabbi had visited here lathe past.
In addition to his fund-raising appeals, Rabbi Goren, who was accompanied by his wife, made it his business to see other aspects of the community; On the first morning he was here, he dashed straight from a press conference to address pupils at the largest Jewish day school in the country. He returned greatly impressed by what he had seen.
Then he had an historic encounter - at his own request - with the two leaders of the Christian churches here. Dr. Michael Ramsey, archbishop of Canterbury, and Cardinal Heenan, archbishop of Westminster. In addition to paying courtesy calls, Rabbi Goren took the oppbiiunity to raise two important issues on which he hoped that the archbishops would-exert whatever influence they could: the plight of Soviet-Jewish intellectuals unable to leave Russia and the increased activity in Israel of Christian missionaries.
Everyone who heard and saw Rabbi Goren - and unfortunately this was only a small minority of the community, as no public meeting was arranged - went away deeply moved and impressed by his personality. Whether their impressions will be k-anslated into cash remains to be seen when the Kol Nidre Appeal pledges are added up.
A bouquet for us; a brickbat for BE
Dear Editor:
The impact of The Canadian Jewish News was brought to my attention in a very dramatic way during the past week. As a result of Jay Stone's article on the YMHA-'s post cardiac program in which early detection through testing under dif-ferent'-leTels of physical stress was described, ourvphysical^ucation department ha4 received>to date 2^^ phone calls - and niore were expected af^er the publication of the second part of the article.
rhe:£:anadian Jewish News must have a dedicated group of readers because similar storjesjirpther papers and in other media reachiifg Millions of readers and , viewers have not elicited such responses.
Congratulations to The Canadian Jewish News! You have passed one of the most
important tests - relevance.
Paul Brownstein : director, physical education department YM-YWHA, Toronto
Dear Editor>-^
In: the afticle Decriminalization of Marijuana (Sept. 14) you report that B'nai B'rith board of/governors h\s called for acomplete airing ofthe Watergate scandal and "decriminalization" (what a nice word^of marijiiana, besides some justi-1 fied demands concerning the suffering of Syrian and Iraqui Jews and the outrageous attacks on Israeli athletes at the (World University Games in Moscow.       v '
Do the governors of BB not haye enough troubles of their own that they find it fit ' to Intervene in an distinctly internal American political issue hashed and rehashed .
ad nauseam for quite a'long time? Are they calling for some generalized; unified . standpoint of their members amounting to a cumulative "Jewish" vote whenthetime comes?
Re marijuana, do they requirelegaliza-tlon of a drug by far not^et^idequately analyzed as to its immedji^e effects on^^ • the user and the dangeroijfs consequences \ in frequent further use of/more and more
■ sjtronger drugs?:What possible interest is ^it.of a Jewish organization to callformore^ realistic evaloation ofthe situation andto'^ decry criminal penaltiesVagainst use of
the drugs?       / V.___
I have the impression that a Jewish or-ganization isbound to fail in its legitimate .role as defender of Jewish interests when concurrently trespassing in areas of other
> major concerns and issues.
Valerie White Toronto