MHS Transactions, Series 3, Number 35, 1978-79 season
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In a paper presented recently to The American Psychological Association, psychologist Samuel Janus attempted to explain why, although Jews constitute only 3% of the population of the United States, about 80% of that country's professional comedians are Jewish. According to Janus, Jewish humor is born of depression and alienation from the general culture. For Jewish comedians, "comedy is a defense mechanism to ward off the aggression and hostility of others; the one thing they live for is acceptance. They are always working for it, always worrying and insecure-like Rodney Dangerfield, they don't get no respect! There is never enough respect!" [1]
Janus's thesis has a great deal of merit when applied to the relationship between Jews and politics in Canada and the Jewish community in Winnipeg in particular. Manifestations of hostility and contempt toward Jews in Canada have created anxiety and insecurity within the Jewish community. Given many centuries of persecution and discrimination in Europe, which are part of the consciousness of the Jewish people, this uneasiness takes on added meaning. Like the American Jewish comedians who are always searching for respect and acceptance, so have Jews, especially in democratic societies, attempted to attain acceptance within the larger society. This has meant not only an agitation at times for what the Canadian Bill of Rights guarantees namely, equality before, and due process of, the law - but also the removal of any vestiges of social and economic discrimination. And Jewish Canadians, over the years, have determined that involvement and participation in the political process whether as candidates, supporters, canvassers, voters, or lobbyists is the most effective means of guaranteeing both individual and communal well-being, which have as basic foundations equality and acceptance. And so, in addition to idealistic motives for involvement in politics, such as what one can contribute to better one's city, province, or country, and more pragmatic some might say more crass-motives, such as satisfaction of individual egos and protection of perceived economic interests, Canadian, including Winnipeg, Jews, have turned to politics largely as a defense mechanism to ward off aggression and hostility, and to gain acceptance and respect.
Although we are all wary of easy analogies with American examples, an observation by Stephen D. Isaacs in his study on Jews and American Politics is nonetheless instructive. Isaacs, explaining what he termed Jews' "hyperactivity" in politics, advanced this argument:
Fear undoubtedly is the greatest single factor accounting for Jews' high level of political activity ... Jews in politics are striving for a 'just society.' The Jews of America are a product of the psychic ravages of the Western world's deeply entrenched pattern of Jew hating ... The fear is pandemic and whether that fear is at the surface of those Jews who involved themselves in politics, or buried deep within them, it ... is the prevailing motive for a great part of their activity. [2]
There have been many times when the Jewish community of Winnipeg had cause to feel both anxiety and concern when hostility was directed towards it-following the arrival of Russian Jewish refugees in 1882; through the official discouragement of Jewish immigration to Canada, later resulting in the limitations of a quota system; through the contemptuous parodying of Jews in the Winnipeg press; through the hatred and anger aimed at "foreigners," including Jews, in the latter stages of World War I and in the wake of the Winnipeg General Strike; through the revival of a nativist sentiment which saw the spread of the Ku Klux Klan onto the Canadian prairies, including Manitoba, in the late 1920s; through the Depression 1930s which saw the assumption of power by the Nazis in Germany, the growth and activities of pro-Nazi organizations in Canada, including Winnipeg, and the increasing concern of provincial and federal governments about incipient revolution, which placed many political organizations and individuals, including Jews, under official suspicion.
The Russian Jews who arrived in Winnipeg in May and June, 1882, as refugees from pogroms were condemned in the Winnipeg press. What is surprising is the unanimity of the expressed hostility. The Winnipeg Daily Times commented:
[The Russian Jews'] removal [here] ... certainly has not done our people any good.... A more helpless and useless lot of creatures never crossed the Atlantic ... The Jews are not a desirable class of immigrants.... [I]t would be criminal to send more of them up here. [3]
The Winnipeg Daily Sun observed that "unfortunately" the Russian Jews had found their way to Manitoba, and stated that: "... [The Jews] are by no means a valuable element in our population ..." [4] The Manitoba Daily Free Press offered this biting commentary: "Of the Russian Jews ... [t]he chief cause for congratulation ... is that there are so few of them. They ... are not likely to be of any great value to the country ..." [5] The Edmonton Bulletin emphasized the fact that Jews were not wanted in Western Canada: "If settlers are to be brought by the government ... let us have Icelanders in preference to either Jews or Mennonites." [6]
Goldwin Smith, professor of history and Oxford don, was perhaps the foremost example of the intellectual anti-Semitism characteristic of Victorian Canada. Hurling his invective at the Jewish emigres, he wrote: "[We do not wish] to import the worst of moral and commercial plagues into the country." [7] And the Government of Manitoba expressed its official view: "... Russian refugee Jews ... arrived of whom it may be said that it is desirable there be no further immigration ... With the ... exception [of the Jews] the settlers in Manitoba were of a superior class ..." [8] Perhaps it was just as well that the Russian Jews could not read English.
In the late nineteenth century, the Winnipeg press paid particular attention to alleged misdeeds and court appearances of Winnipeg Jews, especially where minor litigation arose over business disputes. Often, the news reports contained snide and cynical comments about Jews.
Jewish speech, usually heavily-accented, dress, customs, and so-called Jewish "business methods" were incessantly parodied. Public contempt and ridicule of Jews were aimed specifically at the stereotype Jewish second-hand clothes dealer on Main Street. Jews were portrayed as ignorant of the important issues of the day, and interested only in money. [9]
When David Ripstein, a grocer and wholesale liquor dealer, was identified as a Jew in a news item in the Manitoba Free Press, he protested vehemently to the editor. [10] The Free Press rather weakly explained "that in 9 cases out of 10 the term 'Jew' is used without the slightest intention of offending, and more to indicate race than religion ... [I]n this country we should regard no distinctions whatever of race or religion." [11] Nine days later, the newspaper commented on a shop "kept by a Jew named Rosenthal." [12]
When Winnipeg Jews charged that they were being persecuted, Town Talk, an illustrated weekly, called charges of persecution "absurd," and noted that ... Jew or Gentile ... There are no race distinctions in the courts of Manitoba and there should be none there or any other place else in the Province." [13] However, that same issue contained this report on a city of Winnipeg by-law prohibiting girls from being newspaper vendors:
That the feelings of a Christian community might not be too greatly shocked, a little Jew girl was made the first example ... She was made to take her place before Col. Peebles [the Police Magistrate] among prisoners more unclean than pork-eaters, 'in the interests of morality." [14]
To Winnipeg's cultured society in the late nineteenth century, Jews were objects of derision and scorn.
Nativist sentiment, in Winnipeg and in Canada, official or otherwise, was not only directed toward Jews. A writer noted in 1889 that if a Winnipegger was "fond of novel sensations, he [could] enjoy in turn the peculiar odor that emanates from Polish Jew, German, Icelander, Italian, Norwegian or Arab." [15] And, in 1898, a paper self-proclaimed for Winnipeg's "cultivated community" disparagingly commented on the so-called "Jewish area of Winnipeg": "Strolling up Main Street [a visitor] encounters the blocks of tumble-down, squalid shacks ... aptly named the 'New Jerusalem' and comes to the conclusion that Winnipeg is a shanty town." [16] Jews were not considered desirable immigrants by government officials. In 1892, Thomas Bennett, Dominion Immigration agent in Winnipeg, wrote "a more undesirable class of people one could not wish to see." [17]
When Thomas Greenway, Premier of Manitoba, speculated on the possibility of Jewish agricultural immigration to Manitoba, he drew criticism from Goldwin Smith and Winnipeg periodicals. [18] The Winnipeg Siftings preached Anglo-Saxon superiority. "We must confess to a feeling of dismay when we hear that the regeneration of these wretched people [the Jews] is to be essayed in our midst ..." [19] And The Colonist had this to say in an editorial on "Jewish Immigration":
... [The Jews] are not wanted ... Those already here ... found clustering together in miserable hovels in our cities and towns, surrounded by dirt and squalor, and forming a very low class ... They gain a livelihood by engaging in that most disreputable branch of our modern mercantile system the second-hand business. [20]
In a recent article on Clifford Sifton, Professor David Hall noted that in the Minister of the Interior's opinion "Blacks, Italians (and most other southern Europeans), Jews, Orientals ... were equally useless because ... they ... would not be successful prairie farmers and would add to growing urban problems." [21] Sifton was opposed to Jewish immigration. His successor, Frank Oliver, was the former publisher of The Edmonton Bulletin. Oliver's negative position on Jewish immigration did not change when he became Minister of the Interior. [22]
The stereotyping of Jews in Winnipeg and local apposition to Jewish immigration, continued well into the twentieth century. As Alan Artibise has noted, open "[e]xpressions of outright bigotry toward the Slav and the Jew were voiced frequently in Winnipeg newspapers after 1897 ... Some Winnipeggers became so concerned over the presence of ... Slavs and Jews that ... they advocated a policy of exclusion or ... a strictly controlled quota system." [23] As late as 1912, The Manitoba Free Press commented:
Morally the Winnipeg Jew is ... far from perfection ... Thrift is ... [the Jew's] best known virtue and his fatal weakness. [The Jew's] danger is in permitting money to be his god ... Nowhere does life wear so materialistic an aspect as among ... the 'chosen people.' [24]
At least two local students received their Master of Arts degree based on theses in which unjustified and inaccurate conclusions about Jews were drawn. In "Canada and the Immigration Problem" (1915) intellectually accepted anti-Semitism was expressed:
... [The Jews'] general mode of life, their extreme exclusiveness making assimilation almost impossible, and the general nature of the business in which they enter, [make them] not the best type of settlers and the less we have of them, will ... be the better ... [W]e could do very well without them, or at least, bar any future immigration of this class. [25]
One historian has noted that "the years from 1914 to 1920 [were] the worst in Winnipeg's social history ... the events left scars on Winnipeg society that took decades to heal." [26] World War I and the Winnipeg General Strike created anxiety and fear within the Winnipeg Jewish community. Indeed, Canadian Jews, especially recent immigrants to the country, found themselves in a very tenuous position as the war proceeded. Of course, Jews were not the only ones to suffer. Nadia Kazymyra has commented of the Ukrainians in Winnipeg during this period: "[Their] experience ... was similar to that of other Central and Eastern Europeans classified as 'enemy Alien' ... The resulting human suffering and anxiety left psychic scars and ethno-cultural tension." [27]
The experience of Winnipeg and Canadian Jewry seems partially to contradict the claim of Robert C. Brown and Ramsay Cook "that the [federal] government's actions held in check the unrestrained enthusiasm of native Canadians to persecute their fellow citizens." [28] In 1916, a prominent federal government official wrote "I do not know that so many Jewish people have enlisted as to call for any comment favourable to such people." [29] As the demands of war grew, the view that ethnic and cultural diversity was impeding the national war effort gained ground among Anglo-Canadians. And as the casualty lists grew throughout 1917-1918, anti-alien, including anti-Jewish sentiment, particularly pronounced on the part of Winnipeg's Anglo-Canadians, continued to mount. [30]
Many Winnipeg Jews were disenfranchised in the federal election of 1917 by the Wartime Elections Act, which removed the voting rights of citizens born in enemy countries and naturalized after 1902. Dos Yiddishe Vort protested on behalf of aggrieved Jews:
... [T]he most vital interests of the people are ... in jeopardy ... Freedom of speech, freedom of expression are the most important fundamentals of democratic life, and one must not ... sacrifice them. Not any less ... holy is the right at the ballot box. [31]
By the fall of 1918, an increasing number of repressive orders-in-council passed by the federal government affected the existence of some Jewish organizations and publications. [32] Roz Usiskin pointed out that among the Jewish community, the People's Book Store, Baker's Press, The Israelite Press and the Liberty Temple were singled out for police investigation. Books, newspapers, and journals of a "dubious nature" were confiscated. [33] Ernest Johnson has observed that P.C. 815 of April, 1918, commonly known as the anti-loafing law, was enforced enthusiastically in Winnipeg, especially against those who "appeared to have Slavic or Jewish names." [34]
Sometimes, the physical security of Winnipeg Jews was threatened. In 1917, a Jewish meeting was held at the Queen's Theatre on Selkirk Avenue to celebrate the fall of the Czar. Pro-monarchist Slavs, chanting "Down with the Jews. We don't need the Jews," arrived to disrupt the meeting, and to attack the organizers and the scheduled speakers. Police had to be summoned. [35] Sheppy Hershfield recalled the January, 1919, riot of returned soldiers "that started out as a desire to attack the Germans of the North End, but ended up as an attack on the Jews and the destruction of many stores on Selkirk Avenue." [36] This was after the soldiers had smashed Sam Blumenberg's cleaning establishment on Portage Avenue, where they forced Mrs. Blumenberg to kiss the Union Jack. [37]
Post-war paranoia reached a high point with the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919. A number of Jews were direct participants in the decision-making processes of the Strike. Alderman Abraham Albert Heaps of Ward 5 was a member of the General Strike Committee, was chairman of its Central Relief Committee, and was arrested along with several others on a charge of seditious conspiracy, even though he continued to attend City Council meetings during the Strike. [38] Max Tessler and M. Temenson represented the Metal Workers' Union on the General Committee. [39] Others from the garment and fur trade unions, just recently organized, also attended some General Strike meetings. [40] Most likely a handful of Jews engaged in business or the professions belonged to the anti-strike organization, The Citizens' Committee of One Thousand. [41] H. E. Wilder, President and Managing Editor of Dos Yiddishe Vort, himself thought to be a member of "the 1000" until it pursued the "anti-alien" cry, stated: "... [A]s Jews we must be pleased with the fact that Jews find themselves in the camps of both sides ... [W]e are satisfied with the fact that Jews were involved in the 'Committee of 1000'." [42]
The activities of individual Jews during the strike is an interesting research field in itself. However, I am concerned only with those individuals who were victims of government prosecution many would say persecution. It was through the experience of these individuals that fear and anxiety became widespread in the Jewish community. This, in turn, helped to foster a class political consciousness within much of the community during the inter-war years. I think it is fair to say that the overall sympathies of the community were entirely on the side of the strikers. Individual recollections confirm this, and the Strike Committee minutes tend to support this view. [43]
Historians of the Winnipeg General Strike have documented the arrest and trials of the strike leaders. [44] Most historians, however, have paid only fleeting attention to the pre-dawn arrests of five "foreigners," three of whom were Jews. [45] The Jewish "aliens" originally were charged with seditious conspiracy and faced immediate deportation under amendments to the Immigration Act. They were taken to Stony Mountain Penitentiary, and some weeks later were transferred to the Winnipeg Immigration Hall. They were: Sam Blumenberg, Michael Charitinoff, and Moses Almazov, né Samuel Pearl. [46] It is clear from available evidence that all three had been on the enemies list of the federal government for some time. The Royal North West Mounted Police placed them under police surveillance weeks before the strike. [47]
The individual whom the Jewish community regarded as one of its most cherished members, and whose well-being raised the greatest consternation, was Moses Almazov, a student in philosophy and economics at the University of Manitoba. He had come to Winnipeg from Russia in 1913. Editor of Die Volk Stimme (The People's Voice) he was a member of the Jewish local of the Social Democratic Party and one of its delegates to the Dominion Labor Party. [48] Dos Yiddishe Vort described him as "known to everyone as one of the most active workers in the [Jewish] War Relief Society for War Sufferers." [49] The Comptroller of the Royal Northwest Mounted Police termed him "an active revolutionary plotter." [50]
The Winnipeg Jewish community was very much concerned with the fate of the arrested foreigners. Protest meetings were held at the Liberty Temple. A Jewish Workers' Committee was formed. It undertook to visit the homes of all Jews to elicit financial support for a Strike Relief Fund. [51] Dos Yiddishe Vort mobilized Jewish public opinion: "Let every Jew support according to his means. Let every Jew remember that three of the arrested foreigners are Jews. And for this reason it is necessary that every Jew help to free the arrested ... It is your struggle for justice ..." [52] After a dramatic and eloquent speech to an Immigration Board of Inquiry, Almazov was acquitted with an admonition from Magistrate R. M. Noble. And, on appeal, Blumenberg and Charitinoff had their convictions reversed, and were freed. [53]
The Winnipeg Jewish community had other grounds for justified feelings of fear and anxiety resulting from the Strike. Jewish socialist and cultural organizations in the Liberty Temple were raided by the Royal North West Mounted Police - desks were smashed and papers stolen. [54] On Dominion Day, a number of Jewish homes were similarly raided, among them those of Charitinoff, Boris Daviotkin, Max Tessler, Yude Austin and Harry Geller. [55] Many Jews lived under the fear of police investigation and possible arrest and deportation. At a time when Reverend Captain Wellington Bridgman, Canadian army chaplain in Winnipeg, was claiming that God wanted the aliens to be deported, [56] Lóuis Rosenberg, later dean of sociologists of Canadian Jewry, was visited in Winnipeg by the police who searched his room. Only the fact that one of the men was a former member of a boys' group he had established in Leeds, England, saved Rosenberg from further problems. [57]
Some Jews stationed in Winnipeg with the armed forces were screened by military security. Maurice Bregman, for instance, was placed on the suspicious list and was the last man in his outfit to be demobilized in 1920. [58] The Chief Press Censor in Ottawa, Colonel Ernest Chambers, ordered Die Volk Stimme to cease publication, on the pretext that the necessary copies had not been forwarded to the Censor's office for examination. [59] He corresponded with Department of Justice officials about the possible prosecution of the paper's co-editor, Jacob Miller, and then attempted to close down Die Volk Stimme's successor, Die Nave Ziet (The New Times), because those associated with the paper were not "persons of acknowledged reliability and patriotism." [60] Chambers relented, however, after admonishing editor and publisher Joseph Hestrin to see that the paper was "really useful to the best interests of the country." [61]
The Jewish community was keenly sensitive to the anti-alien sentiment, expressed in the Winnipeg daily press. Dos Yiddishe Vort was indignant at what it called the "reactionary Winnipeg press" and "the scandalous Winnipeg cheap journalists" for stirring up anti-Jewish sentiments. [62] H. E. Wilder commented:
... [The anti-alien] pronouncements of the Citizens' Committee of 1000 were not disproven and they have remained as everlasting evidence ready for whoever will want to use them against the foreigners and this means naturally 'Jews' ... [63]
The anxious position of Winnipeg Jewry in 1919 can be gauged from the contents of two letters, both supporting the myth of Jewish conspiracy. The first was from a Royal North West Mounted Police agent to his superior:
Rich Jews are meeting in West Kildonan ... The object of these secret meetings ... [is to support] the strikers financially ... The Jews [are] fulfilling a mission for the higher up Bolsheviks ... The feeling against Jewry is becoming more bitter as people are realizing more and more that the removal of Jews from responsible positions ... will not only be the salvation of the country but a final victory over Bolshevism. [64]
The other was from Hugh John Macdonald, former Premier of Manitoba and now Police Magistrate. To Arthur Meighen, he wrote of
... The desirability of getting rid of as many undesirable aliens as possible. [He continued] I have seen to what a large extent Bolsheviki ideas are held by the Ruthenian, Russian and Polish people, whom we have in our midst and how large a section of the Russian and German Jews held similar views ... Fear is the only agency that can be successfully employed to keep them within the law ... [65]
I have gone to considerable lengths in marshalling evidence to support claims of almost continual anxiety and insecurity on the part of the Jewish community. Let me now turn from this recital of both official and unofficial hostility and return to the contention that Winnipeg Jews turned increasingly to political participation to help achieve both individual and communal security and legitimization in their own eyes, and in the eyes of fellow Winnipeggers.
Professor W. L. Morton has commented that "the Jewish immigrant responded more quickly ... and more gratefully than others to the freedom of opportunity and freedom of person that Manitoba afforded to its newcomers." [66] In large part, this meant that Jews were able to practice their religion in an unhampered manner, establish Yiddish and Hebrew schools, libraries and newspapers, form fraternal, cultural, and athletic organizations, and, within certain restrictions, earn a living as they could. Those who came from continental Europe, including from the Russian Empire (by far the majority of the Winnipeg Jewish community), had the opportunity to become British subjects and legal residents of Winnipeg. The response to democratic freedoms also took another form the desire, and indeed, the need, as a defense mechanism, to participate in the political process at the municipal, provincial, and federal levels.
Several historians of Canadian Jewry have quoted Sir John Macdonald's cynical and condescending comment about Jewish immigration:
The old Clo' move is a good one - a sprinkling of Jews in the North-West would do good. They would at once go in for peddling and politics, and be as of much use in the New Country as Cheap Jacks and Chapmen. [67]
Abe Arnold has observed that the first of Macdonald's predictions came true almost immediately: "... Jews are remembered as peddlers and politicians ..." [68]
Macdonald may, however, have been surprised to learn that a Manitoba Jew was elected to public office shortly after he expressed this view. A few years ago, Clifford Shnier discovered that Harry Weixelbaum, a hotel keeper in the then booming town of West Lynne, across the river from Emerson, became Manitoba's first Jewish alderman in July, 1882. [69] Subsequent research discloses that, as a candidate for Ward 3, he received 30 votes and was elected as the Ward's second alderman. [70]
Louis Vineberg, a city businessman, was the first Jew in Winnipeg to be the beneficiary of political patronage when he was appointed as Justice of the Peace in 1883. [71] By the turn of the century, before the appointment of a permanent Police Magistrate, Winnipeg Jewish businessmen Philip Brown, Benjamin Zimmerman, and Moses Finkelstein also had served in this capacity. [72]
From the early years of the community, politicians sought the Jewish vote. Joseph Wolf, auctioneer and real estate promoter, and possibly a Jewish convert to Protestantism, spoke Yiddish to prospective Jewish voters when he campaigned as a school trustee and alderman in the 1880s and 1890s. [73] Undoubtedly, the Jewish vote was a factor in his election to office.
As the Winnipeg Jewish community showed an increased interest in municipal politics, meetings were held to nominate a Jewish candidate for alderman. In 1895, tobacconist Louis Wertheim was nominated to contest Ward 5. He ran third, receiving 146 votes. [74] Historian Abraham Rhinewine ascribes his loss to the limited voting strength of Winnipeg's Jews, [75] an interpretation reinforced by Moses Finkelstein, a scrutineer in that election, who recalled: "[We realized] that our forces would have to increase a great deal to combat the prejudice that was then existing, and still exists in Winnipeg towards the Jews." [76] This view is confirmed by Professor Alan Artibise's thesis that politics in Winnipeg in the period 1874 to 1914 was the preserve of a commercial elite, which comprised men of Anglo-Saxon origin and Protestant faith. Five individuals who were elected as aldermen in the period were not members of this elite. Two of the five were Jews. [77] Conservative in federal and provincial politics, both ran in Ward 5 on a platform of municipal improvements for the city's north end, which they claimed was neglected by the City Council. Moses Finkelstein was elected in December, 1904, and Altar Skaletar in December 1912. [78] The political potency of the Jewish vote was demonstrated by Finkelstein's election. He was nominated a week before the election; he was ill at the time and could not campaign effectively. His supporters campaigned for him among Jewish voters and he was elected handily. [79] And Skaletar built up a very strong following among Jewish voters, before irregularities in the 1917 municipal election forced him to resign. [80] Mrs. Esther Shachter recalled that Skaletar used to shovel sand on the steps of slippery street cars for his constituents. [81]
The growing political awareness of Winnipeg Jewry led to the creation in February, 1896, of an Independent Jewish Political Club intended to serve as a sounding board for the candidates and supporters of the two major parties. [82] Ellen Cooke noted that Liberal candidate Joseph Martin and his supporters "addressed a Jewish meeting" during the 1896 federal campaign. [83] The club disintegrated not long thereafter and was followed by the formation of Jewish Conservative and Jewish Liberal Clubs. [84]
By 1912 most Jewish voters in Winnipeg at both the provincial and federal levels were Liberals. This was good news to the Liberal Manitoba Free Press which commented:
Politically ... the Jew is all right ... He takes a keen interest in the politics of the province. He enjoys a good fight in the newspaper or on the stump. He seems also to have a fair grasp of the issues and ... is on the side of reform and progress. [85]
There were several reasons for the Jewish attraction to the Liberal Party: the gratitude of recent immigrants to the Government in power, the popularity of Laurier, and the machinations of the Roblin Conservatives. One informed observer placed the level of Jewish Liberal support beyond 80%. [86] The popularity of the Liberals among the Jewish electorate was demonstrated, and reinforced, by the election of a Jewish lawyer, Solomon Hart Green, as M.L.A. for North Winnipeg in 1910. He won 27 of 35 polls and accumulated a majority of 620 votes. [87]
By 1914, Winnipeg Jewry had helped to elect not only a Jewish M.L.A. and two aldermen, but also a school trustee, Moses Abrahamson. [88] This was ascribed to:
[T]he Jews of this city realiz[ing] that they had to unite to win ... [T]hey are considered today the greatest factor of any nationality in this city as a power of strength, and are respected by both political parties. [89]
Two years ago Roz Usiskin spoke to you on "The Winnipeg Jewish Community: Its Radical Elements 1905-1918." Between Roz's research and that of Ernie Chisick a few years ago, we know that the period 1905-1918 in Winnipeg was a political training and testing time for Jewish socialists candidates such as Chaim Saltzman ran for municipal and provincial office; newspapers, such as Der Courier, were established; party constitutions and platforms were adopted; advertising, fund raising, and campaigning were conducted. [90]
There is evidence to support the contention that the Jewish community of Winnipeg voted largely along ethnic lines until at least 1918. Indeed, Professor Tom Peterson ascribes the 1915 provincial election victory of Labour candidate Richard Rigg in Winnipeg North "B" to the fact that the Jewish vote split between two Jewish candidates, S. Hart Green of the Liberals and Elias Levinson of the Conservatives. Peterson also suggests "that the Jewish vote elected" Liberal Robert Jacob in a 1918 provincial by-election in the same constituency, and infers that many Jews may have voted for Jacob by name, thinking that he was Jewish, which he was not. [91]
Harvey Herstein has observed correctly that Winnipeg Jews "like their fellow citizens cast their ballots for personalities and issues, and no one person could honestly claim to supply or deliver the Jewish vote." [92] This is an accurate assessment of the Jewish community in politics, especially in the post World War II period. Thus, in recent years, Jews can be found as members in, and candidates and supporters of, the three major political parties in the province. Indeed, two Jews were provincial party leaders. [93] Herstein also added "it was clear that Winnipeg Jews were not to be counted upon to vote as a block, nor was there to be a Jewish vote." [94]
However, during the years between the Winnipeg General Strike and Canada's entry into World War II, while there was no consistent, monolithic "Jewish vote" in the sense of every single voter continuously favoring only one candidate or one party, and while there was no individual, who, in the manner of machine politics, was able to deliver the votes of all Winnipeg Jews to one candidate or party, a so-called "Jewish vote," nevertheless, did exist. It existed in the sense that it was forthcoming to specific individuals and parties.
Leo Driedger has written that "[t]erritory is an essential ingredient of any definition of a community. Individuals can identify with a territory, and it is the ground within which ethnic activity can take place." [95] In the case of Winnipeg Jewry in the interwar period, that territory was the north-end of Winnipeg, which, in large part after 1920, consisted of the Ward 3 division in municipal politics. In 1921, more than 84% of Winnipeg's Jewish population lived in that Ward; in 1931, 88.7% or 15,283 persons; and in 1941, 86.4% or 14,718 people. In 1921, the centre of Jewish population was Selkirk Avenue; in 1941, 85.9% of Winnipeg's Jews lived within a 1 mile radius of a point on Aberdeen Avenue midway between Aikens Street and Salter Street. The trans-migration of Jews across the city, the study of which is the demographer's delight, barely had begun by 1941. [96]
The Winnipeg General Strike was the first and only time in Canadian history that a major city was split clearly into two opposing classes; it became the fundamental determinant in the modern political history of Winnipeg. [97] In a recent study of Winnipeg City Council, Professor J. E. Rea stated that "for twenty-five years following the General Strike, the basic cleavage in Winnipeg politics was class orientation." [98] This basic cleavage at the municipal level was reflected also at the provincial and federal levels. Norman Penner has written that "the strike gave a strong impetus towards independent labour political action and the eventual formation of a social-democratic party in Canada." [99]
In the inter-war period, the Jewish community began to vote largely, although never entirely, along class lines. This was due primarily to the traumatic impact of the war and the general strike upon the collective psyche of Winnipeg Jewry. A further reason, as described by Roz Usiskin, was "the entrance of the [Jewish] radicals into the [political] arena." [100]
It is commonplace to mention that many of the leaders of the Winnipeg Strike were elected or re-elected to political office. The Strike, however, also acted as a catalyst in launching the political careers of John Blumberg, Marcus Hyman, and E. J. McMurray, all three of whom had a political relationship with the Jewish community.
Nicknamed "Honest John" by his contemporaries, and "Fighting" Jack by his friends and working associates, Blumberg, who came from a working class family in England, immigrated to Canada at age 18 in 1910. He was employed at the C.P.R. roundhouse, then as a motorman with the Winnipeg Street Railway Co. He became friendly with Heaps and other English immigrant workingmen and trade unionists. When the Winnipeg and District Branch of the Dominion Labour Party was organized in 1918, with the ultimate aim of transforming "capitalist property into working class property to be socially used and owned," [101] a number of Jewish trade unionists and workingmen joined, including Blumberg, Saltzman, Morris Morosnick, Maurice Klizerman, Jacob Kamensky, R. J. Kimmel, Fred Donner, G. B. Rosenfield, S. D. Feldman, H. Finegold, L. Farstine, M. Goldsmith. M. Treacher and Louis Geller. In addition, Almazov, W. Baum, and M. Cohen were delegates to the Party from the Social Democratic Party. [102]
Blumberg took an active part in the Dominion Labor Party. The arrest and imprisonment of his friends Heaps and Queen affected him deeply, he determined on a career in politics. In October, 1919, he was sponsored by the Street Railwaymen's Union and was nominated by the Dominion Labor Party as aldermanic candidate in Ward 6. That ward then covered the area from Burrows in the south to the city limits in the north and the prairie in the west. [103]
Morris Mott has noted that the press, perhaps intentionally, referred to Blumberg as Blumenberg; [104] nevertheless, Blumberg was elected. Initially, he was not returned by a "Jewish vote" as there were only about 120 Jewish families in the predominantly Anglo-Celtic working class area. He did, however, receive the votes of many Jews. [105] Voters would remember that the Dominion Labor Party was the only one to pass a resolution in December, 1919, condemning pogroms in Russia and other places in Eastern Europe, and urging the federal government to take action "necessary to assist our afflicted brethren." [106] As early as 1918 the Dominion Labor Party was printing election material in Yiddish and advertising in Dos Yiddishe Vort. [107] This, its activities on behalf of Mrs. Sam Blumenberg to obtain reparations from the City for damaged property, and the fact that both the Jewish branch of the Social Democratic Party and the Poale Zion (Jewish Socialist Labor Party) were semi-affiliated with the Dominion Labor Party, [108] reinforced Blumberg's and the party's popularity among Jewish voters.
Blumberg began in 1919 a long and distinguished career on Winnipeg city council. Following re-organization of municipal boundaries in 1920, he represented Ward 3 as alderman for the next 35 years. He, along with Heaps, attended the initial meeting, and became an active member of the Independent Labor Party in 1920. [109] Blumberg was active in a variety of Jewish religious, cultural, and athletic activities. [110] Although he had a genuine regard for his constituents, he was acutely aware of his place as a politician and the value of each vote. Joshua Gershman recalled a furrier union's strike in the early 1920s.
During the strike I was arrested 14 times and I wasn't even a citizen yet and I was afraid I would be deported. But at that time there was a Jewish alderman John Blumberg [who] helped us a lot. Whenever I appeared in court he kept postponing the case till the strike was over. [111]
Blumberg's appeal to the labour vote, both Jewish and non-Jewish, is illustrated in excerpts from an advertising testimonial on his behalf, entitled "The Ideal Alderman":
Alderman Blumberg's service in city council for Ward 3 for the past 18 years has been imprinted in the memories of 1000s of citizens of north Winnipeg ... Blumberg [has] proven ability to be the ideal alderman for the interest of his electorate - the workers and the folk masses ... Jewish voters of north Winnipeg do not splinter your vote. Vote united and in masses for Alderman Blumberg ... You will make certain his re-election, and you will ensure yourself a Jewish alderman ... [112]
After his re-election in 1935, Dos Yiddishe Vort proclaimed:
We are very pleased to see the north end electorate and specifically, the Jewish, quite actively attended the elections. The Jewish attendance has resulted in the large number of votes that Alderman Blumberg received although Jews have also voted for other candidates and although Mr. Blumberg was mainly elected with the help of the English workers' votes. [113]
Professor A. Ross McCormack has noted that "the legacy of the general strike reinforced earlier traditions and established the north end as one of the safest radical seats in the nation." [114] While this was apparent immediately at the municipal and provincial levels, it was less apparent at the federal level in Winnipeg North. In the federal election of 1921, Liberal candidate Edward James McMurray, a barrister, was returned in Winnipeg North. He defeated the former M.P., Mathew Robert Blake, and imprisoned strike leader R. B. Russell, by more than 800 votes. [115]
Mc Murray's election was due to a number of causes. He had been one of the defense counsels for the arrested strike leaders and the 'alien' foreigners.' [116] His private legal notebook indicates his concern for the under-privileged and his sympathy for those who had fallen afoul of the law [117] - certainly this perception of him as a man of compassion won him votes. In addition, there was an anti-Conservative feeling in the constituency, arising from World War I. McMurray made a concerted attempt to win Jewish votes. He spoke at Jewish mass meetings at the Talmud Torah and the Queen's Theatre, where he appeared with Max J. Finkelstein and A. M. Shinbane, Liberal lawyers who were very active in Jewish communal affairs. [118] McMurray reminded Jewish voters that he had been one of the strikers' defense counsels, that the period 1896 to 1911 under Liberal rule had been Canada's golden age, pledged himself to open immigration, and condemned the Unionist political record, especially the Wartime Elections Act. [119] McMurray was successful in recapturing a major share of the traditional Jewish Liberal vote in Winnipeg North.
The political career of Marcus Hyman also was connected directly to the Winnipeg General Strike, and was, in several respects, a by-product of it. Hyman had been one of the strikers' defence counsels. He had a major part to play in the hearings of the "foreigners" before Magistrate Noble. [120] Hyman, the son of a Polish rabbi who had immigrated to Great Britain, was, in many respects, "a man for all seasons."
A brilliant scholar at Oxford, where he studied law and graduated with honors, he took a position as tutor and private secretary to a prince in India. He practiced law upon his return to London. In 1913, he came to Winnipeg where he was called to the Bar of Manitoba. Two years later he was appointed lecturer in international law, legal history, and jurisprudence at the Manitoba Law School. Hyman was active in a variety of Jewish communal activities, and was president of both the Western Canadian Relief Fund for the Relief of War Sufferers, and the British-Canadian Recruiting Mission, which raised men for military service in World War I in Egypt and Palestine. [121]
In the 1920s, he became a respected labour lawyer, representing the One Big Union and labour's interests on various commissions. The fact that he was well-off financially was not a determinant in his political affiliation. [122] He was a devoted member, and candidate for political office, of the Independent Labour Party. Elected to the Winnipeg School Board in 1923, he served in this position until 1929. He was unsuccessful in an attempt to gain a seat in the Legislative Assembly in 1927, and was defeated when he ran for mayor in 1929 and in 1930.
He was elected as one of the ten representatives of Winnipeg to the Legislative Assembly in 1932, and was re-elected in 1936. [123] Although the system of proportional voting and transferable ballots complicates analysis, it is apparent that Hyman's political strength was overwhelmingly in north Winnipeg. [124] Lloyd Stinson, longtime C.C.F. politician, described Hyman as
One of the most respected members of the House [who] dealt with a variety of subjects, including education, civil liberties and improvements in labour legislation. Twenty years ahead of his time in education, he was an active supporter of larger school units, something that was still being debated in the '50s. [125]
In the Jewish community, Hyman is remembered as the sponsor of the so called Anti-Defamation Bill in the Manitoba Legislature, the significance of which will be examined shortly. When he died in 1938, the Winnipeg Free Press commented that Hyman was "capable of great depths of feeling and belief ... He was a leading figure in Winnipeg Jewry and in Winnipeg. The mourning that was bestowed upon his bier was both honest and plentiful." [126]
The results of municipal elections involving Jewish candidates were influenced by the Winnipeg General Strike, and revealed the class nature of Jewish voting behaviour at the municipal level. Because both H. E. Wilder and Max Steinkopf were thought to be, if not actual members of, then very sympathetic to The Citizens' Committee of 1000, both were not supported by the Winnipeg Jewish community in the 1919 municipal elections. [127] Sheppy Hershfield recalled attending an election meeting at Strathcona School where popular John Queen, Wilder's opponent, announced that on voting day "Wilder would be wilder." [128] One presumes he was because he was defeated. Perhaps the best example of the class voting that took place was the defeat of Max Steinkopf by Mrs. Max (Rose) Alcin, a member of the former Jewish anarchist group and the wife of a watchmaker. [129] Steinkopf was seeking reelection to the Winnipeg School Board, of which he was Chairman of the Building Committee. [130]
Steinkopf's personal credentials were impeccable. Born in Morden, he graduated from the University of Manitoba and read law in the offices of Sir Hugh John Macdonald. Called to the bar in 1905, he became the first Jewish barrister on the prairies. A member of the Conservative Party, he was the President of five companies and the Secretary-Treasurer of a sixth. He was active in many Jewish communal endeavours: Chairman, Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith; Vice-Chairman, Jewish European Orphans' Committee; President, Winnipeg Zionist Council; President, Winnipeg Hebrew Free School. [131] According to Rabbi Chiel, Mrs. Alcin was the first Jewish woman elected to public office in Canada. She was re-elected and served six years as school trustee. [132]
And the Jewish community's memory was not short lived. In the 1927 provincial election Steinkopf was one of the government candidates for the multi-member constituency of Winnipeg. However, another Jew, William Verner Tobias, running as a Conservative, placed eighth in the field of twenty-five and was elected. Steinkopf ran twelfth and was not elected. [133]
Tobias, a barrister, like Steinkopf, was born at Morden and educated at the University of Manitoba. He enlisted in the University Battalion in 1915 as a private and served in France, where he was promoted to Captain and awarded the Military Cross for bravery in the field. Tobias graduated from the Manitoba Law School in 1923. He was a founder of the General Monash branch of the Canadian Legion, and was a member of the Habonim, the Winnipeg lodge of B'nai B'rith, and Y.M.H.A. He was one of the top sprinters in the province and was associated with the athletic endeavours of many sporting teams. [134]
Tobias's election demonstrated both class and ethnic voting on the part of Winnipeg Jewry. Many Jews refused to support Steinkopf because of his so-called "strike record"; some voted for him because he was Jewish. Despite Tobias's claims that he was "friendly to labour" and had "the confidence of all classes," many Jewish I.L.P. supporters did not vote for him; others voted for him because he was Jewish. [135] Perhaps another explanation will suffice. Sheppy Hershfield recalled that "the election of Capt. Tobias over Max Steinkopf ... was a great surprise to all the Jews - but Billy Tobias was the darling of all the young people particularly the ladies." [136]
Reference has been made to Jewish participation in, and support of, the Independent Labour Party in the inter-war years. These years saw Jewish candidates contest various municipal and provincial elections. Foremost were M. A. (Moishe) Gray and Meyer Averbach. Born Moishe Gurarie in Goroditz, Russia, in 1889, Gray came to Winnipeg in 1907. He worked in a St. Boniface lumber yard, and then opened a travel bureau as a representative of the Baltic American shipping line. In Russia, his sister and brother-in-law had been exiled to Siberia following the abortive 1905 revolution. That event helped shape his political consciousness. In 1925, as an I.L.P. candidate, he contested and won a seat on the Winnipeg School Board, where he served until 1930. In the latter year he was elected to the Legislative Assembly as a C.C.F. member for Winnipeg. It is perhaps as an M.L.A. for Winnipeg, and then for Inkster, that his political career of twenty-five years service in the Legislature is best remembered. Over these years, he was to remain a steadfast champion of human rights. He was active in many Jewish organizations including the Jewish Orphanage, the United Relief Committee, the Canadian Association for Labor Palestine, and the Western Division of the Canadian Jewish Congress. His work for many years as General Secretary, Jewish Immigrant Aid Society, western division, brought him into contact with the immigrants of the 1920s. [137] His community service, and his lengthy public service in civic and provincial politics made him, perhaps, the best known politician on the Jewish scene. Certainly, in many homes in the north end, Gray was a household name. As Esther Schachter commented, "I am certain that all Jews in Winnipeg know about Gray's activities ... All Jews should go out to vote and the first on their ballot should be Moishe Gray." [138]
Meyer Averbach, a lawyer and Hebrew Free School teacher and principal, also ran under the I.L.P. banner and was elected a school trustee in 1933. He served in this capacity until 1949. Undoubtedly, his prominence within the Jewish community helped account for his success at the polls. He was active in the Poale Zion Club, the National Workers' Alliance, the Hebrew Free School, and the Canadian Jewish Congress, Western Division, of which he was secretary. [139]
J. Alter Cherniack, a Winnipeg barrister, Jewish communal leader, ardent Labour Zionist, and treasurer of the Independent Labour Party, unsuccessfully contested Ward 3 as an I.L.P. aldermanic candidate in 1928, but continued to be a major force in I.L.P. and C.C.F. politics in north Winnipeg for many years. [140]
For Jews who were members, or active supporters, of the I.L.P. North Winnipeg branch, participation in politics was very much a social affair. At meetings at the Queen's or Palace Theatre, one could go with one's neighbours and friends for an evening of entertaining speeches and activities. Picnics, whist drives, and teas were held as social and fund-raising events. For instance, a silver tea in aid of I.L.P. campaign funds was given in 1928 at the home of Mrs. Jack Blumberg. Convenors were Mrs. N. Nathanson, Mrs. A. Guberman, Mrs. George Sheps, Mrs. N. Goldstine, Mrs. J. Rosenberg, Mrs. N. Grower, Mrs. Kolinsky, Mrs. Burnthal and Mrs. M. Harris. [141]
With the exception of some political support for Mayor Ralph Webb during his electoral campaigns, candidates of the political descendant of the Citizens' Committee of One Thousand known variously as the Citizens' League, the Citizens' Campaign Committee, the Winnipeg Civics Association, the Civic Progress Association, and the Winnipeg Election Committee - did not enjoy popularity among Jewish voters. Brian McKillop has noted that in the eyes of the Citizens' group one was either a "Concerned Citizen" or one was not, something that resulted in a "we" - "they" dichotomy. [142] Well, the majority of the Jewish community knew it was not the "we" of whom the Citizens' group spoke; therefore, it must have been the "they."
This is reflected in the fact that very few Jews sought an aldermanic seat in Ward 3 under the sponsorship of the Civic Progress Association. As far as I am aware, Rockmil Calof, a lawyer and president of the Y.M.H.A., was the only one in 1929. Perhaps realizing that he could not hope to win many Jewish votes along class lines, Calof's election advertisements appealed to Jewish voters to "elect your own" - "a north-ender to represent your ward." [143] The Jewish Post, which shrank from any frank discussion, let alone endorsation, of Jewish class voting, noted that:
There is no conflict ... between Alderman Blumberg and Mr. Calof. There are three seats in Ward 3 and it is quite conceivable that both may be elected. It may even work out to their mutual advantage to have both running, since their combined effort may bring out a big Jewish vote from which both may benefit. [144]
Calof was unsuccessful in his quest.
Next to the Independent Labour Party at the municipal level, it was the Communist Party that made the most direct appeal for the votes of north-end Jewry. Its candidates ran under such organizational names as the Workers' Party or the Workers' Unity League to avoid prosecution, as the Communist Party was illegal for most of the inter-war period. [145] Winnipeg Jews had an early and direct connection with the Communist Party. Max Dolgoy, later a union organizer, was one of the charter members of the Workers' Party of Canada in 1921. [146] Noiech Levine and Joshua Gershman joined shortly thereafter. [147] Joseph Kahana was among the first Jewish Communists to seek office in Winnipeg, when in 1927 he was defeated as a candidate for school trustee in Ward 3. [148] In 1933 and 1934, Saul Simkin ran as aldermanic candidate in Ward 2, but was not elected. [149] By 1934, however, two Communist aldermen had been elected - including in Ward 3, Jacob Penner. [150] Penner's wife, Rose, was Jewish, and he was interested in a variety of Jewish communal endeavours, including the Peretz School. This, in addition to personal characteristics - he was a great humanitarian - and any ideological attraction, helps explain his considerable popularity with many Jewish voters in the 1930s. In addition, he served as an inspiration to many young Jewish Communists, such as William Ross and Joseph Zuken. Ross, who received the editorial backing of Dos Yiddishe Vort, was elected as a school trustee in 1936 and served in that capacity until 1939. [151]
Efforts of the Communists to unite with the Independent Labour Party to form a common front as early as the mid 1920s were rebuffed by the social democratic I.L.P. [152] As a result, often there were bitter words between candidates of the two parties, both of which claimed to be the legitimate representative of north-end Winnipeg. Jack Blumberg particularly was emphatic in his denunciation of the Communists. [153] Nor were the latter reticent to say that
The part played by the social-reformist [I.L.P.] misleaders of the workers in the city council and parliamentary assembly is despicable, but true to their traitorous actions in every capitalist country ... [They say] nothing and thereby [say] everything in favour of Cossack methods. [154]
Often, advertising in Yiddish was distributed to homes by parties and candidates denouncing their opponents in no uncertain terms. [155] Certainly the struggle for the votes of Winnipeg's Jewish community between these two parties was intense and colorful in the inter-war years.
There is an expression in Yiddish that is often used to describe the sometimes uncomfortable circumstances of Jews - Es eez shver tsu zein a Yid - it is difficult to be a Jew. That expression easily could have been adopted by the Winnipeg Jewish community in the inter-war period. Moreover, there was ample opportunity in politics during the 1920s and 1930s for both participation and involvement by sizeable numbers of the Winnipeg Jewish community. This activity at all three levels of political life serves to reinforce the thesis of this paper, that politics was regarded as an avenue by which the Jewish community could attain a greater degree of security, acceptance, and respect, and thereby join the mainstream of life in Manitoba, and indeed, in Canada.
James Gray recalled the anti-Semitism that existed in the North End of Winnipeg in the early 1920s and commented:
... [T]he Poles and the Jews kept their distance from each other, and the Ukrainians brought their prejudice with them when they came. For [we Anglo-Saxons] ... 'Jew' was just another generic word ... for peddlers ... If we haggled successfully over something we would say, 'I Jewed him down.' [156]
An episode in January, 1922, served to reinforce the insecurity of the Winnipeg Jewish community. The commissioner of the Manitoba Provincial Police, Colonel J. G. Rattray, claimed at a Lions' Club luncheon in Winnipeg that 95% of the major bootleggers in Manitoba were Jews. Furthermore, he said that Jews, along with the Japanese and the Prussians, were engaged in an international conspiracy to destroy Christianity and western civilization. [157] A B'nai B'rith Anti-Defamation delegation protested to Premier T. C. Norris, asking for Rattray's dismissal. [158] Norris disregarded the request and Attorney General T. H. Johnston even defended Rattray's character and service.
Rattray was dismissed several months later when the United Farmers of Manitoba came to power, but even then, not for rabble-rousing, but for incompetence. [159]
One observer has commented that in the 1920s in Winnipeg lower in the social scale "even than the Galicians were the Jews, who were at the rock bottom of the Anglo-Saxon pecking order ..." [160] This view, predicated on social and economic discrimination against Jews, was substantiated by an editorial in The Jewish Post in 1928:
[T]here are establishments in [Winnipeg] which make a point of inquiring the nationality of applicants to office, or sales positions, so that if the answer is 'Jewish' the position is 'already filled.' One of the larger firms in Winnipeg with whom ... Jews deal to the extent of hundreds of thousands of dollars every year, employs so few Jews, that in proportion to the whole the number is negligible. There are places where Jews are employed accidentally ... until the discovery is made that they are Jewish. There are a number of shops ... which will not take in Jewish apprentices ... It is often harder for a Jew to get a job ... simply because he is a Jew." [161]
And in 1929, an attempt was made to prevent the establishment of the B'nai B'rith camp, in the Gimli Rural Municipality. A petition was instigated by an owner of a nearby tourist camp which flaunted a sign "For Gentiles Only." J. T. Thorson, M.P., and others appeared at the request of B'nai B'rith before the Gimli Rural Council to oppose the petition. The Council rejected the petition. [162]
In certain sectors of higher education, accessibility by qualified Jewish candidates was restricted. Drs. Percy Barsky and Sheppy Hershfield have described the discriminatory nature of the 'numerus clausus' of the Manitoba Medical College. In the inter-war years, Jewish and Slavic entrants to Medicine were limited by an arbitrary quota. [163]
Howard Palmer has documented the activities of the Ku Klux Klan, which had up to 5000 members in Alberta during the early 1930s, became involved in Saskatchewan provincial politics, and established locals in British Columbia and Ontario. [164] In the fall of 1928, Daniel Grant of Brandon, arrived to establish a Winnipeg chapter. The attempts to establish the branch, as bumbling as they were, were very disconcerting to Winnipeg Jewry - because of the Klan's blatant anti-Semitism, and its closed-door immigration policy. [165] Professor Gerald Craig commented:
The Jewish immigrants from eastern Europe received their full share of the distrust arising out of nativist fears and misgivings. There were, however, special shafts aimed at the Jews. The farming population was growing increasingly suspicious of the expanding power of the cities and of the control by bankers over the economy ... It was not hard to identify Jews with city life and with the supposed conspiracy of the international bankers. The stereotype of the Jew, who lived off the work of other people was soon widely held. [166]
In the 1929 mayoralty contest, in which Marcus Hyman was defeated, The Jewish Post downplayed any traces of anti-Semitism and complacently commented:
[None] of the Jewish candidates can complain that he suffered to any perceptible degree because of his race or religion ... We understand that some anti-Jewish propaganda against Mr. Hyman was spread in the south end but its effect was very slight. [167]
A deep fear for the security of German Jewry after the accession to power of the Nazis was manifest in the Winnipeg community as early as March, 1933, when a mass meeting was organized at the Zionist Hall under the chairmanship of Alderman M. A. Gray to protest Nazi assaults on German Jews. [168] And a sense of uneasiness in Winnipeg was apparent in 1934 when Goldie Myerson, better known as Golda Meier, addressed the Pioneer Women's Association at Levine's Kosher Restaurant. She noted that "Jews are feeling all over again that where they are today they may not be tomorrow. A strong anti-Semitism is spreading not necessarily meaning that Canada or the United States will do as Germany has, but may our parents be warned and prepare for any problem they may have to face ... [169]
Jews who were associated with left wing political organizations, such as the Communist Party, were under official suspicion. In February, 1932, Inspector J. A. Browne of the Manitoba Provincial Police warned Premier John Bracken that the Communist Party in Winnipeg was "secretly preparing the organization of a fighting group with the purpose to obtain funds ... these groups will have to rob banks and stores ..." [170] Shortly thereafter, a Provincial Police report indicated that the Communist Party had many important members hidden "in Government positions, in local Municipal Offices, and elsewhere which afford[ed] them 'Protection'." [171] Jews who warranted surveillance were: N. Temminson, a participant in the 1905 Russian Revolution, described as executive member of the Winnipeg Trades and Council, leading member of the Liberty Temple, knowledgeable of C.N.R. affairs because local 189 of the Fort Rouge Machinists was under his control, and "one of the foremost of the Communist Party in Winnipeg;" S. Silberstein, also a participant in the Russian Revolution of 1905, described as a "delegate for the Transcona car-men ... one of the old Russian Bolshevists, a Russian Jew, and one of Temminson's confidantes"; one Levi, chief of the Unemployed Neighborhood Councils Movement; and one Friedman, organizer of the Junior Communist Association described as "a typical Jew." [172]
Many Jews were frightened by one wing of the Social Credit movement, which imbibed the anti-Semitism of Major C. H. Douglas, who visited Winnipeg in 1934 to expound his theories. At the same time, Dr. M. Mihychuk was defending and expounding The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, along with Social Credit teachings, at meetings in the city. And sometimes manifestations of Ukrainian nationalism were tinged with anti Semitism. The Winnipeg Evening Tribune reported in 1936:
More than 800 [persons] assembled in the Prosvita Hall under the auspices of the Ukrainian Catholic Brotherhood of Manitoba. Yakimischack called upon all Ukrainians to unite to protect themselves against a fate similar to that of the Ukrainians in Ukraine under the Soviet regime. Ukraine he said was ruined by Moscow and the Jews. Dr. Mihychuk stated that 90% of all the Soviet commissars were Jews. 'They are the curse of mankind.' The Rev. Dr. Kushnir spoke in a similar vein. [173]
Winnipeg Jewry was concerned with the fact that two of the German consuls in the city, in the 1930s, were Nazi party members. [174] They were also disturbed by the activities of the pro-Nazi German-Canadian Bund, the Deutscher Bund Canada, which, according to Professor Jonathan Wagner, "developed into a nation wide organization which conducted an elaborate propaganda campaign designed to convert Canada's Germans to the 'truth' of National Socialism." [175]
The Jewish community was greatly agitated over the formation in Winnipeg in 1933 of the Nationalist Party of Canada, headed by William Whittaker, a former organizer of the Ku Klux Klan, and a notorious anti-Semite. This group published the virulently anti-Semitic The Canadian Nationalist mimeographed sheet, and its members wore brown shirts and arm bands with the swastika emblem. [176]
The excesses of The Canadian Nationalist and other anti-Semitic propaganda prompted Marcus Hyman to introduce in the Manitoba Legislature a bill permitting any member of a religious or racial group being defamed to sue for an injunction against the publisher or author. The bill, co-authored by Ernest Brotman, "An Act to Amend 'The Libel Act'," more commonly known as The Manitoba Anti-Defamation, or the Hyman Act, received the support of Attorney-General W. J. Major and of the Bracken Government, and was adopted unanimously by the House in 1934. [177] Major was able to convert his support into political dividends in the provincial election of 1936, when Winnipeg's Jews voted for him almost en masse. [178]
A group defamation action was commenced almost immediately by William Tobias against Whittaker and the printers of The Canadian Nationalist. Tobias won the case when a permanent injunction was granted in February, 1935. [179] Although the publication and distribution of The Canadian Nationalist were prohibited in Manitoba; nevertheless, as David Rome pointed out, it continued to be published and the second volume of January, 1938, with its continuing series on the Protocols, was mailed to Ontario residents. [180]
Reinvigorated by the arrival in 1936 of Henry Hamilton Beamish, South African anti-Semite, the Canadian Nationalist Party continued to function. After 1938, it was part of the Canada-wide Fascist grouping, the National Unity Party, whose elected Fuehrer was Adrien Arcand of Quebec. [181] When Beamish delivered an anti-Semitic address at the Winnipeg Auditorium in 1936, about 25 Jews showed up to heckle the speaker and fights broke out. The Jewish Post was not pleased with the action taken by this group of Jews, and commented:
There are those in our midst, who, through unwarranted fear and hysteria, are indulging in loose thinking and equally loose talk ... Our people have always had too much self respect to indulge in physical reprisals to take law and order into their own hands to meet the situation ... Any mob hysteria or fear of physical harm that has been shown is premature and unwarranted ... We cannot fight fire with fire. [182]
A less visceral reaction to the growth of Nazism and to anti-Semitic activities in Winnipeg was through formation of the League to Combat Fascism and anti-Semitism. The League became popular in the Jewish community in the latter 1930s. J. Alter Cherniack recalled that an anti Semitic meeting in the Bijou Theatre, where he asked the audience to leave, served as the catalyst in the League's formation:
A few days later, I received a delegation of Dorfman, Louis Gutkin and H. Guralnik, Jewish Communists, who suggested that we work together to organize an anti-Fascist League to fight discrimination generally, and anti-Semitism specifically ... We held several meetings, issued bulletins and distributed a label bearing the following: BOYCOTT GERMAN MADE GOODS. ANTIFASCIST LEAGUE, WINNIPEG. Our public meetings were addressed by many speakers of repute ... In Winnipeg we received support from the press, from prominent individuals like Judge Stubbs, E. J. McMurray, the Reverends Clark and Howse ... [183]
The overriding domestic issue which caused fear and anxiety for Canada's Jews in the 1920s and 1930s was the question of immigration of Eastern European Jews. [184] Many had been dislocated after World War I and the interregnum that followed the collapse of the German, Austrian, and Russian Empires. Others were the victims of pogroms and economic boycotts.
The catch-22 nature of Canadian immigration regulations was the subject of concern expressed by various Canadian Jewish organizations. [185] As in an earlier era, however, Jews were not regarded as desirable immigrants, a point illustrated in a letter from the Secretary of the Department of Immigration and Colonization to the High Commissioner in 1921:
[The Jews] have been required to comply with every Immigration regulation. This has been found necessary in order to prevent the movement developing to the point where it will be a menace to Canada. If the door were opened wider ... Atlantic ships would be ... filled with these refugees ... Canada benefits far more by the immigration of Britishers than Jewish people ... [186]
Although more than 48,000 Jews arrived in Canada in the decade 1920 to 1930, thousands more were denied permission to immigrate. [187] With the advent of the Depression, the entry of Jewish immigrants was made difficult not only by the resultant economic dislocation, but by anti-Semitic sentiments, described earlier, which became widespread. Another factor undoubtedly was the well-concealed personal bias of William Lyon Mackenzie King, Prime Minister once more after 1935. According to Professor H. Blair Neatby, King thought of Jews "as aggressive and clannish and disturbingly prominent in international finance ..." [188] Jewish immigration declined to about 11,000 in the 1930s. [189]
Restricted immigration, and the activities of its proponents, created tremendous concern within the Winnipeg Jewish community. Naturally, Jewish organizations and publications were in favour of the open-door policy. [190] In 1929, Canada adopted a quota on newcomers from central and south-eastern Europe limited to 30% of the previous year's total; Jews by territorial designation became "non-preferred" immigrants. [191]
The immigration issue was central to political campaigns waged in the federal constituency of Winnipeg North from 1921 to 1940. Appealing to the sensitivities of Winnipeg Jewry to the fate of their relatives and co-religionist in Europe, direct attempts were made to convince Jewish voters that various candidates and parties advocated the open-door, whereas others favoured restrictive quotas.
Federal politics in the Jewish community in the inter-war years was dominated by one name that of Abraham Albert Heaps. His 15 years of service in the House of Commons, his influence on the events of the day, and his interaction with his constituents warrants designation of the period as "The Age of Heaps." Born in 1885 in Leeds, England, Heaps, an upholsterer, came to Winnipeg in 1911 and found employment in the coach shop of the Canadian Pacific Railway. In 1912, he was delegate of his union to the Winnipeg Trades and Labor Council and became its statistician. He joined the Social Democratic Party and became a close friend of John Queen and John Blumberg. In 1915, he ran for alderman in Ward 5, but was defeated. In 1916, he ran once more as a Labor representative opposed to conscription and dedicated to more equitable distribution of taxation. He was defeated by 57 votes by Altar Skaletar, but a judicial investigation revealed election irregularities. Skaletar resigned in 1917 and Heaps was elected in the ensuing by-election. Heaps helped to settle the civic workers strike in 1918. The following year he was arrested as one of the Winnipeg Strike leaders - in fact, he was the first arrested.
Allowed out on bail, he was one of the speakers who addressed large crowds in Toronto and elsewhere, attempting to raise funds for the Winnipeg Defence Committee. He was found not guilty of a charge of seditious conspiracy in March, 1920, and resumed his aldermanic duties. He served on City Council until 1925, representing Ward 3 as an I.L.P. alderman. [192]
In 1923, he entered the federal field contesting a by-election in Winnipeg North with E. J. McMurray, who had been appointed to the King Cabinet as Solicitor-General. McMurray appealed to Jewish voters by claiming that a King Government would have an open-door immigration policy. He was able to turn that claim, his appointment to the Cabinet, and the Liberal support which had been manifested in 1921, into another victory. [193]
Heaps was nominated by the Independent Labor Party to contest Winnipeg North in the 1925 election. J. Alter Cherniack was the chairman and one of the key speakers at an I.L.P. Jewish mass meeting at the Talmud Torah Hall. Other speakers were John Queen, Dr. Benjamin Victor, and S. Green of the Poale Zion. Heaps's candidacy had the benefit of the distinguished presence of several of the ex-ministers of Ramsay MacDonald's cabinet, and some British Labor M.P.'s. [194]
A letter addressed by the Independent Labor Party to the Jewish voters of North Winnipeg illustrated Heaps's appeal on both class and ethnic lines:
Your interests cannot be trusted to the hands of Dr. Blake, the representative of Big Capital and Reaction ... Show [the politicians] that Jews are enlightened citizens who understand their interests. The honor of the Jewish citizen demands [that you] vote for Heaps. [He] is our own. As a Jew he understands better our Jewish interests. As a Jewish representative he understands better the interests of the great folk masses ... [Heaps's supporters] do not have the tremendous financial resources given to them by big business, your enemy's interests, as given to the Conservatives and Liberals. [195]
Blake, the Conservative candidate, held a mass meeting at the Talmud Torah, where he condemned the Liberals for financial mismanagement. Max Steinkopf was chairman. Jewish Conservatives Sam Berk, Solomon Goldman, and Moses Finkelstein spoke, in addition to Conservative Party leaders. [196]
And Liberal candidate McMurray held a mass meeting of the Talmud Torah, under the chairmanship of S. Hart Green. Max J. Finkelstein was a principle speaker, along with Peter Bercovitch, a Jewish Quebec M.L.A. [197] McMurray's political position was not very tenable. Described by R. MacGregor Dawson as having "mediocre" political ability in cabinet, he had resigned when the King Government had reimbursed depositors for losses in the Home Bank failure, to which McMurray's law firm owed money. [198]
Although Leo Heaps indicates that the campaign was "embittered and furious" it appears to have been free of personal innuendo. [199] Heaps continued to attack McMurray's promise of an open-door immigration policy and condemned the Liberal Government record in this matter. [200] The Conservative immigration record was debated, one critic stating that "they kept the doors shut for such a long time the hinges got rusty and nobody has been able to open them up since." [201] One Jewish voter indicated why Blake could not expect support of the Jewish electorate:
He appeared to support strongly the [Wartime Elections Act] which Mr. Meighen brought before the House to take away the vote from immigrants - take away the vote from the same people who elected him to the House. [202]
Heaps was elected with 4781 votes. Blake trailed him by 899, McMurray by 1208. [203] McMurray ran second to Heaps in the so-called "Jewish area" of the constituency, where he received 1421 votes to Heaps' 1687. [204] Dos Yiddishe Vort offered this analysis:
McMurray was regarded as the protagonist of a wide open door for Immigration. By their vote the Jewish people indicated that for them the question of Immigration is still paramount, that they appreciate the efforts of McMurray but that they have no confidence in the Liberal Government, who had left themselves open to the charge that they lacked the courage to inaugurate a definite immigration policy, and therefore deserved a rebuke.
The vote for Heaps was merely an expression of protest against Mackenzie King and his vacillation. [205]
In Parliament, Heaps was a champion of social welfare measures, including old age pensions and unemployment insurance. Along with J. S. Woodsworth, member for Winnipeg North Centre, he demanded removal of offensive sections of the Criminal Code and the Immigration Act. [206] This stand helped ensure his political popularity.
In the 1926 election, the question of Governor General Byng's refusal to grant a dissolution to King does not appear to have been of concern to Jewish voters in North Winnipeg. The Conservatives mounted a full-scale campaign on behalf of candidate Richard Knox and made specific appeals for Jewish votes. They addressed a number of open letters, signed by prominent Jewish Conservatives S. L. Goldstine, one of the prosecuters of the Winnipeg Strike leaders, Max Steinkopf, and Moses Finkelstein, to the Jewish citizens of Winnipeg. They attacked the Liberal government for financial mismanagement, claiming that Liberal policies had forced the breakup of Jewish families as young people sought opportunities in the United States. [207] Conservative advertising claimed that Jewish Liberal politicians and backroom boys "had spread a rumor that the attitude of the Conservatives to the Jews was anti-Jewish." [208] The Conservatives pointed to the Rattray incident as an example of a Liberal government condoning anti-Semitism, and stated that the national Liberal Party was controlled by "priests' wishes and anti-Semites." [209]
The series of letters included a reply to Goldstine from Meighen on the subject of immigration. Perhaps not wisely, the Jewish Conservatives published Meighen's response, which they construed to favor open, hence Jewish, immigration. Meighen had written that "We shall make a special effort to obtain British immigration; also all other white people who are strong physically and mentally who are ready to produce are welcome." [210]
Steinkopf attacked Heaps and Woodsworth for their "collusion" with Mackenzie King, suggesting they traded their votes for the promise of old age pensions. [211] Heaps's advertising, in the hands of J. A. Cherniack his campaign chairman, once more made both class and ethnic appeals for support to Jewish voters, and emphasized his role in convincing Immigration Minister Stewart to allow 700 additional Jewish immigrants to come to Canada. [212] He warned voters not to support Knox because:
1) You'd have to approach [Knox] for a favour first by going to the ugly Jewish middleman who will peel the skin off you.
2) Because he is with [the management of] the Winnipeg Electric Railway and is and will be against the working class. [213]
Voters were told not to support Liberal candidate Dr. George MacTavish, because the Liberal Party was not any better than the Conservative, and a vote for MacTavish would be a wasted one. [214] MacTavish ran on a platform of "strong immigration," and trying to counter Heaps's appeal, old age pensions. M. J. Finkelsein, A. M. Shinbane, and S. Hart Green appeared at his mass meeting at the Talmud Torah Hall. [215] Although Dos Yiddishe Vort refused to take a stand on the election, claiming that there were "no specific Jewish issues in this campaign," [216] it is clear that the perceived positions of the parties on the question of immigration was an overriding issue. Immigration was discussed at Heaps's mass meeting at the Talmud Torah [217] and Heaps's stand helped propel him to victory. Dos Yiddishe Vort commented:
The question of immigration is certainly one of the most important ... Both major parties could not make political hay in the immigration question. Both had in the past sinned in this respect and both did not have definite political views on that question ... they spoke only in generalizations of a "strong immigration policy" a phrase which we know is not binding and is meaningless. [218]
Heaps received 6,171 votes to 3,555 for Knox and 2,821 for MacTavish. [219]
By 1930, Heaps had become a very formidable force as the I.L.P. M.P. in Winnipeg North. A member of Parliament's "Ginger Group, he had developed a national reputation as a spokesman for labor interests. Often silver teas and party meetings were held at his residence, first on Burrows Avenue, then on Polson Avenue. Whenever in Winnipeg, he was "at home" to constituents. [220] So secure had Heaps become as a political force that Dos Yiddishe Vort was able to say that the I.L.P.:
Will nominate him again, being completely pleased with his accomplishments in Parliament where he played a considerable role. The Labor Party will take into consideration the support of Jewish voters whom he can attract thanks to his accomplishments for Jewish immigration. [221]
H. Sokolov, writing after Heaps's nomination in the 1930 federal election, commented that "Heaps, though running on the Labor ticket has the tacit support of the Liberals in North Winnipeg and is virtually sure of his seat." [222] Winnipeg North Liberal Association president S. Hart Green claimed that the Liberals did not wish to nominate a standard bearer for fear of diluting the anti-Conservative vote and allowing the Conservative candidate to be elected. [223]
Heaps was nominated by acclamation. The Jewish Post reported that at the meeting "attended by many of the leaders of the Jewish community, unanimous support was pledged to Mr. Heaps." [224] A Jewish Committee for the re-election of Heaps was organized, with M. A. Gray as secretary and A. L. Slotin as treasurer. Meetings were held at the Y.M.H.A. every Wednesday and volunteer supporters were solicited. [225] With the nomination of Conservative candidate Matthew Blake and Communist candidate Leslie Morris, Heaps became engaged in "a keen political fight." [226]
Heaps campaigned on the record of labor's achievements in Parliament, especially attainment of old age pensions, and on his record as a proponent of open immigration. His advertising designated him as "The Man who Remembers You" and "The Man Who's on Guard for Our Interests." [227] Jewish voters were told that they "should be interested in the reelection of Heaps to the federal parliament," because he was "their candidate" and his election was "an honor for Winnipeg Jews." [228] These themes were developed at the Heaps mass meeting in the Peretz School, where speeches were made on Heaps's behalf by M. A. Gray, meeting chairman, J. Blumberg, J. Hestrin, J. A. Cherniack, Dr. Benjamin Victor, S. Green, and Meyer Averbach. [229]
Blake campaigned largely on party leader R. B. Bennett's promise to alleviate unemployment by blasting his way into world markets. [230] Leslie Morris advertised in Yiddish in Dos Yiddishe Vort. [231] At a mass meeting at the Liberty Temple, Jewish communists spoke in Yiddish on his behalf. They claimed that the Communist Party was "the only party which works for the interests of the working masses." [232]
The Workers Vanguard, organ of the Communist Party, condemned the I.L.P. "as a party of the capitalists in sheep's clothing" who "ignored the problem of organizing the workers for resistance to unemployment and wage cuts." [233] The I.L.P. and Heaps, were accused of having made a deal with Mackenzie King not to contest Winnipeg South and South Centre in return for no Liberal opposition in Winnipeg North. [234] And, in a specific appeal to Jewish workers, the Vanguard said:
[You] must see through the schemes of the Zionists and the Left Poale Zionists, and realize that they are being deceived by agents of imperialism. They must realize that the gentlemen of the I.L.P. in Winnipeg are of the same stripe as those of the [British] MacDonald Government, which is betraying the interests of the toilers of Palestine, both Jewish and Arabian. [235]
The Jewish Post placidly observed that "Jewish issues as such, there are none, which leaves the Jewish vote to express itself freely on the main issues of the election." [236] Nevertheless, the immigration question was once more a topic of considerable emotion in the Winnipeg Jewish community. One commentator observed:
The Government seems to be under the influence of the general anti-immigration mood in the country. Not only does it not want to fight a harmful mood but it has chosen to encourage this mood because it makes easier the Government's task. [237]
Heaps was able to capitalize on the feeling of misgiving in the Jewish community arising from this concern. He obtained 6,907 votes, a margin of 1,896 over Blake, and 4,743 over Morris. [238] Commenting on the re-election of Heaps, Dos Yiddishe Vort observed: "Happy is the fact that Heaps did not run as a Jewish candidate and was not elected only by Jews although Jews helped a good deal ... The Jewish M.P. interested himself in Jewish questions. [239]
The federal election of 1935 was an extremely partisan one in Winnipeg North. It was contested by Heaps; Col. C. S. Booth, the Liberal candidate; Tim Buck, the leader of the Communist Party in Canada, which was still an illegal organization; and Fred Wellwood, Social Credit Party candidate. The Conservatives did not contest the constituency, their official reason being that they did not wish to splinter the vote and thereby allow Buck to be elected. [240] Direct appeals to the eight to nine thousand Jewish voters, almost 25% of the total constituency electorate, [241] were made by the three major candidates-Heaps, Booth, and Buck. Heaps's advertising reflected, and, to some degree, played upon the fears of growing anti-Semitism within the Jewish community.
For a time Whittaker was quiet thanks to the work of our Jewish representatives; it is however misleading to think that Whittaker and people like him have disappeared completely. If they should God forbid crawl out from their hole, and further spread the poison of scorn and hatred against us. Who will have us in mind if not our own Jewish representatives? [242]
The A. A. Heaps Jewish committee told Jewish voters that it would be "an odious crime" for Jews to oppose a Jewish candidate, especially an honest and devoted servant like Heaps. [243] The Committee consisted of Mrs. Repter, Mr. and Mrs. M. D. Spivak, Mrs. M. Rady, Mrs. Goldie Steinberg, Mrs. Charles Tadman, Mrs. M. H. Aranovitch, M. Finkelstein, S. A. Portigal, Dr. S. H. Churchill, L. Rosenberg, A. I. Slotin, Jack Steinberg and H. Bricker. [244]
At a mass meeting at the Talmud Torah, Simon Belkin, vice-president Canadian Jewish Congress, Louis Rosenberg, Marcus Hyman, Sam Green, Alderman M. A. Gray, and Mayor John Queen spoke on behalf of Heaps.'' [245] Heaps attacked the north end Jewish Liberals: "Come into [the Liberal] Committee rooms and you will be rewarded. This is the way some north end Jewish Liberal untershtippers are appealing to the Jewish voters." [246]
C. S. Booth, past president of the Better Business Bureau and Young Men's Section of the Board of Trade, campaigned on the theme that it was time North Winnipeg was represented within the Government. [247] S. Hart Green, told an assembled crowd that he was opposed to Heaps because the latter was a socialist; he urged Jewish voters to reject Heaps because of this. [248] The Winnipeg North Liberals arranged for David Croll, a Jewish minister in the Ontario Cabinet, to come to Winnipeg to convince Jewish voters to support Booth. And they attempted, unsuccessfully, to have the presidents of all Winnipeg synagogues and their congregations arrange a reception for Croll. [249] Dos Yiddishe Vort reported that "only 4 to 500 people came to hear Croll in the Olympic Rink. [He] did not want to undertake this trip; but he was forced to do it by the party. In his speech, he omitted any reference to attacks on Heaps." [250]
Tim Buck conducted a vigorous campaign. He decided to enter the contest after the C.C.F. rebuffed efforts of a common political front. [251] Buck had the advantage of running in a constituency with a tradition of political radicalism. Leslie Morris and his colleagues had gained political acumen in the 1930 federal election. [252] And the early 1930s had seen a number of lengthy and bitter strikes and lockouts in the garment trade industries where approximately one-third of the workers were Jews.'' [253] The cloak makers were organized under the Industrial Union of the Needle Trades, also known as The Workers' Unity League, an adjunct of the Communist Party. [254] Many of its members reinforced class political consciousness within the Jewish community, and provided the Communist party with a very dedicated and enthusiastic nucleus of campaign workers. So strong did the Communist campaign appear that E. J. McMurray observed the "fight ... is so close ... I can estimate that the Communist would be elected." [255] Buck made a direct appeal to Jewish women voters at a meeting of the Liberty Temple where organizer Sam Carr spoke in Yiddish. [256] Buck campaigned in person and on radio, on the theme that "A Vote for Buck is a vote against Fascism and Anti-Semitism and for a secure existence in the battle against exploitation and for a Socialist world." [257] Ivan Avakumovic described the Communist campaign:
They distributed leaflets, engaged in large scale door-to-door canvassing, held a number of public meetings, and kept on announcing that he stood an excellent chance of winning the seat. Buck [commented after the election he] "was overwhelmed with invitations to supper to Ukrainian and Jewish comrades to meet other Ukrainian and Jewish comrades." [258]
The Social Credit candidate, Wellwood, was nominated at a meeting at St. John's High School, and called a special Jewish meeting at the Talmud Torah Hall. [259] There is no record as to whether any Jews showed up or not, but given Major Douglas's anti-Semitic views, one suspects not. Heaps's election advertising condemned Social Credit as having similarities with "National Socialism" and said that some local leaders were anti-Semites. [260] And Heaps, who was supported by the Poale Zion and successfully had lobbied the Bennett Government to remove the duty on oranges imported from Palestine, [261] took the Communists to task on their position respecting Palestine:
Fire fighters against anti-Semitism the same Jewish communists who in 1929 supported the Arab pogroms in Israel, and work with the Arab effendis to inflame the Arabs against the Jews ... They are against anti-Semitism only when it is the Communist line. They are ready to go with the worst pogromchiks. [262]
For the first time in a federal election, Dos Yiddlishe Vort supported a political candidate- Heaps-and urged Winnipeg Jews to vote for him because of his "tremendous efforts for the electorate and for the Jewish community who appreciate the importance of Jewish representation in Ottawa." [263] And The Jewish Post, hinting at support for Booth, declared its opposition to Tim Buck:
No man can hope to receive Jewish votes who advocates or implies in any shape, manner, or form the overthrow of established government by force or the establishment of a dictatorship that even remotely resembles Fascism, Nazism or isms of any other description. [264]
When Buck was defeated the paper commented:
It was with great trepidation that electors awaited the returns. It was with no little relief that electors saw Mr. Buck a poor third ... Voters ... were determined to prevent a Communist who represented less than 25%, of the votes capture the seat. [265]
Heaps won more than 100 of the 184 polls and received 12,093 votes to 8,412 for Booth and 7,276 for Buck. [266] Dos Yiddishe Vort was pleased with Heaps's election:
The Jewish districts, satisfied with his general record as well as his specific services have again given him their confidence ... As citizens of the north end of Winnipeg and Jews, we are happy with his victory, which was a victory against race prejudice and unfair electoral methods. [267]
The federal election of March 26, 1940, marked the end of A. A. Heaps's political career, and the end of a political era. For Canadian Jewry, the atmosphere was one of crisis - Canada was a nation at war, and much of European Jewry was under Nazi rule. The election was contested by Heaps, Booth, Communist Leslie Morris and Conservative Percy Ellor. [268] Heaps, who had helped smooth over the sensitive feelings of many I.L.P. members, including those of Jack Blumberg, when the I.L.P. became part of the C.C.F. but refused to drop the I.L.P. designation, now ran as an I.L.P.-C.C.F. candidate. [269]
The issue in the minds of most of the 9,000 Jewish voters in Winnipeg North was the vigorous prosecution of the Canadian war effort. Despite the fact that Heaps was in agreement with this policy, he was vulnerable on two counts: 1) that he had been a pacifist in World War I, and 2) that despite Heaps's disavowals, his leader, J. S. Woodsworth, was in favour of only a limited Canadian war effort. [270] And it was here that Booth struck. His election advertising proclaimed:
There is no other issue in this election but ... to destroy Hitlerism. [T]he Liberal Government should have the biggest majority possible in Parliament ... [E]very one of us should give the wholehearted co-operation to the Liberal government of Canada in its war effort to defeat Hitlerism and bring the whole world-and us Jews freedom and opportunity to live a normal existence. [271]
A Jewish committee for the election of C. S. Booth was formed. It consisted largely of young business and professional men, who not only wanted representation in the Government for prosecution of the war effort, but who were opposed to the democratic socialist philosophy of Heaps. [272] The Jewish Post commented that "[r]ecognition of the war effort of the ... King Government is evident everywhere among the young Jewish people of North Winnipeg. They realize that a vote for Mr. King's candidate is the one sure way of keeping Canada's war effort united." [273]
Heaps's campaign was, in large part, a defensive action. At mass meetings at the Peretz School and Talmud Torah, speakers on his behalf were Alderman Gray, Mayor Queen, J. A. Cherniack, Sam Green, Meyer Averbach, Jack Steinberg, Freda Heney, and Dr. I. Pearlman. [274] Heaps spoke to a Poale Zion meeting where Baruch Zukerman, noted Zionist, was present, and reminded voters that he was an ardent Zionist. [275] In his election advertisements, Heaps warned the Jewish citizens of North Winnipeg: "Don't let yourself be led astray and talked into believing by interested Jewish agents of the local north end Liberal group that their candidate - is the liberator and deliverer ..." [276] Heaps campaigned on his record of active support for open immigration, including his activities in helping to bring to Canada several hundred European Jewish refugees in 1938-39. [277] He pointedly reminded voters:
Who fought for better concessions - for the produce from Israel? A. A. Heaps. To whom will you Jewish citizens turn in time of trouble if not to our old dear A. A. Heaps. [278]
His election advertisements proclaimed that "it would be simple treason as a Jew and progressive person if one does not vote for A. A. Heaps." [279]
Leslie Morris held mass meetings at the Liberty Temple, where the speakers included School Trustee Bill Ross and H. Guralnick, and at the Hebrew Sick Benefit Hall, where Alderman Jacob Penner presided. [280] Despite a vigorous campaign, the Communists labored under the disadvantage of favoring Canada's withdrawal from what they called "an imperialist war"; [281] this did not appeal to many Jewish voters. The Jewish Post snidely commented that "[the] impotent mouthings of Winnipeg's brave but bewildered little band of stalwart Communists ... have been met with ridicule and contempt." [282] The paper stated: "For the Jewish people there is but one issue the complete and thorough prosecution of the war to a successful finish. Our vote must go to those candidates who pledge themselves to this platform." [283]
Despite the support of The Winnipeg Tribune and The North-Ender, Heaps was defeated. [284] He received 11,249 votes compared to 13,015 for Booth. [285] Leo Heaps noted correctly that his father's defeat was due to the fact that "[t]he Jewish electors of North Winnipeg pledged mass support for Booth as the candidate most likely to further the war effort." [286] In its electoral analysis, Dos Yiddishe Vort commented:
[Heaps's] downfall in North Winnipeg ... is ... a loss for Canadian Jewry, whose spokesman he was ... He fell victim to circumstances ... Heaps was hampered by the unclear position of the CCF party to the war and he suffered for their sins, although ... he had a clear outspoken stand on Canada's war effort. [287]
Nelson Wiseman pointed out:
The irony of electoral politics was that Heaps was defeated because of his association with Woodsworth, and in many voters' eyes, therefore, with Woodsworth's pacifism. Woodsworth, however, was sufficiently popular despite his personal views on the war, to win a narrow victory in Winnipeg North Centre. [288]
The election demonstrated both the ethnic and class nature of the Jewish vote - although many Jews voted for Booth as the best choice for protecting their co-religionists in Europe, others, especially in the Jewish Committee for the Election of Booth, rejected Heaps's socialist philosophy and opted for a "free enterpriser." Their support was an early political reflection of what Professor S. D. Clark has called "[t]he phenomenal improvement in the economic and social state of Eastern European Jewish immigrants in the second quarter of the century." [289]
The election marked the end of one political era and the beginning of another. It saw the coming of age of a group of Liberal Party activists who represented a new generation of Jewish involvement and participation in politics. From the perspective of future Jewish community development, many of these people became communal decision-makers.
Joseph Zuken has said that the Winnipeg Jewish community of the Depression was not a lost generation. [290] This is true of the entire inter war period. Without attempting to be nostalgic, these years can well be regarded as the golden age of the Winnipeg Jewish community in religious, cultural, educational, and athletic life. It would be presumptuous to say that this was also the golden age of the Winnipeg Jewish community in politics, given subsequent developments. However, given the external factors promoting aggression and hostility to Jews, the community turned largely to politics as a prime defense mechanism in its attempt to gain acceptance and respect.
The writer is indebted to Mrs. Molly Begleiter, Librarian, Jewish Public Library, Winnipeg, and to his parents, Lillian and Samuel Trachtenberg, for translating a number of sources from Yiddish to English.
The writer expresses his gratitude to several persons for the assistance given him in the preparation of this paper: Mr. Abraham Arnold; Mrs. Molly Begleiter, Jewish Public Library; Mrs. Sophie Eskow; Mrs. Dorothy Hershfield and Mrs. Esther Nisenholt, Jewish Historical Society of Western Canada; Mrs. Irene Kumarsky; Mr. Maxwell Nelko; Mr. Randy Rostecki; Mr. David Spector; Professor John Thompson; Mrs. Lillian Trachtenberg; Mrs. Lynne Trachtenberg; Ms. Rietta Trachtenberg; Mr. Samuel Trachtenberg; Mrs. Roseline Usiskin; Mr. Harry Walsh, Q.C. He thanks also the staff of the Public Archives of Canada, the librarians of the Legislative Library of Manitoba and the archivists of the Public Archives of Manitoba for the many research liberties he was granted. The research for this paper in part was supported by a Gwendolyn and Joseph Secter Fund Scholarship from the Jewish Foundation of Manitoba.
1. Samuel Janus, "Great Jewish-American Comedians' Identity Crisis," (unpublished paper delivered to the Annual Meeting of the American Psychological Association, 86th Annual Convention, Toronto, Wednesday, August 30, 1978).
2. Stephen D. Isaacs, Jews and American Politics (Garden City, New York, 1974), pp. 1516. Similarly, an editorial writer in Winnipeg's Dos Yiddishe Vort commented: "In that place where the Jewish population plays a significant political role, there the dangers of official anti-Semitism are much smaller, and there they can expect more attention to their specific needs." "Ten Thousand Jewish Votes," Tuesday, July 21, 1936, p. 2. Ivan Avakumovic has written to "the Jewish tendency to take a prominent part in public affairs in democratic countries." The Communist Party in Canada: A History (Toronto, 1975), p. 122.
3. The Winnipeg Daily Times, Wednesday. August 9, 1882, p. 2 and Monday, January 8, 1883, p. 4.
4. The Winnipeg Daily Sun, Monday, January 8, 1883, p. 4.
5. Manitoba Daily Free Press, Friday, January 12, 1883, p. 4.
6. Edmonton Bulletin, Saturday, March 10, 1883, p. 2.
7. "Immigration," The Bystander: A Quarterly Review of Current Events, Canadian and General, Volume 111, 1883 (Toronto, 1883), p. 15.
8. Government of Manitoba, "Immigration and Population," Report of the Department of Agriculture and Statistics of the Province of Manitoba for the Year 1882 (Winnipeg, 1883), p. 24.
9. See, for example, Winnipeg Siftings, Saturday, March 1, 1884, Vol. 1, No. 49, p. 8, and Saturday, August 7, 1886, Vol. 1, No. 46, p. 1.
10. Manitoba Daily Free Press, Tuesday, October 10, 1882, p. 8.
12. Manitoba Daily Free Press, Thursday, October 19, 1882, p. 8.
13. Town Talk, Saturday, August 16, 1890, Vol. 1, No. 22, p. 16.
14. Town Talk, Saturday, August 16, 1890, Vol. 1, No. 22, p. 9.
15. Winnipeg Siftings, Saturday, July 27, 1889, Vol. 10, No. 16, p. 1.
16. Town Topics, Saturday, July 30, 1898, Vol. 1, No. 7, p. 1.
17. Thomas Bennett quoted in Norman Macdonald, Canada: Immigration and Colonization 1841-1903 (Toronto, 1966), p. 222.
18. Letter from Goldwin Smith to the editor, The Winnipeg Daily Tribune, Saturday, January 24, 1891, p. 2.
19. Winnipeg Siftings, Saturday, February 15, 1890, Vol. XI, No. 19, p. 4.
20. "Jewish Immigration" The Colonist: A Monthly Magazine Devoted to Western Canada, November, 1891, No. 66, unpaged.
21. D. J. Hall, "Clifford Sifton: Immigration and Settlement Policy 1896-1905," in Howard Palmer (editor) The Settlement of the West (Calgary, 1977), p. 77.
22. See, for instance, Public Archives of Canada (hereafter P.A.C.), Dept. of External Affairs Records, RG25 A2, Volume 142, File Folder C.2/92-C.2/99; correspondence in File C.2/92, 1906, and RG25 A2, Volume 198, Immigration and Interior File Folder 1.8-9-1.8-96; correspondence in File 1.8-26, 1906. See also Gerald Dirks, Canada's Refugee Policy: Indifference or Opportunism (Montreal, London, 1977), pp. 35-36.
23. Alan F. J. Artibise, Winnipeg: A Social History of Urban Growth 1874-1914 (Montreal, London, 1975), p. 198.
24. W.D.C., "Cosmopolitan Winnipeg: IV. The Hebrew People," Special Section, Manitoba Morning Free Press, Saturday, December 28, 1912, p. l.
25. J. T. Whittaker, "Canada and the Immigration Problem," (unpublished M.A. thesis, University of Manitoba, 1915), p. 17. See also William Ivens. "Canadian Immigration," (unpublished M.A. thesis, University of Manitoba, 1909), pp. 4,9,16.
26. Alan F. J. Artibise, "Patterns of Population Growth and Ethnic Relationships in Winnipeg, 1874-1974," Histoire sociale-Social History, Vol. IX, No. 18, November, 1976 (Ottawa, 1976), p. 322.
27. Nadia Kazymyra, "Aspects of Ukrainian Opinion in Manitoba During World War I," in Martin Kovacs, (editor) Ethnic Canadians: Culture and Education, Canadian Plains Studies 8 (Regina. 1978), pp. 132-133. See also Peter Melnycky, "A Political History of the Ukrainian Community in Manitoba, 1899-1922," (unpublished M.A. thesis, Univ. of Man., 1979), pp. 195-214: Paul Yuzyk, The Ukrainians in Manitoba: A Social History (Toronto, 1953), pp. 186-189; Orest Martynowich, "Village Radicals and Peasant Immigrants: The Social Roots of Factionalism Among Ukrainian Immigrants in Canada, 1896-1918," (unpublished M.A. thesis, University of Manitoba, 1978), pp. 76-77: J. Castell Hopkins (editor) The Canadian Annual Review 1917 (Toronto, 1917), pp. 436-438. Significantly, Winnipeg's Icelandic population which "had few impressions of Eastern European aliens ... and knew little of the abject poverty in the north end," generally was integrated in Anglo-Manitoban society, and, hence, exempt from the opprobrium and hostility directed at"aliens." Ross Leckow. "Canadians in the Making: Icelandic Participation in the Great War and the Winnipeg General Strike." (unpublished honours research paper, University of Winnipeg, April 1979), p. 28. See also John Thompson, The Harvests of War: The Prairie West, 1914-1918 (Toronto, 1978), pp. 73-94, and W. Entz, "The Suppression of the German Language Press and in September, 1918 (with special reference to the secular German Language papers in Western Canada)," Canadian Ethnic Studies, Vol. VIII, No. 2, 1976 (Calgary, 1976), pp. 56-70.
28. Robert Craig Brown and Ramsay Cook, Canada 1896-1921: A Nation Transformed (Toronto, 1974), p. 226.
29. P.A.C.. Dept. of the Secretary of State Records, Chief Press Censor for Canada Papers 1915-1920. RG6E, Vol. 520, File Folder 147-8 -147-10. Letter from W. 1). Scott, Superintendent of Immigration, to Ernest Chambers, Chief Press Censor, Ottawa, June 2, 1916.
30. Robert Craig Brown and Ramsay Cook. Canada 1896-192/: A Nation Transformed (Toronto, 1974), pp. 224-227. Nativist sentiment was noted in "For Whom to Vote," Dos Yiddishe Vort, Friday, December 14, 1917, p. 1, and in "The 'Telegram' and the Bolshevikis," Dos Yiddishe Vort, Friday, October25, 1918, p. 4. See also Alan F. J. Artibise, "Patterns of Population Growth and Ethnic Relationships in Winnipeg. 1874-1974," Histoire sociale-Social History, Vol. IX, No. 18. November. 1976 (Ottawa, 1976). Pp. 322-323.
31. "Citizens Do Your Duty," and "For Whom to Vote," Dos Yiddishe Vort, Friday, December 14, 1917, p. 1.
32. Robert Craig Brown and Ramsay Cook, Canada 1896-1921: A Nation Transformed (Toronto, 1974), pp. 224-227: John Herd Thompson, The Harvests of War: The Prairie West, 1914-1918 (Toronto, 1978). pp. 79-81.
33. Roseline Usiskin, "Toward A Theoretical Reformulation of the Relationship Between Political Ideology, Social Class, and Ethnicity: A Case Study of the Winnipeg Jewish Radical Community, 1905-1920," (unpublished M.A. thesis. University of Manitoba. 1978), p. 223.
34. Albert Johnson, "The Strikes in Winnipeg in May, 1918: The Prelude to 1919?" (unpublished M.A. thesis, University of Manitoba, 1978), pp. 56-57; J. Castell Hopkins, The Canadian Annual Review 1918 (Toronto, 1919), p. 491: Dos Yiddishe Vort, Friday, October 25, 1918, p. 5.
35. S. Almazov Pearl, Wit Dent Vort Tzum Folk (With the Word to the Masses: Experiences of a Lecturer) (New York, 1947), pp. 29-31. The writer thanks Mrs. Roseline Usiskin, Winnipeg, for drawing his attention to this volume.
36. Sheppy Hershfield, "Growing Up in North Winnipeg" in Jewish Historical Society of Western Canada, Second Annual Publication of the Jewish Historical Society of Western Canada: A Selection of Papers Presented in 1969-70 (Winnipeg, April, 1972), p. 15.
37. Morris Mott, "The 'Foreign Peril': Nativism in Winnipeg, 1916-1923," (unpublished M.A. thesis, University of Manitoba, 1970), pp. 23-25; D. C. Masters, The Winnipeg General Strike, reprinted (Toronto, 1973), p. 30; Donald Avery, 'Dangerous Foreigners': European Immigrant Workers and Labour Radicalism in Canada 1896-1932 (Toronto, 1979), p. 82.
39. Harry Gale, "The Jewish Labour Movement in Winnipeg," First Annual Publication of the Jewish Historical Society of Western Canada: A Selection of Papers Presented in 1968-69 (Winnipeg, June, 1970), p. 10.
40. Public Archives of Manitoba (hereafter P.A.M.), Robert Boyd Russell Collection, MG10 A142, Box 11, File #62, Winnipeg Strike Committee Minutes, 15-20 May 1919, p. 7; File #63, Central Strike Committee Minutes, 20-26 May 1919, p. 125; File #64, Winnipeg Strike Committee Minutes, 26 May 7 June 1919, p. 157.
41. [I]n the 'Committee of 1000' there are tens of 'foreigners' who are helping to spread the awful propaganda against the foreigners," Dos Yiddishe Vort, Friday, June 29, 1919, p. 2. Arthur A. Chiel, The Jews in Manitoba: A Social History (Toronto, 1961), p. 179.
42. H. E. Wilder, "The General Strike and the Jews," Dos Yiddishe Vort, Friday, June 20. 1919, p. 2.
43. P.A.M., Robert Boyd Russell Collection, MG10 A14-2, Box 11, File #62, Winnipeg Strike Committee Minutes, 15-20 May 1919, pp. 25,32,55,56; File #63, Central Strike Committee Minutes, 20-26 May 1919, pp. 72,73,83,85; File 464, Winnipeg Strike Committee Minutes, 26 May 7 June 1919, pp. 159,185,200. See also A. Osovsky, "Why? (Earnest Questions in an Earnest Time)," Dos Yiddishe Vort, Tuesday, July 1, 1919, p. 2. In a letter to the editor an insurance agent named M. Jacob denied the rumour that he was or ever had been a member of the Committee of 1000, protested that "someone" was "libelling" his name, and noted his "full sympathy is to the workers and [his] biggest wish is that they should win the strike." "A Bad Name," Dos Yiddishe Vort, Friday, June 27, 1919, p. 3.
44. D. C. Masters, The Winnipeg General Strike (Toronto, Buffalo, 1950, 1973), pp. 111-135, David Jay Beruson, Confrontation at Winnipeg: Labour, Industrial Relations, and the General Strike (Montreal, London, 1974), pp. 162-166, 187; Kenneth McNaught, A Prophet in Politics (Toronto, Buffalo, 1959, 1975), pp. 99-136; A. Ross McCormack, Reformers, Rebels, and Revolutionaries. The Western Canadian Radical Movement 1899-1919 (Toronto, Buffalo, 1977), pp. 167-168; Norman Penner, editor, Winnipeg 1919: The Strikers' Own History of The Winnipeg General Strike, Second edition, (Toronto, 1975), pp. x-xi, xx-xxi, xxvi, 156-183, 235-236, 239, 277; Roger Graham, Arthur Meighen: A Biography, Volume 1: The Door of Opportunity (Toronto, Vancouver, 1960), pp. 241-244; Leo Heaps, The Rebel In The House: The Life and Times of A. A. Heaps M.P. (London, 1970), pp. 34-54.
45. Dos Yiddishe Vort, Friday, June 20, 1919, p. 1. Donald Avery referred to Michael Charitinoff, former editor of the Ukrainian-language Rabotchy Narod (Toiling People) newspaper, published in Winnipeg, as a "young Ukrainian socialist." Donald Avery, 'Dangerous Foreigners': European Immigrant Workers and Labour Radicalism in Canada 1896-1932 (Toronto, 1979), pp. 75-76. However, Dos Yiddishe Vort described Charitinoff as being a Jew. Dos Yiddishe Vort, Friday, July 4, 1919, p. 1. In addition, Charitinoff, during his deportation hearings, stated that he had left Russia because he was a Jew, and had come to Canada where Jews were not tormented. Dos Yiddishe Vort, Friday, July 18. 1919, p. 1.
46. Dos Yiddishe Vort, Friday, June 20, 1919, p. 1. Almazov's first name sometimes was given as Solomon, and his last name sometimes spelled Almazoff. Charitinoff's name was sometimes spelled Charitonoff, and his first name initial sometimes was given as "F." D. C. Masters The Winnipeg General Strike (reprinted, Toronto, 1973), pp. 102,106; William Rodney, Soldiers of the International: A History of the Communist Party of Canada, 1919-1929 (Toronto, 1968), p. 25; Donald Avery, 'Dangerous Foreigners': European Immigrant Workers and Labour Radicalism in Canada 1896-1932 (Toronto, 1979), pp. 85-86; A. Balawyder, Canadian-Soviet Relations Between The World Wars (Toronto, Buffalo, 1972), p. 32.
47. D. C. Masters, The Winnipeg General Strike (reprinted, Toronto 1950, 1973), pp. 100-105.
48. Dos Yiddishe Vort, Tuesday, August 19, 1919, p. 1. "ALMAZOV IS FREE" was a headline story in the paper on that date.
49. Dos Yiddishe Vort, Friday, June 20, 1919, p. 1. Although he belonged to the Social Democratic Party, Almazov was a Communist. He was elected by the Winnipeg Jewish community in December, 1918, as one of the representatives to the initial Canadian Jewish Congress meeting in Montreal, March, 1919. At the meeting, Almazov opposed the creation of Palestine as a home for the Jewish people, but abstained on the resolution on this matter. J. A. Cherniack, "Reminiscences of 40 Years of Jewish Community Life", translated and edited by H. H. Herstein, Jewish Historical Society of Western Canada, Second Annual Publication of the Jewish Historical Society of Western Canada: A Selection of Papers Presented in 1969-70 (Winnipeg, April, 1972), p. 85.
50. P.A.C., Department of the Secretary of State Records, RG6E, Chief Press Censor for Canada Papers 1915-1920, Volume 632, File No. 370-Y-5, Letter from A. A. McLean to Chambers (secret and confidential), Ottawa, June 5, 1919.
51. Dos Yiddishe Vort, Friday, June 20, 1919, p. 1.
52. "Help to Free the Arrested." Dos Yiddishe Vort, Friday, August 1, 1919, p. 2.
53. P.A.C.. Royal Canadian Mounted Police Records, R.G.18, Volume 3314, File No. HV-1(4), Transcripts of Deportation Hearings of Samuel Blumenberg, July 14, 1919: Michael Charitinoff, July 16, 1919, August 13, 1919; Solomon Almazoff, July 16, August 14, 15. 1919. Almazov left voluntarily to live in Toronto, then the U.S. S. Almazov Pearl, Mit Den fort Tzutn Folk (With the Word to the Masses: Experiences of a Lecturer) (New York, 1947), pp. 28, 83 ff. Blumenberg departed Canada apparently in lieu of forcible deportation. Manitoba Free Press, Monday, September 22, 1919, p. 8. A detailed treatment of the deportation hearings is to be found in Eric Lyle Dick, "Deportation Under the Immigration Act and the Canadian Criminal Code, 1919-1936" (unpublished M.A. thesis, University of Manitoba, 1978), pp. 45-66.
54. Dos Yiddishe Vort, Friday, June 29, 1919, p. l. Various Jewish institutions had been raided in 1918. Dos Yiddishe Vort, Friday, Oct. 4, 1918, p. 1.
55. Dos Yiddishe Vort, Friday, July 4, 1919, p. 1.
56. Wellington Bridgman, Breaking Prairie Sod: The Story of a Pioneer Preacher in the Eighties with a Discussion on the Burning Question of To-Day, Shall the Alien Go (Toronto, 1920), especially pp. 175-224. See also P.A.C., Arthur Meighen Papers, MG261, Series I, 19171920, Vol. 5, File 30 - Manitoba Matters. pp.002539-002540, Sir Hugh John Macdonald, Winnipeg, July 3, 1919, to Meighen.
57. Interview with David Rome, Chief Archivist, Canadian Jewish Congress, Montreal, July 25, 1978. See also "The Deportation of the Undesirables," Dos Yiddishe Vort, Friday, July 25, 1919, p. 4.
58. Jewish Historical Society of Western Canada, Master Tape No. 252, Maurice Bregman, interviewed by Sam Donen, Winnipeg, May 3, 1972.
59. P.A.C., Dept. of the Secretary of State Records, Chief Press Censor for Canada Papers 1915-1920, RG6E, Vol. 632, File No. 370-Y-5, Letters from A. A. McLean, Comptroller, Royal North West Mounted Police, to Chambers, Ottawa, June 27, 1919; from Chambers to McLean, July 25, 1919; from Hyman and Cherniack, Winnipeg, to Chambers, July 21, 1919; from Chambers, Ottawa, to Hyman and Cherniack, (and telegram). July 29, 1919: from Chambers to Alfred Andrews, Winnipeg, July 30, 1919. This was not the only "foreign-language" newspaper in Canada to be ordered to cease publication. See W. Entz, "The Suppression of the German Language Press in September 1918 (with special reference to the secular German Language Papers in Western Canada), Canadian Ethnic Studies, Vol. VIII, No. 2, 1976 (Calgary, 1976), pp. 56-70.
60. P.A.C., Dept. of the Secretary of State Records, Chief Press Censor for Canada Papers 1915-1920, RG6E, Vol. 632, File No. 370-Y-5, Letters from Chambers to Hyman and Cherniack, August 6, 1919; from Andrews to Chambers, August 13. 1919; from McLean to Chambers (secret and confidential), August 15, 1919: from Chambers to publishers, The New Times, Winnipeg, August 13, 1919; from Chambers to R. M. Coulter, Deputy Postmaster General, Ottawa, August 13, 1919. William Rodney claims inaccurately that Die Naive Ziet was not published. William Rodney, Soldiers of the International: A History of the Communist Party of Canada 1919-1929 (Toronto, 1968), pp. 25-26.
61. P.A.C., Department of the Secretary of State Records, Chief Press Censor for Canada Papers 1915-1920, R.G.6E, Volume 632, File No. 370-Y-5, Letter from Chambers to Hestrm, Winnipeg, August 22, 1919. Hestrin was a key speaker at the May Day, 1919, celebrations sponsored by the Poale Zion at Steiman's Hall on Selkirk Avenue. Dos Yiddishe Vort, Tuesday, April 29, 1919, p. l.
62. "The Black Press and the Foreigners," Dos Yiddishe Vort, Friday, August 22, 1919, p. 4.
63. H. E. Wilder, "The General Strike and the Jews," Dos Yiddishe Vort, Friday, June 29, 1919, p. 2.
64. P.A.C., Sir Robert Borden Papers, MG26 HI(a), Volume 113, OC564 (I)-OC566, "Extract from a Report Dated Winnipeg, 11th June," attached to letter from Comptroller, Royal North West Mounted Police, Ottawa, June 19, 1919, to George W. Yates, Private Secretary to the Prime Minister. re: "Possible Financial Support of Winnipeg Strike by Wealthy Jews," pp. 62036-62037.
65. P.A.C., Arthur Meighen Papers, MG261, Series I, 1917-1920, Vol. 5, File 30 - Manitoba Matters, pp. 002539-002540, Sir Hugh John Macdonald, Winnipeg, July 3, 1919, to Meighen. See also Henry James Guest, "Reluctant Politician: A Biography of Sir Hugh John Macdonald" (unpublished M.A. thesis. University of Manitoba, 1973). p. 376.
66. W. L. Morton, "Foreword." in Arthur A. Chiel, The Jews in Manitoba: A Social History (Toronto, 1961).
67. Macdonald quoted in B. G. Sack, History of the Jews in Canada, translated by Ralph Novek, (Montreal, 1965), p. 274.
68. Abraham Arnold, "Parnosse - Earning a Living," in William Kurelek and Abraham Arnold, Jewish Life in Canada (Edmonton, 1976), p. 49.
69. Clifford Shnier, "The Jews of Manitoba: Origins and Sources," (unpublished paper delivered to The Jewish Historical Society of Western Canada, Winnipeg, October 7, 1970), pp. 2-5.
70. Manitoba Daily Free Press, Thursday, June 29, 1882, p. 2, and Wednesday, July 12, 1882, p. 8.
71. Moses Finkelstein, "Personal Reminiscences of an Early Jewish Settler in Western Canada," The Reform Advocate, The "Jews of Winnipeg" Edition, 1914, p. 6.
73. Mrs. S. A. Ripstein, Interviewed by Louis Matlin, "Passover in Pioneer Days in Winnipeg: Experiences of Earh Jewish Colonists Related by Early Settler," The Jewish Post, Passover Number, Tuesday, April 23, 1929, p. 43; Feivel Lexier quoted by Melvin Fenson," 1882 - 70th Anniversary of Winnipeg Jewish Pioneers - 1952." The Jewish Post, Thursday, May 22, 1952. p. 2a: Manitoba Legislative Library Biography Scrapbook l, p. 188.
74. Wertheim was one of the early "Deutsche Yooden," or German Jews, in Winnipeg. He had arrived in Winnipeg circa 1880. Manitoba Morning Free Press, Wednesday, December 18, 1895, p. 1. See also Arthur Chiel. The Jews in Manitoha: A Social History (Toronto, 1961), p. 23, and Abraham Arnold, "The Earliest Jews in Winnipeg, 1874-1882", The Beaver Autumn, 1974, Outfit 305:2, (Winnipeg, 1974), pp. 7,10.
75. Abraham Rhinewine, 2Der Yid Fen Kanada (The Jew in Canada: From the French Period to Modern Times), Volume 1 (Toronto, 1925), p. 133.
76. Moses Finkelstein, "Personal Reminiscences of an Early Jewish Settler in Western Canada," The Reform Advocate, The "Jews of Winnipeg" Edition, 1914, p. 5. See also Alan Artibise, Winnipeg: A Social History of Urban Growth 1874-1914 (Montreal, London, 1975), pp. 36-37.
77. Alan F. J. Artibise, Winnipeg: A Social History of Urban Growth 1874-1914 (Montreal, London, 1975), p. 36.
78. Finkelstein served to 1907, Skaletar to 1917. P.A.M., Clara Fainstein Collection, MG14 C63, David Altar Skaletar, File 8; Manitoba Legislative Library, Biography Scrapbook 6, p. 16, The Winnipeg Telegram, Wednesday, December 14, 1904, pp. 1, 9; Saturday, December 14, 1912, pp. 1,17; The Voice, Friday, December 16, 1904, p. 1; Manitoba Morning Free Press, Wednesday, December 14, 1904. pp. 1, 4; Saturday, December 14, 1912, p. 1; The Voice, Friday, December 20, 1912, p. 1; The Winnipeg Daily Tribune, Wednesday, December 14, 1904, p. 5; Saturday, December 14, 1912, pp. 1, 2, 9.
79. Moses Finkelstein, "Personal Reminiscences of an Early Jewish Settler in Western Canada," The Reform Advocate, The "Jews of Winnipeg" Edition, 1914, p. 6.
80. Dos Fiddishe Vort, Friday, April 20, 1917, p. 1, p. 3, "A Vote for Cleanliness and Honesty," p. 4; Friday, April 27, 1917, p. 1. Leo Heaps, The Rebel In The House: The Life and Times of A. A. Heaps, M.P. (London, 1970), p. 17.
81. Esther Shechter, Die Gesheechte Fun Mine Lehen (My Life History), (Winnipeg, 1951), p. 67.
82. Manitoba Morning Free Press, Tuesday, February 4, 1896, p. 4; The Winnipeg Daily Tribune, Tuesday, February 4, 1896, p. 8.
83. Ellen Gillies Cooke, "The Federal Election of 1896 in Manitoba" (unpublished M.A. thesis, University of Manitoba, 1943), p. 187, and passim; William Ready, "The Political Implications of the Manitoba School Question 1896-1916" unpublished M.A. thesis, University of Manitoba, 1948), pp. 72-81.
84. Arthur A. Chiel, The Jews in Manitoba: A Social History (Toronto, 1961), p. 171.
85. W.D.C., "Cosmopolitan Winnipeg: IV. The Hebrew People," Special Section, Manitoba Morning Free Press, Saturday, December 28, 1912, p. 1.
87. Green, an English-only speaking Liberal lawyer, was elected with 2175 votes. His opponents, J. F. Mitchell (Conservative) and Edward Fulcher (Socialist), received 1555 and 892 votes, respectively. Green served to 1914. He did not contest the 1914 provincial election, and was defeated in the 1915 provincial election in Winnipeg North "B". Manitoba Legislative Library, Manitoba Election Records, p. 193. Ernest Chambers, editor, The Canadian Parliamentary Guide 1914 (Ottawa, 1914), pp. 466-467; The Canadian Parliamentary Guide 1916 (Ottawa, 1916), p. 397.
88. Abrahamson, originally from Russia, a former farmer near Stonewall, merchant in the flour and feed business, Winnipeg, officer with the federal Dept. of Immigration, received 1166 votes to 935 for the incumbent, R. S. McMunn, Manitoba Free Press, Saturday, December 13, 1913, pp. 1, 15.
89. Moses Finkelstein, "Personal Reminiscences of an Early Jewish Settler in Western Canada," The Reform Advocate, The "Jews of Winnipeg" Edition, 1914, p. 6.
90. Roseline Usiskin, "Toward A Theoretical Reformulation of the Relationship between Political Ideology, Social Class, and Ethnicity: A Case Study of the Winnipeg Jewish Radical Community. 1905-1920" (unpublished M.A. thesis, University of Manitoba, 1978), pp. 196-197, and "The Winnipeg Jewish Community: Its Radical Elements 1905-1918" in Louella Friesen, editor, Historical and Scientific Society of Manitoba Transactions, Series III, Number 33, 1976-1977 (Winnipeg, 1980), pp. 5-33; Ernest Chisick, "The Development of Winnipeg's Socialist Movement 1900-1915" (unpublished M.A. thesis, University of Manitoba, 1972).
91. Thomas Peterson, "Manitoba: Ethnic and Class Politics," in Martin Robin, editor, Canadian Provincial Politics. The Party Systems of the Ten Provinces, (second edition, Scarborough, 1978), p. 71. Jacob, who received 2912 votes as a Union candidate, was elected as the Member of the Legislative Assembly for Winnipeg North "B" in the by-election on January 15, 1918. His opponent, Elias R. Levinson (Independent), a Jew, received 2361 votes. Manitoba. Chief Electoral Officer, "List of General Elections, and of Members Elected and of By-Elections and Dates." Manitoba Legislative Library, Manitoba Election Records, p. 333.
92. Harvey Herstein, "The Growth of the Winnipeg Jewish Communityand the Evolution of its Educational Institutions" (unpublished M.Ed. thesis, University of Manitoba. 1964), p. 21.
93. Israel H. Asper was header of the Liberal Party in Manitoba from 1970 to 1975, and Sidney Spivak was Leader of the Progressive Conservative Party in Manitoba from 1971 to 1975. Tom Peterson, "Manitoba: Legislative Passions," in John Saywell, editor, Canadian Annual Review for 1970: A Reference Guide and Record (Toronto, Buffalo, 1971), p. 261; Tom Peterson, "Manitoba: Coalition Prospects," in John Saywell, editor, Canadian Annual Review of Politics and Public Affairs. 1971: A Reference Guide and Record (Toronto, Buffalo, 1972), p. 163, Murray Donnelly, "Manitoba: The Parties," in John Saywell, editor, Canadian Annual Review of Politics and Public Affairs, 1975: A Reference Guide and Record (Toronto, Buffalo, 1976), pp. 177-179.
94. Herstem. op. cit., pp. 20-21. See also "The Jewish Voter," The Jewish Post, Thursday, November 25, 1937, p. 4.
95. Leo Driedger, "Ethnic Identity in the Canadian Mosaic," Introduction, The Canadian Ethnic Mosaic: A Quest for Identity' (Toronto, 1978), p. 16.
96. Louis Rosenberg, A Population Study of the Winnipeg Jewish Community: A Statistical Study, Canadian Jewish Population Studies (Montreal, 1946), pp. 11-27.
97. J. E. Rea, Parties and Power: An Analysis of Winnipeg City Council, 1919-1975, Appendix IV, The Rea Report (Winnipeg, 1976), p. 1. "The Politics of Class: Winnipeg City Council, 1919-1945." in Carl Berger and Ramsay Cook. (editors) The West and the Nation: Essays in Honour of W. L. Morton (Toronto, 1976), p. 232; "The Politics of Conscience: Winnipeg After the Strike," Canadian Historical Association Historical Papers 1971, p. 276 and ff; Kenneth McNaught, A Prophet in Politics: A Biography of J. S. Woodsworth (Toronto, Buffalo, 1959, 1975), p. 99.
98. J. E. Rea, Parties and Power: An Analysis of Winnipeg City Council 1919-1975, Appendix IV, The Rea Report (Winnipeg, 1976), p. 1.
99. Norman Penner, "Introduction," in Norman Penner, editor, Winnipeg 1919: The Strikers' Own History of The Winnipeg General Strike, second edition, (Toronto, 1975), p. xxi.
100. Roselin Usiskin, "Toward A Theoretical Reformulation of the Relationship Between Political Ideology, Social Class, and Ethnicity: A Case Study of the Winnipeg Jewish Radical Community, 1905-1920," (unpublished M.A. thesis, University of Manitoba, 1978), p. 197.
101. P.A.M., Robert Boyd Russell Collection, MG10 A14-2, Box 2, File #6, Dominion Labour Party Winnipeg and District Branch Minutes, 31 October-22 March 1922, p. 6.
102. P.A.M., Robert Boyd Russell Collection, MG10 A14-2, Box 2, File #8, Dominion Labour Party Winnipeg and District Branch Membership List; Box 2, File #6, Dominion Labour Party Winnipeg and District Branch Minutes, 31 October-22 March 1922, pp. 25,28,49,53,59,64, 90,127,152.
103. P.A.M., Clara Fainstein Collection, MG14 C63, John Blumberg Interview File (1960); Manitoba Legislative Library Biography Scrapbook 12, p. 231.
104. Morris Mott, "The 'Foreign Peril': Nativism In Winnipeg, 1916-1923," (unpublished M.A. thesis, University of Manitoba, 1970), p. 60.
105. P.A.M., Clara Fainstein Collection, MG14 C63, John Blumberg Interview File (1960).
106. P.A.M., Robert Boyd Russell Collection, MG10 A14-2, Box 2, File #6, Dominion Labour Party Winnipeg and District Branch Minutes, 31 October 1917 22 March 1922, p. 119.
107. P.A.M., Robert Boyd Russell Collection, MG10 A14-2, Box 2, File #5, Dominion Labour Party Winnipeg and District Branch Executive Minute Book 1918-1920, pp. 6-7.
108. P.A.M., Robert Boyd Russell Collection, MG10 A14-2, Box 2, File #6, Dominion Labour Party Winnipeg and District Branch Minutes, 31 October 1917 -22 March 1922, pp. 41, 42, 48-49, 51, 59, 70, 72, 75-76, 79-80, 90.
109. P.A.M., Independent Labor Party of Manitoba Minute Book of the Center Branch, December 1920-November 1923, MG14 D4, minutes of meetings, December 16, 1920, p. 3, December 30, 1920. p. 11, January 6, 1921, p. 21, October 13, 1921, p. 111.
110. P.A.M., Clara Fainstein Collection. MG14 C63, John Blumberg Interview File (1960); Manitoba Legislative Library Biography Scrapbook 12, p. 231, Leible Hershfield, The Jewish Athlete: A Nostalgic View (Winnipeg, 1980), pp. 17, 26; The Jewish Post, Friday, June 8, 1928, p. 10.
111. Irving Abella (editor), "Portrait of a Jewish Professional Revolutionary: The Recollections of Joshua Gershman," in Labour/Le Travailleur: Journal of Canadian Labour Studies, Volume 2. 1977 (Halifax, 1977), p. 195. See also Vince Leah, "Pages from the Past: Jack Blumberg's name is one always recalled with warmth and reverence," The Winnipeg Tribune, Saturday, August 23, 1980, p. 94.
112. Dos Yiddishe Vort, Thursday, November 21, 1935, p. 3.
113. Mayor Queen's Re-Election." Dos Yiddishe Vort, Tuesday, November 26, 1935. p. 2.
114. A. Ross McConnack, Reformers, Rebels, and Revolutionaries: The Western Canadian Radical Movement 1899-1919 (Toronto, Buffalo, 1977), p. 171.
115. McMurray received 3809 votes, R. B. Russell (Labour), a machinist, 3094; Matthew Robert Blake (Conservative), a physician, 3045; and Jacob Penner (Independent), a shipper, 565. 10,647 of 17,623 voters cast their ballots. Canada, Report of the Chief Electoral Officer, Fourteenth General Election 1921 (Ottawa, 1922), p. XIII, pp. 378-379.
116. See footnote no. 120.
117. P.A.C., Harry Walsh Papers, MG30 E256, Speeches of E. J. McMurray, Q.C., P.C., 1918-1919 File, especially pp.6, 10-14,16-24,237. The writer thanks Mr. Walsh for permitting him access to the Harry Walsh Papers. See also Roy St. George Stubbs, "E. J. McMurray, Q.C., P.C.," Prairie Portraits (Toronto, 1954), pp. 143-176.
118. E. J. McMurray election advertisements in Dos Yiddishe Vort, Friday, November 25, 1921, and Dos Yiddishe Vort, Friday, December 2, 1921, p. l.
119. "To the Electors of North Winnipeg," letter from E. J. McMurray, Dos Yiddishe Vort, Friday. November 18, 1921, p. 7, and McMurray advertisements, Dos Yiddishe Vort, Friday, November 25, 1921.
120. Dos Yiddishe Vort, Friday, July 4, 1919, p. 1, Tuesday, July 8, 1919, p. 1, Tuesday, July 15, 1919, p. 1, Friday, July 18, 1919, p. 1. Tuesday, July 22, 1919, p. 1, Friday, Ju1y 25, 1919. p. 1, Tuesday, August 5, 1919, Friday, August 15, 1919, p. 1, Friday, August 22, 1919, p. 1.
121. "M. Hyman," in D. A. Hart, compiler and editor, The Jew in Canada (Toronto, Montreal, 1926), p. 395: Manitoba Legislative Library Biography Scrapbook 9, pp. 55,70.
122. Previously, Hyman lived in another prestigious residential area at 954 Dorchester Ave. A. L. Normandin (editor) The Canadian Parliamentary Guide 1933 (Ottawa, 1933), p. 395.
123. A. L. Normandin (editor), The Canadian Parliamentary Guide 1938 (Ottawa. 1938), p. 447. Manitoba Legislative Library, Manitoba Biography Scrapbook 9, pp. 55,70. "The Election of Marcus Hyman," Dos Yiddishe Vort, Tuesday, June 21, 1932, p. 2. "The 'Jewish Question' In The Election," Dos Yiddishe Vort, Friday, July 24, 1936, p. 4. "Marcus Hyman's Reelection," Dos Yiddishe Vort, Friday, July 31, 1936, p. 3. Jewish Historical Society of Western Canada, Archives on Deposit at P.A.M., MG6 BI, Marcus Hyman Papers, "The Jew as my Neighbor," C.K.Y. Broadcast, 1936.
124. "The Election of Marcus Hyman," Dos Yiddishe Vort, Tuesday, June 21, 1932, p. 2; "Marcus Hyman's Reelection," Dos Yiddishe Vort, Friday, July 31, 1936, p. 3. Province of Manitoba, Record of Elections since Confederation, "Result by Polls: Electoral Division of Winnipeg," General Elections, June 16, 1932. and July 27, 1936. (microfilm, Manitoba Legislative Library).
125. Lloyd Stinson, Political Warriors: Recollections of a Social Democrat (Winnipeg, 1975), p. 88.
126. G.V.F., "Marcus Hyman," Winnipeg Free Press, Wednesday, January 4, 1939, p. 9.
127. Dos Yiddishe Vort, Tuesday, December 2, 1919, p. 1 and The Winnipeg Evening Tribune, Saturday, November 29, 1919, p. 10.
128. Sheppy Hershfield, "Growing Up in North Winnipeg", in Jewish Historical Society of Western Canada, Second Annual Publication of The Jewish Historical Society of Western Canada, A Selection of Papers Presented in 1969-70 (Winnipeg, April, 1972), p. 20.
129. Hershfield, "Growing Up in North Winnipeg", op. cit., p. 20; The Winnipeg Evening Tribune, Saturday, November 29, 1919, p. 10; Manitoba Free Press, Saturday, November 29, 1919, pp. 1,8.
130. D. A. Hart, The Jew in Canada (Toronto, Montreal, 1926), p. 389.
132. Arthur A. Chiel, The Jews In Manitoba: A Social History (Toronto, 1961), p. 179.
133. Steinkopf's election advertisements claimed "there is no Jewish question in the coming election." Dos Yiddishe Vort, Tuesday, June 21, 1927, p. 3. On the other hand, Tobias claimed there was a "Jewish Question." Dos Yiddishe Vort, Friday, June 24, 1927, p. 4. Tobias received 1687 votes, Steinkopf 1241. Province of Manitoba, Record of Elections since Confederation, General Elections, June 28, 1927, p. 397. "The Result of 'The Election," Dos Yiddishe Vort, Tuesday, July 5, 1927, p. 2.
134. Manitoba Legislative Library, Biography Scrapbook 9, p. 107; The Jewish Post, May 26, 1932, p. 2. Tobias served in the Manitoba Legislature as an M.L.A. for Winnipeg until he was defeated in the provincial election of 1932. A. L. Normandin (editor), The Canadian Parliamentary Guide 1932 (Ottawa, 1932), p. 41. Leible Hershfield, The Jewish Athlete: A Nostalgic View (Winnipeg, 1980). pp. 41,83; D. A. Hart, (compiler and editor), The Jew in Canada (Toronto. Montreal, 1926), p. 407; The Jewish Post Friday, March 23, 1928, pp. 11, 19.
135. Jewish Historical Society of Western Canada, Archives on Deposit at P.A.M., MG5 D6, William Tobias Election Publicity, "For Sure Winners," The Weekly Review, Monday, June 27, 1927, p. 1.
136. Sheppy Hershfield, "Growing LID in North Winnipeg," Jewish Historical Society of Western Canada, Second Annual Publication of the Jewish Historical Society of Western Canada: Papers Presented in 1969-70 (Winnipeg, April, 1972), p. 20.
137. P.A.M., Clara Fainstein Collection, MG14 C63, M. A. Gray Interview, File No. 18: Manitoba Legislative Library Biography Scrapbook 11, pp. 25,182; "After the Winnipeg Municipal Elections," Dos Yiddishe Vort, Tuesday, December 1, 1936, p. 2, and news reports. p. 1, M. A. Gray election advertisement, The Jewish Post, Friday, November 16, 1928, p. 14.
138. Esther Shachter, Die Gesheechte Fun Mine Lehen (My Life History), (Winnipeg, 1951), p. 67. In 1936, an editorial writer for Dos Yiddishe Vort described Gray as "perhaps the most popular Jew in Winnipeg and in Western Canada." Mark Selchen, "By The Way: To the Elections," Dos Yiddishe Vort, Thursday, 26 November 1936, p. 1.
139. Manitoba Legislative Library Biography Scrapbook Il, pp. 126-127; Averbach was defeated in the contest for school trustee in Ward 3 in 1936, but was later re-elected. Dos Yiddishe Vort, Tuesday, December 1, 1936, p. 1, The Jewish Post, Friday, February 10, 1928, p. 3.
140. J. A. Cherniack, news reports and election advertisements, The Jewish Post, Friday, October 19, 1928, p. 6, Friday, November 16, 1928, p. 14, and Friday, November 23, 1928, pp. 3,12: "J. A. Cherniack," in D. A. Hart, compiler and editor, The Jew in Canada (Toronto, Montreal, 1926), p. 407; Thomas Peterson, "Manitoba: Ethnic and Class Politics," in Martin Robin (editor). Canadian Provincial Politics: The Party Systems of the Ten Provinces (second edition, Scarborough, 1978), p. 86.
141. "Social and Personal," The Jewish Post, Friday, November 16, 1928, p. 10.
142. Alexander Brian McKillop, "Citizen and Socialist: The Ethos of Political Winnipeg, 1919-1935," (unpublished M.A. thesis, University of Manitoba, 1970), pp. 37,39,60,74,77. See also McKillop, "The Communist As Conscience: Jacob Penner and Winnipeg Civic Politics 1934-1935," in A. R. McCormack and Ian Macpherson, (editors), Cities In The West: Papers of the Western Canada Urban History Conference - University of Winnipeg, October, 1974, National Museum of Man Mercury Series, History Division Paper No. 10 (Ottawa, 1975), pp. 181-203.
143. The Jewish Post, Friday, November 8, 1929, pp. 5, 11; Friday, November 15, 1929, p. 7; Friday, November 22, 1929, p. 9.
144. H. Sokolov, "This Week: Jewish Candidates in the Civic Field," The Jewish Post, Friday, November 15, 1929, p. 1.
145. Ivan Avakumovic, The Communist Party in Canada: A History (Toronto, 1975), pp. 22-138. In the 1932 provincial election, Communists ran under the name "United Front Workers (Labour)." Mark Selchen, "By The Way: Observations on the Election," Dos Yiddishe Vort, Monday, 20 June 1932, p. 1.
146. Ted Allan, "Winnipeg's Joe Zuken," Winnipeg Free Press, Tuesday, March 30, 1976, p. 31: Interview with Joshua Gershman, Winnipeg, November 17, 1979. Tim Buck did not mention Dolgoy's presence at Guelph in June. 1921, but noted Jacob Penner's presence. William Beeching and Phyllis Clarke, (editors). Yours In The Struggle: The Reminiscences of Jim Buck (Toronto, 1977), pp. 96-98. See also Norman Penner, "Jacob Penner's Recollections: Introduction," Social History/ Histoire Sociale, November, 1974, Vol. VII. No. 14 (Ottawa, 1974), p. 367.
147. Interview with Joshua Gershman, Winnipeg, November 17, 1979. Irving Abella. editor, "Portrait of a Jewish Professional Revolutionary: The Recollections of Joshua Gershman," Labour/ Le Travailleur: Journal of Canadian Labour Studies, Volume 2, 1977 (Halifax, 1977), on. 194-195.
148. The election, on November 25, 1927, was held under the principles of proportional representation. The quota of votes was 3,246. Three school trustees were elected by the fourth count. Kahana placed fourth in a field of six, receiving2,029 votes on the first count, 2,071 on the second, 2,077 on the third, and 2,289 on the fourth count. Winnipeg City Clerk (compiler), Municipal Manual City of Winnipeg 1928 Containing Facts and Figures about the City and the various Departments of its Government (Winnipeg, n.d.), p. 131.
149. In the election of November 24, 1933, held under the principles of proportional representation, seventeen candidates for aldermen contested three seats from Ward 2. The quota of votes was 4,703, Simkin was eliminated after the tenth of fifteen counts. He received on successive counts 756, 758, 776, 783, 790, 808, 842, 857, 887, and 906 votes. Winnipeg City Clerk (compiler) Municipal Manual City of Winnipeg 1934 Containing Facts and Figures about the City and the various Departments of its Government (Winnipeg, n.d.), pp. 137-138. In the election of November 23, 1934, held under the principles of proportional representation, eleven candidates for alderman contested three seats from Ward 2. The quota of votes was 4,429. Simkin was eliminated after the seventh of nine counts. He received on successive counts 848, 867, 894, 914, 948, 999, and 1031 votes. Winnipeg City Clerk (compiler), Municipal Manual City of Winnipeg 1935 Containing Facts and Figures about the City and the various Departments of its Government (Winnipeg, n.d.), pp. 137-138.
150. In the election of November 24, 1933, held under the principles of proportional representation, seven candidates for aldermen contested three seats from Ward 3. The quota of votes was 4,465. Penner placed third with 4,544 votes and was elected on the fifth count. Winnipeg City Clerk (compiler), Municipal Manual City of Winnipeg 1934 Containing Facts and Figures about the City and the various Departments of its Government (Winnipeg, n.d.), p. 139. In the election of November 23, 1934, held under the principles of proportional representation, nine candidates for aldermen contested three seats from Ward 3. The quota of votes was 4,656. Martin J. Forkin (Communist), unsuccessful Winnipeg mayoralty candidate in 1933, placed first with 4,668 votes and was elected on the fifty count. Winnipeg City Clerk (compiler), Municipal Manual City of Winnipeg 1934 Containing Facts and Figures about the City and the various Departments of its Government (Winnipeg, n.d.), p. 137, and Municipal Manual City of Winnipeg 1935 Containing Facts and Figures about the City and the various Departments of its Government (Winnipeg, n.d. ), p. 139. Penner made a direct appeal to Jewish voters in the provincial election of 1927, but was defeated. See Dos Yiddishe Vort, Monday, June 27, 1927, p. 4. McKillop, "The Communist As Conscience: Jacob Penner and Winnipeg Civic Politics, 1934-1935," op. cit.; Norman Penner Interview, "The Making of a Radical: Winnipeg in thel930's," in Irving Abella and David Millar, editors, The Canadian Worker In The Twentieth Century (Toronto, 1978), pp. 146-149. Province of Manitoba, Record of Elections since Confederation, "Electoral Division of Winnipeg," General Elections, June 28, 1927.
151. Interview with Joshua Gershman, Winnipeg, November 17, 1979: Ted Allan, "Winnipeg's Joe Zuken," Winnipeg Free Press, Tuesday, March 30, 1976, p. 31; Norman Penner, editor, "Recollections of the Early Socialist Movement in Winnipeg: Jacob Penner's Recollections," Social History/Histoire Sociale, Nov., 1974, Vol. VII, No. 14, (Ottawa, 1974), pp. 366-378; Interview with William Ross, Winnipeg, February, 1977, Winnipeg Free Press, Wednesday, December 2, 1936, p. 3; Dos Yiddishe Vort, Tuesday, December 1, 1936, p. 1.
152. Norman Penner, The Canadian Left: A Critical Analysis (Scarborough, 1977), pp. 146-147.
153. A. B. McKillop, "Citizen and Socialist: The Ethos of Political Winnipeg, 1919-1935," (unpublished M.A. thesis, University of Manitoba, 1970), pp. 125-130, 146-147; Ivan Avakumovic, The Communist Party in Canada: A History (Toronto, 1975), pp. 68-69; Vince Leah, "Pages from the past: Jack Blumberg's name is one always recalled with warmth and reverence," The Winnipeg Tribune, Saturday, August 23, 1980, p. 94.
154. "Social Reformism In Winnipeg," Communist election material in P.A.C., Abraham Heaps Papers, MG27 III C22, Vol. 2, Clippings File, 1921-41.
155. H. Sokolov, "This Week: Dirty Politics," The Jewish Post, Friday, November 16, 1928, p. l.
156. James H. Gray, The Boy from Winnipeg (Toronto, 1970), p. 43.
157. Manitoba Free Press, Friday, January 6, 1922, p. 9; The Winnipeg Evening Tribune, Tuesday, January 10, 1922, p. 1.
158. Manitoba Free Press, Thursday, January 12, 1922, p. 12; Letter from Rattray to editor, Manitoba Free Press, Friday, January 13, 1922, p. 11.
159. Dos Yiddishe Vort, Tuesday, Aug. 24, 1926, p. 2. The incident was a political issue in several election campaigns in north Winnipeg in the 1920s. John Queen, former arrested Winnipeg General Strike leader, Member of the Legislative Assembly, later mayor of Winnipeg, condemned Rattray's remarks and demanded his resignation. "Jews expressed their thankfulness with their votes" for Queen in the 1922 provincial election. "The Political Influence of The Winnipeg Jews," Dos Yiddishe Vort, Tuesday, July 25, 1922, p. 2. See also the Queen election advertisement, Dos Yiddishe Vort, Friday, July 14, 1922, p. 4. For Rattray and the 1926 federal election see Dos Yiddishe Vort, Tuesday, August 24, 1926, p. 2.
160. James H. Gray, The Roar of the Twenties (Toronto, 1975), p. 233.
161. "Jewish Anti-Semites," in H. Sokolov, "This Week," The Jewish Post, Friday, January 13, 1928, p. 1.
162. "Thanks to J. T. Thorson, M.P.," The Jewish Post, Friday, August 16, 1929. p. 4.
163. Percy Barsky, "How 'Numerus Clausus' Was Ended in the Manitoba Medical School," Canadian Jewish Historical Society Journal, Volume l, Number 2, Fall, 1977 (Montreal, 1977), pp. 75-81; James H. Gray, The Roar of the Twenties (Toronto, 1975), pp. 235-241.
164. Howard Palmer, "Jews: Early Jewish Settlement in Canada," Chapter 9, Land of the Second Chance: A History of Ethnic Groups in Southern Alberta (Lethbridge, 1972), p. 131.
165. H. Sokolov, "This Week: The Klan Arrives in Winnipeg," The Jewish Post, Friday, October 19, 1928, p. 1, and "This Week: Prejudices Make Easy Marks," The Jewish Post, Friday, October 26, 1928, p. 1; James H. Gray, The Roar of the Twenties (Toronto, 1975), p. 290.
166. Gerald Craig, "The Canadian Setting," in Albert Kose (editor), A People and Its Faith: Essays on Jews and Reform Judaism in a Changing Canada (Toronto, 1959), pp. 10-11.
167. "Absence of Racial Prejudice," The Jewish Post, Friday, November 29, 1929, p. l.
168. The Jewish Post, Friday, March 23, 1933, p. 3.
169. Goldie Myerson quoted in The Jewish Post, Friday, January 4, 1934, p. 3.
170. P.A.M., Bracken Papers, MG131, Box 85, File 892, Premier's Office Correspondence 1935, letter re: Communist Activities, from Browne, February 25, 1932, copy to Bracken.
171. Ibid. "Police Report on Red Trade Union Groups and Effects on Winnipeg Trades and Labour," p. l. The writer thanks Professor John Thompson, Department of History, McGill University, Montreal, for drawing his attention to this file. See also P.A.M., Department of the Attorney-General Records, "Synopsis of Report on Communist Activities Commencing May 5, 1931," in Special File, "Communist Activity, 1931-36," p. 1.
172. P.A.M., Bracken Papers, Box 85, File 892, Premier's Office Correspondence 1935, "Police Report on Red Trade Union Groups and Effects on Winnipeg Trades and Labour," pp. 1,3-4.
173. The Winnipeg Evening Tribune, Monday, December 7, 1936, p. 5. See also David Rome, Clouds In The Thirties: On Anti-Semitism in Canada 1929-1939. A Chapter on Canadian Jewish History. Section 5. (Montreal, 1975), p. 55.
174. Jonathan Wagner, "The Deutscher Bund Canada 1934-9," The Canadian Historical Review, Volume LVI 11, No. 2, June 1977 (Toronto, 1977), p. 180.
175. Ibid. p. 176. The German-language Winnipeg weekly Deutsche Zeitung für Canada also was pro Nazi in its sympathies. Jonathan Wagner, "The Deutsche Zeitung für Canada: A Nazi Newspaper in Winnipeg" in Louella Friesen (editor), Historical and Scientific Society of Manitoba Transactions, Series III, Number 33, 1976-77 (Winnipeg, 1980), pp. 49-59.
176. The Canadian Nationalist was at first printed; after passage of the "Hyman Bill", it was mimeographed. "Nazi Propaganda in Winnipeg," Dos Yiddishe Vort, Tuesday, July 28, 1936, p. 2; Lita-Rose Betcherman, The Swastika and The Maple Leaf, Fascist Movements in Canada in the Thirties (Toronto, Montreal, Winnipeg, Vancouver, 1975), pp. 65-66; The Canadian Nationalist, November 1, 1933, Volume 1, No. 1, pp. 1-6.
177. Betcherman, The Swastika and The Maple Leaf: Fascist Movements in Canada in the Thirties, pp. 70-71; The Jewish Post, February 22, 1934, p. 3.
178. See "The 'Jewish Question' In The Election," Dos Yiddishe Vort, Friday, July 24, 1936, p. 4. Support for Major and Marcus Hyman was reinforced in the Jewish community when Winnipeg Nazis distributed anti-Semitic hate propaganda during the 1936 provincial election campaign. Material in the possession of the writer. See also "I am a Jew! Vote for Me" in Dos Yiddishe Vort Friday, July 24, 1936, p. 2, and W. J. Major news reports and election advertisements, The Jewish Post, Thursday, July 2, July 9. 1936, p. 4, Thursday, July 16, 1936, p. 3, Thursday, July 23, 1936, p. 12, Thursday, July 30, 1936, p. 3; Frederick Fingerote, "Election Results." The Jewish Post, Thursday, July 30, 1936, p. 5.
179. Betcherman, The Swastika and The Maple Leaf: Fascist Movements in Canada in the Thirties, p. 74.
180. "Nazi Propaganda in Winnipeg," Dos Yiddishe Vort, Tuesday, July 28, 1936, p. 2; David Rome, Clouds In The Thirties: On Antisemitism in Canada 1929-1939. A Chapter on Canadian Jewish History. Section 2. (Montreal, 1977), pp. 94-96.
181. Winnipeg Free Press, Friday, March 4, 1938, pp. 1,8.
182. "Loose Thinking," The Jewish Post, Friday, October 29, 1936, p. 4.
183. J. A. Cherniack, "Reminiscences of 40 Years of Jewish Community Life," (translated by Harvey Herstein), Second Annual Publication of the Jewish Historical Society of Western Canada: A Selection of Papers Presented in 1969-70 (Winnipeg, April, 1972), p. 85.
184. See, for example: T. Kelly Dickinson, "Selective Immigration or Camouflaged Boycott," The Jewish Post, Friday, February 8, 1929, p. 5; Ruth Brotman, "The Immigration Question," The Jewish Post, Friday, March 15. 1929, p. 9; and M. A. Gray, "Canadian Immigration: An Analysis of Facts and Figures," The Jewish Post, Tuesday, April 23, 1929, p. 17. See also Simon Belkin, Through Narrow Gates: A Review of Jewish Immigration, Colonization and Immigrant Aid Work in Canada (1840-1940) (Montreal, 1966), pp. 100-201, and Louis Rosenberg, Canada's Jews: A Social and Economic Study of the Jews in Canada (Montreal, 1939), pp. 121-135.
185. Joseph Kage. With Faith and Thanksgiving: The Story of Two Hundred Years of Jewish Immigration and Immigrant Aid Effort in Canada (1760-1960) (Montreal, 1962). pp. 98-103; Irving Abella and Harold Troper," 'The Line Must Be Drawn Somewhere': Canada and Jewish Refugees, 1933-39," Canadian Historical Review, Volume LX, Number 2, June, 1979 (Toronto, 1979), pp. 178-209. One commentator has noted that the Jewish community "sees immigration very much in the light of a continuing rescue movement." Freda Hawkins, Canada and Immigration: Public Policy and Public Concern (Montreal, London, 1972), p. 302. See also pp. 83-84.
186. P.A.C., Records of the Department of External Affairs, Canada House Correspondence, High Commissioner's Office, RG25 A2, Volume 182, letter from F. C. Blair, Secretary, Department of Immigration and Colonization, Ottawa, June 17, 1921, to W. L. Griffith, Secretary, Office of the High Commissioner, London, pp. 1-2.
187. Joseph Kage, With Faith and Thanksgiving: The Story of Two Hundred Years of Jewish Immigration and Immigrant Aid Effort in Canada (1760-1960) (Montreal, 1962), pp. 90,94-95.
188. H. Blair Neatly, William Lyon MacKenzie King 1932-1939: The Prism of Unity (Toronto, Buffalo, 1976). p. 304.
189. Joseph Kage, With Faith and Thanksgiving: The Sion, of Two Hundred Years of Jewish Immigration and Immigrant Aid Effort in Canada (1760-1960) (Montreal, 1962), p. 105. See also Gerald Dirks, Canada's Refugee Policy: Indifference or Opportunism (Montreal, London, 1977), pp. 50-60.
190. For "open" immigration as an issue in a provincial election, see "Why So Quiet'?" Dos Yiddishe Vort, Friday, June 11, 1920, p. 4. "To The Jewish Citizens," Dos Yiddishe Vort, Monday, August 20, 1926, p. 2; "To The Jews of Winnipeg and Western Canada." Dos Yiddishe Vort, Tuesday, August 31, 1926, p. 2; "Farmers and Immigration," Dos Yiddishe Vort, Friday, August 15. 1930. p. 2; "The First Practical Step of the New Government," Dos Yiddishe Vort, Tuesday, August 19, 1930, p. 2; "The Oncoming Elections," The Canadian Jewish Chronicle: The National Jewish Weekly, Friday, July 25, 1930, Vol. XVIII, No. 10 (Montreal, 1930), p. 12.
191. H. Sokolov, "This Week: No Quota Law for Canada, but - ," The Jewish Post, Friday. January 18, 1929, p. 1, and "This Week: The High Cost of Pleasing Jingoists," The Jewish Post, Friday. February 22, 1929, p. 1.
192. A. L. Normandin (editor), The Canadian Parliamentary Guide 1926 (Ottawa, 1926), p. 162; letter to the editor from Heaps, Dos Yiddishe Vort, Tuesday, October 23, 1923; Leo Heaps, The Rebel in The House: The Life and Times of A. A. Heaps M. P. (London, 1970), pp. 1-59; David J. Bercuson, Fools and Wise Men: The Rise and Fall of the One Big Union (Toronto, 1978), pp. 100,102; Dos Yiddishe Vort, Friday, April 20, 1917, p. 1, and "A Vote for Cleanliness and Honesty," p. 4; Thursday, April 26, 1917, p. 5; Friday, April 27, 1917, p. 1.
193. See the letter from A. A. Heaps to the editor, Dos Yiddishe Vort, Tuesday, October 23, 1923.
194. Letter to the "Jewish Masses of Winnipeg" from the Jewish Campaign Committee of the Independent Labour Party, Dos Yiddishe Vort, 'Tuesday, October 27, 1925, p. 4, and Heaps election news and advertisements in Dos Yiddishe Vort, Friday. October 23, 1925, pp. 1,9.
195. Letter to the "Jewish Masses of Winnipeg" from the Jewish Campaign Committee of the Independent Labour Party, Dos Yiddishe Vort, Tuesday, October 27, 1925, p. 7.
196. M. R. Blake election advertisement and news reports, Dos Yiddishe Vort, Friday, October 23, 1925, pp. 1, 2, 9 and Tuesday, October 27, 1925, p. 1.
197. E. J. McMurray election advertisement and news reports. Dos Yiddishe Vort, Friday, October 23, 1925, pp. 1, 9, 10, and Tuesday, October 27, 1925, p. 1.
198. R. MacGregor Dawson, William Lion MacKenzie King: A Political Biography 1874-1923 (Toronto, Buffalo, 1958, 1976), p. 450. H. Blair Neatby, William Lyon MacKenzie King: The Lonely Heights 1924-1932 (Toronto, Buffalo, 1963, 1970), p. 64.
199. Leo Heaps, The Rebel In The House: The Life and Times of A. A. Heaps, M. P. (London, 1970), p. 59.
200. Letter to the "Jewish Masses of Winnipeg" from the Jewish Campaign Committee of the Independent Labour Party, Dos Yiddishe Vort, Tuesday, October 27, 1925, p. 4.
201. Letter from A.D. W., Winnipeg, to the editor, Dos Yiddishe Vort, Tuesday, October 27, 1925, p. 4.
203. Heaps received 4,781 votes to 3,882 for Matthew Robert Blake (Conservative) and 3,573 for the Honourable Edward James McMurray. 12,393 voters of 15,274 eligible voted. Canada, Report of the Chief Electoral Qfficer, Fifteenth General Election 1925 (Ottawa, 1926), p. 384.
204. "The Result of the General Election." Dos Yiddishe Vort, Friday, October 30, 1925, p. 8.
206. Leo Heaps, The Rebel in The House: The Life and Times of A. A. Heaps, M. P. (London, 1970), pp. 61-73; Roger Graham, Arthur Meighen: A Biography, Volume 2, And Fortune Fled (Toronto, Vancouver, 1963), pp. 370-386; Kenneth McNaught, A Prophet in Politics: A Biography of J. S. Woodsworth (reprinted, Toronto, Buffalo. 1975), pp. 168-71, 218-20, 243-45, 289.
207. Conservative letters to the Jews of Winnipeg and of Western Canada, Dos Yiddishe Vort, Friday, August 20, 1926, p. 2, Tuesday, August 24, 1926, p. 2, Friday. August 27, 1926, p. 2. Tuesday, August 31, 1926, p. 2, and Friday, September 3, 1926, p. 2.
208. "To The Jews of Winnipeg and Western Canada," Conservative letter, Dos Yiddishe Vort, Tuesday, August 24, 1926, p. 2. See also Dos Yiddishe Vort, Tuesday, August 31, 1926, p. 2.
210. Letter from Meighen, Ottawa, to S. L. Goldstein (Goldstine), Winnipeg, August 26. 1926, published in Dos Yiddishe Vort, Friday, August 27, 1926, p. 2.
211. "To The Jewish Electors of Winnipeg and Western Canada," letter from Max Steinkopf, Dos Yiddishe Vort, Tuesday, August 31, 1926, p. 2.
212. "Heaps Keeps His Word to His Electors," A. A. Heaps election advertisement, Dos Yiddishe Vort, Wednesday, September 8, 1926, p. 7.
213. A. A. Heaps election advertisement, Dos Yiddishe Vort, Monday, September 13, 1926, p. 3.
215. George MacTavish election advertisements and news reports, Dos Yiddishe Vort, Friday. September 3, 1926, p. 91, and Wednesday, September 8, 1926, pp. 1,24.
216. "Jewish Voters of Winnipeg, Do Your Duty," Dos Yiddishe Vort, Monday, September 13, 1926, p. 18.
217. Heaps election advertisements, Dos Yiddishe Vort, Wednesday, September 8, 1926, p. 7, Monday, September 13, 1926, p. 3, Dos Yiddishe Vort, Friday, September 24, 1926, p. 1, and "The New Cabinet and the New Immigration Minister," Tuesday, September 28, 1926, p. 2.
218. "The New Cabinet and the New Immigration Minister," Dos Yiddishe Vort, Tuesday, September 28, 1926, p. 2.
219. 12,693 voters of 15,285 eligible voted. Canada, Report of the Chief Electoral Officer, Sixteenth General Election 1926 (Ottawa, 1927), pp. 383,548.
220. The Jewish Post, Friday, November 15, 1929, p. 10. Heaps' receptivity to his constituents was expressed from Ottawa in 1930. "I shall hope now that when I return to Winnipeg I shall have the opportunity to see everyone personally." A. A. Heaps, M.P., "The Last Week in Ottawa," Dos Yiddishe Vort, Thursday, June 5, 1930, p. 2. When not with his family, Heaps occasionally stayed at the home of Alderman and Mrs. John Blumberg. The Jewish Post, Friday, November 16, 1928, p. 10.
221. Dos Yiddishe Vort, Monday, June 2, 1930, p. 1.
222. H. Sokolov, "This Week: Jews and the Federal Election," The Jewish Post, Friday, July 25, 1930, p. 1.
223. Dos Yiddishe Vort, Thursday, June 5, 1930, p. 1, and "Political Kettle Starts to Boil in Winnipeg," Dos Yiddishe Vort, Thursday, June 19, 1930, p. 1.
224. The Jewish Post, Friday, June 20, 1930, p. 12.
225. Ibid. Dos Yiddishe Vort, Thursday, June 19, 1930, p. 1.
226. The Jewish Post, Friday, June 13, 1930, p. 3.
227. A. A. Heaps election advertisements, Dos Yiddishe Vort, Monday, June 16, 1930, p. 3 and Friday, July 11, 1930, p. 5.
228. A. A. Heaps election advertisements, Dos Yiddishe Vort, Monday, June 16, 1930, p. 3 and Friday, July 25, 1930, p. 7.
229. A. A. Heaps election advertisements and news reports, Dos Yiddishe Vort, Friday, July 11, 1930, p. 5, Friday, July 18, 1930, p. 2, Monday, July 21, 1930, p. 4, and Wednesday, July 23, 1930, p. 1.
230. Conservative election advertisements, Dos Yiddishe Vort, Thursday, July 17, 1930, p. 4, and M. R. Blake election advertisement, Wednesday, July 23, 1930, p. 3. Bennett opened his campaign in the Winnipeg Amphitheatre Rink; his speech was broadcast coast-to-coast on radio. Dos Yiddishe Vort, Monday, June 9, 1930, pp. 1,9, Tuesday, June 10, 1930, p. 1.
231. Leslie Morris election advertisement, Dos Yiddishe Vort, Thursday, July 24, 1930, p. 3.
233. "To Working Men and Women! Do not Vote for the Liberal-Labor Party!" The Workers' Vanguard, Federal Election Edition, July, 1930, p. 1.
235. "To The Jewish Workers of Winnipeg!" The Workers' Vanguard, November, 1929, p. 2.
236. H. Sokolov, "This Week: Jews and the Federal Election," The Jewish Post, Friday, July 25, 1930, p. 1.
237. "The First Practical Step of the New Government," Dos Yiddishe Vort, Tuesday, August 19, 1930, p. 2.
238. Heaps receive 6,907 votes, Blake (Conservative) 5,011, and Leslie Morris (Communist) 2,164. 14,313 voters of 24,781 eligible voted. Canada, Report of the Chief Electoral Officer, Seventeenth General Election 1930 (Ottawa, 1931), pp. 391-92,558.
239. "Another Jew in the Federal Parliament," Dos Yiddishe Vort, Wednesday, July 30, 1930, p. 2.
240. "The Election Campaign in The North End," Dos Yiddishe Vort, Tuesday, February 27, 1940, p. 2.
241. "Nobody is Certain," Dos Yiddishe Vort, Tuesday, October 8, 1935, p. 2.
242. A. A. Heaps election advertisement, Dos Yiddishe Vort, Tuesday, October 1, 1935, p. 4.
245. Dos Yiddishe Vort, Friday, October 4, 1935, p. 1.
246. "Notes from the Electoral Campaign," A. A. Heaps election advertisement, Dos Yiddishe Vort, Friday, October 11, 1935, p. 5. "Untershtippers" refers to manipulators, opportunists, "hangers-on," and those who engage in "under-the-table" dealings.
247. The Jewish Post, Thursday, October 3, 1935, p. 12; Thursday, October 10, 1935, p. 12.
248. Dos Yiddishe Vort, Friday, October 11, 1935, p. 1.
249. "Notes from the Electoral Campaign," A. A. Heaps election advertisement, Dos Yiddishe Vort, Friday, October 11, 1935, p. 5.
250. Dos Yiddishe Vort, Friday, October 11, 1935, p. 1.
251. See Buck's account of a conversation with J. S. Woodsworth on running in Winnipeg North in 1935. William Beeching and Phyllis Clarke, (editors), Yours In The Struggle: Reminiscences of Tim Buck (Toronto, 1977), pp. 254-255.
252. See footnotes nos. 231, 232, 233, 234, 235, and 238.
253. Harry Gale, "The Jewish Labour Movement in Winnipeg," Jewish Historical Society of Western Canada, First Annual Publication of The Jewish Historical Society of Western Canada: A Selection of Papers Presented in 1968-69 (Winnipeg, June, 1972); Tom Kosatsky, "The Winnipeg 'Shmatta' Business," (unpublished paper, University of Manitoba, May, 1971); Bruce Donaldson, "Sam Herbst, The I.L.G.W.U., and Winnipeg," (unpublished paper, University of Manitoba, Spring, 1976); Winnipeg Free Press, Tuesday, December 1, 1936, p. 8; Wednesday, December2, 1936, p. 1; Louis Rosenberg, "The Clothing Industry," Tables XXIV and XXXV, A Population Study of the Winnipeg Jewish Community: A Statistical Study, Canadian Jewish Population Studies (Montreal, 1946), pp. 58-59.
255. P.A.C., S. W. Jacobs Papers, MG27 III C3, Vol. 8, p. 2909, McMurray, Winnipeg, to Jacobs, April 5, 1935.
256. Dos Yiddishe Vort, Tuesday, October 1, 1935, p. 4.
257. Tim Buck advertisement, "A Jewish Radio Speech," Dos Yiddishe Vort, Friday, October 11, 1935, p. 3.
258. Ivan Avakumovic, The Communist Party In Canada: A History (Toronto, 1975), p. 94.
259. Dos Yiddishe Vort, Tuesday, October 1, 1935, p. 1, and Friday, October 4, 1935, p. 1.
260. "Notes from the Electoral Campaign," A. A. Heaps election and advertisement, Dos Yiddishe Vort, Friday, October 11, 1935, p. 5.
261. P.A.C., A. A. Heaps Papers, MG27 III C22, Volume l, Palestine File, Letters from Isaac Rokach, Tel Aviv, April 24, 1933, to Heaps; from M. A. Marshall, Montreal, May 5, 1933, to Heaps; from Heaps, May 8, 1933, to J. Hestrin, New York City; from Hestrin, May 9, 1933, to Heaps.
262. Heaps election advertisement, "Notes from the Electoral Campaign", Dos Yiddishe Vort, Friday, October 11, 1935, p. 5.
263. "A. A. Heaps," Dos Yiddishe Vort, Friday, October 11, 1935, p. 4.
264. "The Federal Elections," The Jewish Post, Thursday, October 10, 1935, p. 2.
265 "Liberals Gain Overwhelming Victory: Myth of 'Jewish Vote'," The Jewish Post, Thursday, October 17, 1935, p. 5. The newspaper continued to express opposition to Communist candidates at all levels for government office. "Are Their Faces Red." The Jewish Post, Thursday, March 14, 1940, p. 2; "Defeat of Communists," The Jewish Post, Thursday, November 28, 1940, p. 2.
266. Fred Welwood, the Social Credit candidate, received 905 votes. 29,321 voters of 37,764 eligible voted. Canada, Report of the Chief Electoral Officer, Eighteenth General Election 1935 (Ottawa, 1936), pp. 461-463.
267. "The Election In The North End," Dos Yiddishe Vort, Friday, October 18, 1935. p. 3.
268. Ellor, a barrister, was largely a token candidate. See the "Tribune Election Forum," The Winnipeg Tribune, Tuesday, March 19, 1940, p. 7.
269. Nelson Wiseman, "A Political History of the Manitoba C.C.F. N.D.P.," (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Toronto, 1975), pp. 125-128.
270. The figure of nine thousand is an estimate. In fact, the total may have been around ten thousand, a figure used by Dos Yiddishe Vort in 1936. "To The Ten Thousand Jewish Voters," Dos Yiddishe Vort, Wednesday, June 15, 1932, p. 2; "Ten Thousand Jewish Voters," Tuesday. July 21, 1936, p. 2. Kenneth McNaught, A Prophet in Politics: A Biography of J. S. Woodsworth (Toronto, 1975). pp. 298-3 14. "For the Jewish people there is but one issue - the complete and thorough prosecution of the war to a successful finish. Our vote must go to those candidates who pledge themselves unreservedly to this platform ... No one dare to be derelict in his duty to himself or to his country." The Jewish Post, Thursday, March 21, 1940, p. 4. See also Dos Yiddishe Vort, Tuesday, March 19, 1940, p. l.
271. "Brother Jews of North Winnipeg," C. S. Booth election advertisement, Dos Yiddishe Vort, Thursday, March 21, 1940, p. 8.
272. More than one hundred men attended the pre-convention meeting of Jewish Liberal Electors in North Winnipeg," The Jewish Post, Thursday, February 29, 1940, p. 8. S. Hart Green, K.C., was President of the Winnipeg North Liberal Association. The Jewish Post, Thursday, February 29, 1940, p. 8; Thursday, March 7, 1940, p. 10.
273. "On The Liberal Front. News and Views of Men and Policies," The Jewish Post, Thursday, March 7, 1940, p. 10.
274. Heaps election advertisements. Dos Yiddishe Vort, Tuesday, March 12, 1940, pp. 2, 3, and Thursday, March 21, 1940, p. 6, and news report, Dos Yiddishe Vort, Tuesday, March 19, 1940, p. 1, and advertisement p. 3.
275. Poale Zion advertisement, The Jewish Post, Thursday, March 7, 1940, p. 10, and The Jewish Post, Thursday, March 14, 1940, p. 10.
276. "Earnest Appeal in a Serious Moment to all Jewish Citizens of North Winnipeg," A. A. Heaps election advertisement, Dos Yiddishe Vort, Thursday, March 21, 1940, p. 6.
277. Ibid. Irving Abella and Harold Troper, "'The Line Must Be Drawn Somewhere': Canada and Jewish Refugees, 1933-39," Canadian Historical Review, Volume LX, Number 2, June, 1979 (Toronto, 1979) pp. 186, 192-93. 197, 202. See also letter from Yitzchak Yurman, Winnipeg, March 6, 1940, in Dos Yiddishe Vort, Friday, March 8, 1940, p. 5; Gerald Dirks, Canada's Refugee Policy: Indifference or Opportunism? (Montreal and London, 1977), p. 61.
278. "Earnest Appeal in a Serious Moment to all Jewish Citizens of North Winnipeg," A. A. Heaps election advertisement, Dos Yiddishe Vort, Thursday, March 21, 1940, p. 6.
280. Dos Yiddishe Vort, Tuesday, February 27, 1940, p. l, and Leslie Morris election advertisement, Dos Yiddishe Vort, Tuesday, March 19, 1940, pp. 2, 3.
281. This did not prevent Morris from making direct appeals to Jewish voters, as he did at the Hebrew Sick Benefit Hall. The Winnipeg Tribune, Tuesday, March 19, 1940, p. 1.
282. "Are Their Faces Red," The Jewish Post, Thursday, March 14, 1940. p. 2.
283. "In Duty Bound," The Jewish Post, Thursday, March 21, 1940, p. 4.
284. The North-Ender, Thursday, March 7, March 21, 1940, p. 1. Leo Heaps, The Rebel In The House: The Life and Times of A. A. Heaps, M. P. (London, 1970), p. 161.
285. Morris, a journalist, received 5,315 votes; and Ellor, a barrister, 2,255. 32,525 voters of 42,959 eligible or 7601, voted. 69 ballots were rejected. Canada, Report of the Chief Electoral Officer, Nineteenth General Election. 1940 (Ottawa, 1941), pp. XV, 473-475,678.
286. Leo Heaps, The Rebel In The House: The Life and Times of A. A. Heaps, M. P. (London, 1970), p. 161.
287. "The Downfall of Mr. Heaps," Dos Yiddishe Vort, Friday, March 29, 1940, p. 3.
288. Nelson Wiseman, "A Political History of the Manitoba C.C.F. N.D.P.," (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Toronto, 1975), p. 129.
289. S. D. Clark, The New Urban Poor (Toronto, Montreal, 1978), p. 1.
290. Joseph Zuken, "The Effect of the Depression on the Jewish Community of Winnipeg," (unpublished paper delivered to The Jewish Historical Society of Western Canada, Winnipeg, November 18, 1975). See also Leible Hershfield, The Jewish Athlete: A Nostalgic View (Winnipeg, 1980).
Page revised: 5 July 2020
