ure y Commentary
By PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
The Hebrew Word Flourishes in the New France
QUEBEC CITY—There were Tisha b'Ab services at the Beth
Israel Ohav Shalom synagogue here,' on Cremazie Street. Thus,
in the heart of the New France, Jewish observance is conducted
in traditional fashion, and, in the midst of _a population that.is
90 per cent Catholic, the Hebrew word is not forgotten.
There is a Talmud Torah in the Quebec City Synagogue, with
an attendance of nearly 60 boys and girls. An orthodox rabbi,
a graduate of Yeshiva University and Itzhak Elhanan Yeshiva of
New York, is coming here next month to conduct the school and
to officiate as rabbi. The community's shohet, bawl koreh and
hazan is Rev. J. Kleinman. •
On Simhat Torah, this Commentator was told by Maurice
Pollack, the city's leading Jewish merchant, the synagogue was '
packed with children who joined in the celebration of the festi-
val. Pollack, who had contributed $75,000 towards the construction
of the $375,000 synagogue and who was honored by having the
auditorium bear his name, said. there are between 550 and 600
Jews in Quebec City. He believes the community has approxi-
mately 135 families.
Statistics compiled by Louis Rosenberg, the research director
of the Canadian Jewish Congress, credits Quebec City with a
Jewish population of 340 as of 1951. Rosenberg's statistics are
most interesting. He shows that the Jewish population in this
quaint city, which is one of the most attractive on this continent
for tourists and students of history, was 40 in 1851, rose to 110
in 1861, dropped to 81 in 1871, 4'7 in 1881 and 45 in 1891. The
1901 census showed a Jewish population of 302. It rose to 398 in
1911, declined again in 1921 to 375, rose to 436 in 1931, and the
figures given for 1941 and 1951 were 376 and 340 respectively.'
Since 1951, the older settlers apparently have become more
deeply rooted and encouraged relatives and friends to settle here.
A typical example is the Rosenhek family. Jack Rosenhek was
born in New Brunswick where there were only three Jewish
families. But he was given - a Jewish education and the Jewish
influence remained strong in his family. He married a Quebec
Jewish girl, is engaged- in business here, conducting children's
wear and women's wear stores. They have three boys, two of
.whom attend the Talmud Torah. Two of Jack's brothers, doctors,
also settled here. They brought their mother here and now they
feel rooted as Quebec Citizens. The three brothers are members
of the Quebec City Bnai Brith Lodge and proudly wear the
Menorah pins.
Jew _ ish
Quebec City is only one example of the retention.
loyalties in remote communities on our continent.
of
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A'
m- tm mac c ,717WWITNINTS
for Dedication of Tel Aviv Mann Auditorium
The wide interest aroused in
the dedication of the new Tel
Aviv Cultural Center, which
will include the Frederick R.
Mann Auditorium as the new
home of the Israel Philharmonic
Orchestra, will draw large num-
bers of Americans to Israel next
month, from indications that
became apparent this week.
Air France announces that it
has joined with the America-
Israel Cultural Foundation in
sponsoring a special Super G
Constellation flight to Israel in
time for - the dedication. This
flight (020) will leave from Idle-
wild Airport, New York, at 1
p.m. on Sept. 30, and will ar-
rive in Tel Aviv, at the Lydda
Airport, at 8:55 p.m. on Oct. L
The official dedication,
which will be attended by Is-
rael's Prime Minister David
Ben-Gurion and other Israeli
officials, as well as Jewish
leaders from all over the
world, will take place on Oct.
2; Featured at the concert will
BM Warned of
Educational Bias
in Future Years
(Direct JTA Teletype Wire
to The Jewish -News)
CHAMPAIGN, Ill.—A warn-
ing that recent- gains in the
elimination of discriminatory
admission policies in American
colleges may suffer a setback
during the next five years, be-
cause of pressures of academic
overcrowding, was sounded
here Monday at the close of a
nine - day institute for Biiai
Brith Girls.
Saul Sorrin, regional Anti-
Defamation League director for
Illinois and Missouri, told the
170, delegates that the growing
demands on existing education-
al facilities were likely to lead
colleges and universities to re-
vert to discriminatory admis-
sion policies.
Warning that such pressures
were likely to become particu-
larly acute in professional
schools, -Sorrin said that mem-
bers of minority groups would
be the major victims.
He warned young people
about to start business careers
that they would face "subtle
forms" of - discrimination in
large corporations which, he
said, in the main do not em-
ploy JeWish executives.
He said anti-Semitism in its
present form was "less tangible
and more difficult to cope
with" - than the anti-Semitism
of the generation of parents of
the delegates which was
marked by abuse and physical
violence and spawned by the
rise of Hitler and economic in-
security at home.
Flashback to Montreal and Canadian Jewish Congress
Students of Jewish community structures agree that the
Canadian set-up is one of the wholesomest in the world. It does
not face the conflicts that exist in the United States. Canadian
Jewry's internal affairs are governed by the Canadian JeWish -
Congress, a democratically-selected body that has the cooperation
of the Bnai Brith, and of the national Zionist organizations,
and is in position to carry on its activities in the name of the
Jews of Canada without challenge.
In the United States, there is always at least one group—
usually the American Jewish Committee—that acts On its own
and does not lend its name to decisions or petitions of the
National Community Relations Advisory Council. In the U.S:,
the American Jewish Congress, the Bnai Brith, the American
Jewish Committee, the. Jewish War Veterans, the Nation-al
Council of Jewish Women, the Jewish Labor Committee_ and the
various Zionist groups are in the habit of issuing statements in
their own names. Such actions often have created confusion
among non-Jews who _could not. -understand who *speaks for
whom.
It has happened • that members of Congress and the White
House were visited by various Jewish delegations. on behalf of
the same cause. One delegation, speaking for all of American
Jewry could have done the trick. But it doesn't funCtion that way
in the U.S. The desired unity can be and is being implemented in
Canada by the Canadian Jewish Congress.
Such unity is possible, of course, in a country with a Jewish
population as small as Canada's: 240,000. - It is much-more diffi-
cult in a land like ours, with a diversified JeWish - wpulation of
5,000,000. There is another reason, however, for Canadian Jewish
unity: the fact that the Jews there stem Mostly from Russia, Catholic Seminary Replaces
Poland and Lithuania. The conflicts that arose _in the United Synagogue at Foehrenwald
States between Jews from Eastern and Western JeWries are
MUNICH (JTA) — A semi--
unknoWn there.
*
*
*
The Reform Community and the Hassidim
be Leonard Bernstein, Con-
Isaac Stern was the soloist,
ductor; and the soloists, Ar-
the sum of $15,000 was raised
tur Rubinstein, pianist, Isaac
towards the Center.
Stern, violinist, and Gregor
The Air . France concert flight
Piatigorsky, cellist.
is being limited to 65 reserva-
It was announced a few days tions. William Elkin, of the El.
ago that Lionel Hampton also
plans to participate in the Israel
Philharmonic's dedication event.
According to the Air France
announcement, the passengers
on its dedication concert flight
will be served speCial cuisine as
guests of the American Commit-
tee for the Dedication Concert.
In Detroit, special efforts
are being exerted by the local
committee headed by Max Os-
nos to encourage interest in
the Tel Aviv Center. At a re-
tent private concert, at which
kin Hotel and Travel Bureau,
announced this week that his
staff is prepared to assist those
desiring to make reservations.
Air France also announced
this week that it is making ar-
rangements for special tours
to Israel on the occasion of
the Jewish State's tenth amp- .
niversary.
William L. Yold, Air Frances
Detroit district manager, states
that specially arranged tenth
anniversary Israeli flights win-
be listed soon.
Boris Srnolar's
'Between You
.. and Me
.
'
(Copyright, 1957,
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Inc.)
Israel Anniversary
f
American Jewry will participate in the celebration of the
tenth anniversary of the establishment of Israel in a manner
which may even exceed the celebration of their own 300 years
of settlement in this country . . . The lessons learned from the
failures of the tercentenary celebrations will serve as a guide
for organizing mass celebrations in the United States to mark
Israel"s tenth anniversary next year .. . • The chairman of the
celebration committee may be either Senator Herbert H. Lehman
or Dr. Israel Goldstein, but the over-all chairman will probably
be Dr. Nahum Goldmann . . . Meyer Weisgal, who has been
named by Israel's Premier David Ben-Gurion a$ chief organizer
of the celebrations, will spend a good deal of time in the United
States to help the American celebration committee in its plans
. It is ekpected that thousands of Americans — Jews and non-
Jews — will in the course of the Tenth Anniversary Year visit
Israel ... Almost - every American-Jewish organization of impor-
tance will arrange mass-tours to Israel of its members . . . Plans
are also being made now by the United Jewish Appeal to take a
group - of at least 1,000 Jewish community leaders to Israel next
summer to attend the celebrations there ... Hadassah is simi-
larly organizing huge groups of its members for mass tours to
Israel . So do - the other Zionist groups in this country. •
UJA Anniversary
American Jewry will also celebrate the 20th anniversary a
One of its most important organizations —the United Jewish
Appeal . The year 1958 marks two decades of the UJA's' com-
ing into being as the major fund-raising instrument of the Ameri-
can Jewish community for overseas needs and Israel . . . The
UJA -is the product . of a merger on-the eve of World War II of
the independent campaigns of the Joint Distribution Comthittee
and the United Palestine Appeal . . . It can rightfully boast that
it represents every element in American Jewry.... Its great fund-
raising effort has made possible the saving of the lives of many
thousands of JeWs .. Through its agencies it haS during the
years of its existence brought direct help to more than 3,000,000
Jews in about 50 countries ... Its role in mobilizing philanthropic
aid for Israel is too well known to need description ... By any
standard the United Jewish Appeal stands as one of the giants on.
the entire American fund-raising scene—Jewish and non-Jewish
. . . The 1958 campaign of the UJA will be conducted under the
double aniversary slogan: Israel's 10th anniversary and UJA's
20th anniversary.
Literary Anniversary
I wish to congratulate the Jewish Digest on its- entering next
month into the third year of -its publication . The September
edition of this lively Jewish publication marks two years of
nary for training Catholic priests existence of the magazine . The secret of the successful exist-
has been opened in the build- ence of the Jewish Digest lies in the fact that the publication
ing which for 12 postwar years is exceptionally well edited .. . The Jewish Digest is the only
There are only a few Reform congregations in Canada. Most housed the main synagogue of magazine of its kind in the Jewish world, with the exception of
of the synagogues are Orthodox. There are very few synagogues Foehrenwald, the Jewish DP the pocket-sized Jewish Affairs which is published in South
where men and women sit together. At the Shaar Hashomayim camp that was the last of its Africa, but carries no reprints from other publications . . . . The
and the other conservative synagogues in Montreal there are sep- kind in Germany and whose dis- Jewish Digest's editor is Bernard Postal, and -the managing edi-
appearance, when it closed down tor is Lionel Koppman. „ . . Both have full-time jobs with the
arate sections for the women.
The Reform congregations also have good educational depart- in March of this year, marked National Jewish Welfare Board ... Its publisher is David White,
of Houston, Tex., where the magazine is published.
ments. They emphasize the study 'of Hebrew and some even the end of an -epoch.
encourage the study of Yiddish, the popularity of which, in Can-
the winter months, the Hassidim were not hear d then—because their festivities were conducted
ada, was_ described in this column last week.
It is told about one of the Reform rabbis there that he loves indoors, and the windows were closed,
He arrived at a solution: he proposed that Congress provide the congregation with an air
Yiddish, in addition to Hebrew; that he speaks with a Lithuanian
accent—pronouncing "sin" for the "shin"—with the result that conditioning unit and that the Hassidim be in duced thereby to do their celebrating indoors.
The Hassidim agreed, the Canadian Jewish Congress made the gift and the hiilul hashem was
they say of him that "he was conceived in sin."
Montreal, as a result of the new wave of immigrants from averted. Lavy Becker proudly showed us the small synagogue with the protruding air conditioning
Hungary and other parts of Europe, has a new community of unit as evidence of one of the good functions of the Canadian Jewish Congress, of which he is one ott
Hassidim. It.is not uncommon to see young bOys and their elders the vice-presidents.
_ The able leadership of the Canadian Jew ish Congress has made pOssible its - outstanding
with their kapotes and peyoth, short breeohes and long white
functions: the efficient direction of Saul Hayes, the able assistance of Rabbi Becker, the work
-stOckings.
Former Detroiter Lavy Beale/. "related an interesting story of its national president, Samuel Bronfman, and especially the outstanding efforts of the noted
about a very small synagogue that was established in Montreal statistician, Louis Rosenberg.
It is thanks to Rosenberg that Canadian Jewry is so well known: the facts he has gathered
by. the Hassidic group. In. - the warm days, - they would observe
•Simhat Torah and other festivals and special occasions outdoors, and published present the best-known descripti on available about any Jewish community ill
singing into all hours of the night -and dancing away to the the world, excepting perhaps only Israel. _
Louis Rosenberg is an especially interesting personality. He came to England as a young
tunes of their traditional songs. The neighbors protested and
Wok the matter to the. City Council. The .12 Jewish aldermen, boy, studied the social sciences there, then went to Canada where he became. active first in agri-
seeking to avert a hilul hashem, succeeded in postponing action cultural areas and later in Jewish communal work.
He knew Hebrew when he came to Canada, but learned Yiddish after hiS arrival there.
against them. But the protests became more vehement, and Lavy
Becker stepped into the picture in behalf of. the Canadian Jewish He has become an outstanding demographic authority and is one of Jewry's outstanding. statis-
Congress. He learned that while there were celebrations during ticians: we believe that only Dr. Jacob Lestchinsky matches him, in Jawith ranks, in, this field.