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In 1921 there were 126,196 Jews in Canada. Of
these, 34,377 lived in Toronto; 42,667 in Montreal. Winnipeg had
14,390; Calgary, 1,233; Edmonton, 805; and Vancouver, 1,248. The
Canadian Jewish community was unassimilated for the most part -
still separate, still unsettled and highly unorganized in terms
of Canadian institutions. Of the total, about one third (50,892)
were born in Canada.
The
other two thirds had come mainly from restricted ghettos or European
peasant backgrounds and were transplanted in Canada into an unfamiliar
twentieth century environment. The community was serviced by a Yiddish
daily paper in Montreal and Toronto.
Appearing
weekly were the Canadian Jewish Chronicle in Montreal (in
English) and the Israelite Press in Winnipeg (in Yiddish) with several
columns in English. All of these employed European trained journalists
and printers. In Toronto the time was now right for an English language
publication in the Jewish community.
The
Canadian Jewish Review was founded by Florence and George
Cohen, Jr. in Toronto in 1921 at a time when the entrance of Jewish
students into high school was seen as a "Hebrew invasion," and the
community was spoken of constantly as a ''colony."
The
Cohens' express purpose was to see the Jewish community introduced
with dignity into its adopted country, Canada, and integrated into
the general Canadian scene.Dr.
Henry Borsook, formerly of the University of Toronto, observed:
"I
remember the effect of the Review on the Toronto Jewish community.
The Review gave the Jews of Toronto a corporate entity. Before
then, we were an inchoate mass held together only by the implied
persecution, or, better, discrimination against Jews.... The Review
was indispensable.... It was important that the Review told what
was happening to all the Jews of Toronto, rich and poor, socially
prominent and those who had no individuality. In
a real sense everyone read the Review; that, and that they were
Jews held them together as never before."
Rabbi
Barnett R. Brickner, then rabbi of Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto,
agreed to be the sole editorial contributor as long as the publication
remained absolutely impartial, not tied to any political allegiance
or the organ of any political party.
The
Canadian Jewish Review started with a staff of three, including
Florence Cohen's brother, Samuel Freedlander, as the first advertising
manager.
The
first issue appeared on November 4, 1921. There were letters of
welcome from Arthur Meighen, prime minister of Canada; W.E. Raney,
attorney general of Ontario; and from community leaders:
Edmund Scheuer; E. Pullan of the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies;
Nathan Phillips, later the mayor of Toronto; A.J. Freiman of Ottawa;
and H.A. Friedman of Edmonton. In Rabbi Brickner's editorial, he
noted that the function of the Canadian Jewish Review would
be:
.
. . to act as the recorder and interpreter of world Jewry to the
Canadian Jewry and vice-versa....The Canadian Jewish Review
will above all else seek to stimulate the Jew to develop the best
that is latent in him for the benefit of Canadian life and citizenship
as well as to the Jew himself.... the Canadian Jewish Review will
serve to arouse Canadian Jewry.... Non-Jewish neighbors do not
know us - they do not understand us.... A newspaper whose medium
of expression is the English language can become a source to dispel
ignorance.... It shall be the duty of the Review to expose and
censure in our own midst those who are indifferent.
In
the first issue, there were pages of international Jewish news,
and the first column of social news appeared for which the Review
later became famous. Local news was always gathered by staff members,
working on the telephone, and through news items sent in to the
paper's offices by private individuals and organizations.
Photographs
of people began to appear in print weekly and later were concentrated
in the three annual special issues, which came to be known as Festival
Magazine Issues. New Year greetings, with family names and addresses,
appeared each fall in the special New Year issues. Notices of births,
engagements, marriages, deaths, family happenings, teas, parties
and receptions all appeared at no charge to the individual.
Through
the years the paper even published serialized books. At first syndicated
Jewish world news appeared courtesy of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
This was later dropped as major world-wide organizations, such as
the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, American Jewish
Committee and World Jewish Congress, established their own press
bureaux.
The
Canadian Jewish Review made good use of these services. At one
time Florence Cohen used to scan daily the Montreal and Toronto
daily papers, the New York Times, the New York Herald
Tribune, and the London Jewish Chronicle, as well as
general and Jewish publications from Canada and abroad in search
of news items.
Editorial
policy and decisions were made jointly by George and Florence Cohen.
Although George Cohen was listed at the start as managing editor
and later, manager, he was in fact the publisher and director of
the sales staff. Florence's name, as editor, appeared on the masthead
for the first time only in 1925, and she continued to write her
weekly column for more than twenty years.
The
Canadian Jewish Review expanded its coverage early, offering
news columns from Montreal, Hamilton, Ottawa, Chatham, Sudbury,
Winnipeg, Regina, Edmonton and other cities; and soon, "Canadians
in Los Angeles" and a Maritimes section appeared in issues, maintaining
family and community links across the continent.
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On
Rabbi Brickner's departure for the United States, the July 3, 1925
issue announced that Rabbi Isserman and Rabbi Max Merritt of Temple
Emanu-EI in Montreal would be contributing editors. Rabbi Merritt
was succeeded in September of that year by Rabbi Herbert J. Samuel,
followed by Rabbi Harry J. Stern, who wrote for the paper for many
years.
Professional
people as well as staff members of community organizations appeared
in editorial page features to explain their work. "The Review
is here to be of impartial service, now as always in the past, a
bulletin board for the Jewish communities." The paper reflected
community growth in its organizational news and in advertising space
which was provided free of charge for each organization.
Early
issues published lists of various campaign donors, association balance
sheets, membership statistics and loan and benefit recipients. More
than one community group owed its continued existence to this supportive
procedure. The Canadian Jewish Review moved its publishing
offices to Montreal in the late 1920s.
The
paper's format changed in 1931 to slightly smaller than newspaper
size (to carry the larger advertisements made for a newspaper size
page and for economy in printing and handling costs), returning
to the previous format for the three annual holiday issues only.
The front page was then devoted to international Jewish news, almost
exclusively; and the editorials and the masthead were on the back
page.
No
other Jewish publication showed the same style in publishing special
holiday issues as did the Review with its three Festival Magazine
Issues, offering distinctive national advertising and sometimes
four-colour inserts; in some cases, going even so far as to attach
perfume sachets to their ads. The supporting background for the
advertising was the pages of photographs, which started to appear
in the late 1920s, picturing children, families, bar mitzvahs, university
graduates, brides and grooms, synagogue school classes, organizational
groups and young people in uniform.
During
the 1930s, aside from printing controversial articles over the political
situation developing in Germany, the Canadian Jewish Review advocated
more Jewish community participation in institutions serving the
general community, ". . . as a shove toward growth from childhood
to adolescence." In 1932 the Review called for a centralized
Jewish Federation and Fund Drive. By 1936 one was established in
Toronto.
And
about ten years later, Montreal launched its first such drive. "How
do the Jewish citizens of Toronto show their interest in the University
of Toronto beyond sending their young people there for an education?
Except for the scholarship to honour Rabbi Brickner, have they established
scholarships and endowment funds?" Florence Cohen went on: "Until
several years ago, when as the result of an editorial in the Review,
several members of the Toronto Jewish community collected a fund
for the Sick Children's Hospital, Jewish Gifts to Toronto hospitals
were practically unheard of.
Are
any being made now as a mark of appreciation of Gentile effort in
establishing these hospitals that minister to all?" It took time,
but the results began to materialize. Starting in 1938, the appointment
of Jewish scholars and administrators to institutes of higher learning
insured lack of discrimination, and large endowments and scholarships
followed suit as the community became more established.
As
Florence Cohen wrote in a letter to Rabbi Leonard Poller, then of
Temple Beth Sholom in Montreal, on July 14, 1963: "I learned in
the Scripps McRae (now Scripps Howard) daily newspaper chain that
an editor has to be free of entangling alliances and even small
enclosures to be worth anything." At another time she wrote in print:
The function of the English Jewish community newspaper is not
primarily to serve religion or to serve the Jews with religion,
but to give members of the community news of events and each other;
and of the outside Jewish world, such as is not given fully by
the daily press, and to be informative on trends that affect the
Jewish situation, life and conditions...An
English Jewish weekly has things to sell, for money, subscriptions
and advertising, and should be conducted much the same as any
other commercial venture with a conscience.
Concerning
Jewish community publications with subsidies from special interest
groups, she continued, "There is not one. . . which has any durable
authentic guts or which would ever for a moment consider taking
a risky position by which it might stand or fall." The files of
the Canadian Jewish Review in the Multicultural History Society
of Ontario are a rich source of community information and social
history; of universal causes (especially since the war) and Canadian
Jewish participation in them; and of attitudes to the Jewish community
on the part of other daily and weekly publications in Canada.
Today
the daily press is more receptive to Jewish news than it was in
the early days of the Review, but it is still not very interested
in particular Jewish community news, or the achievements of Jews
internationally. In 1980 the death of the great community leader,
Saul Hayes of Montreal, a member of the Order of Canada and the
former executive vice president of the Canadian Jewish Congress,
was not reported in the Globe and Mail; yet he was one of
the most distinguished representatives of Canadian Jewry and truly
a national figure.
The
Canadian Jewish Review was sold at the end of 1966 to Stanley
Shenkman, an architect who had also bought the Canadian Jewish
Chronicle from the Wolofsky family in Montreal. The format of
the paper was changed radically; it appeared less than once a month
as the Canadian Jewish Chronicle-Review until it disappeared
totally in 1976. When the Review was sold, a void was created that
has never since been adequately filled.
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