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SPRING 2012 / 5772 PAGE 1 SPRING 2012 / 5772 VOLUME 26:1 ACJS BULLETIN Hesh Troper awarded Louis Rosenberg Award by Randal Schnoor On behalf of the Association for Canadian Canada and the Jews of Europe, 1933-1948 Jewish Studies (ACJS), I am very pleased to (1983). The story of the Canadian government’s announce that PROFESSOR HAROLD refusal to allow Jewish immigration from Europe TROPER of the University of Toronto is the during the Holocaust, this book was selected 2012 recipient of the Louis Rosenberg by a panel of experts for the Literary Review of Canadian Jewish Studies Canada as one of the 100 most Distinguished Service Award. important Canadian books ever With this award, the written. Association wishes to He also co-authored, with Morton acknowledge the enormous Weinfeld, Old Wounds: Jews, contribution that Professor Troper Ukrainians and the Hunt for Nazi (a past president of the ACJS) has War Criminals in Canada (1988). made to the study of Canadian He has authored or co-authored Jewish history. many other books and monographs Born in 1942, Harold (Hesh) dealing more generally with issues Troper is a Canadian writer, related to immigration, intergroup historian and academic. During relations, multiculturalism, ethnic his many years of teaching at the Ontario diversity and the like in which the Canadian Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) of the Jewish experience is explored. Current research University of Toronto he has influenced a interests include Canadian social history, multitude of students, greatly stimulating their immigration, education of ethnic and minority interest in Canadian Jewish history. groups, American history, and the history of An eloquent and engaging speaker, education. Troper has lectured widely and effectively to We look forward to presenting the the general public on subjects related to the Rosenberg Jewish experience in Canada , thus increasing Award to INSIDE THIS ISSUE the scope of his influence well beyond the Professor walls of academe. Troper on Award to Hesh Troper ........................... 1 His numerous scholarly publications are the President’s message ............................ 3 well known. He has authored The Ransomed of evening of On the book shelf ................................ 4 God: The Secret Rescue of the Jews of Syria May 30, Spotlight on Montreal ............................ 5 From our regions .................................. 6 (1999), The Rescuer: The Amazing True Story 2012, at our ACJS annual conference program ....... 8 of How One Woman Helped Save the Jews of upcoming Yasher koach and mazal tov ............. 10 Syria (2007), and The Defining Decade: conference In memoriam ...................................... 11 Identity, Politics, and the Canadian Jewish in Annual general meeting minutes ........ 12 Community in the 1960s (2010). He co- Waterloo, Open Board meeting minutes ............ 14 ACJS affiliated societies ................... 16 authored with Irving Abella None Is Too Many: Ontario. q PAGE 2 ACJS BULLETIN About Us Proposed Slate of ACJS Board Members The Association for Canadian Jewish for 2012-2013 Studies/l’Association des études juives canadiennes was founded in 1976 as Officers the Canadian Jewish Historical President: Randal Schnoor Vice-President: Barry Stiefel Society/Société d’histoire juive canadienne. Its goal is to encourage Treasurer: TBD Secretary: Janice Rosen scholarly research in Canadian Jewish Past President: Norm Ravvin history, life and culture through academic disciplines. Executive Committee It is a national association with Journal Editors: David Koffman and Stephanie Schwartz headquarters in Montreal and is Bulletin Editor: Susan Landau-Chark affiliated with historical organizations Chair, Communities and Archives: Debby Schoctor and institutions throughout Canada. Chair, Membership: Steven Lapidus This newsletter is written for Chair, Programs & Conference: Rebecca Margolis organizations and individuals with a particular interest in Canadian Jewish Book Review Editor: Ira Robinson studies. Chair, Academic Committee: TBD Comments, news, announce- Chair, Finance: TBD ments, and reviews can be emailed to Chair, Nominations: Barry Stiefel Susan Landau-Chark at Honorary Officer: Jerry Silver [email protected]. The ACJS website: Board Members for 2012-2015 www.acjs-aejc.ca. David Koffman (NY) Richard Menkis (BC) Seymour Mayne (ON) Stephanie Schwartz (QC) President Randal Schnoor Board Members for 2012-2014 Vice-President Pierre Anctil (QC) Hernan Tesler-Mabe (ON) Barry Stiefel Treasurer Board Members for 2012-2013 Robin Bergart Michele Byers (NS) Bernard Katz (ON) Barbara Schober (BC) Secretary Judith Cohen (ON) Goldie Morgentaler (AB) Alisa Siegal (ON) Janice Rosen Gary Davis (NB) Messod Salama (NL) Past President Norm Ravvin THANK YOU to the following institutions for their support of the Association Bulletin Editor Susan Landau-Chark for Canadian Jewish Studies: Concordia Institute for Canadian Jewish Studies; Israel and Golda Koschitzky Centre for Jewish Studies (York Bulletin Production University);é University of Toronto Centre for Jewish Studies; and Vered Shirley Muhlstock Brodt Jewish Canadian Studies Program (University of Ottawa). The ACJS Bulletin is published biannually for members of the Association for Canadian Jewish Studies. No portion of this publication may be reproduced without permission of the ACJS. Please send all correspondence to ACJS/AEJC, 1455 de Maisonneuve West, Montreal, Quebec, H3G 1M8. For membership details and rates, log on to www.acjs-aejc.ca. ISSN 14895954 SPRING 2012 / 5772 PAGE 3 President’s Message Dear members and friends of the ACJS, Canadian viewers. I must admit I am still not convinced that American scholars pay too much Some change is in the air. You may have noticed attention to Canadian Jewish life. Nonetheless there we are in the midst of redesigning our website to give have been a number of anthologies or special it a fresh new look. Please bear with us as we work volumes put together recently on the Jews of Canada out the kinks. Our journal is also (some by American presses). These undergoing some change. I would include a special issue of Studies in like to thank Rebecca Margolis for Religion entitled “Jews and Judaism her excellent work as editor of the in Twentieth-Century Montreal” journal. (September, 2011) edited by Ira We are delighted to now turn Robinson. Robinson is also editing the editorship over to two young another work on the Jews of Canada and ambitious newly minted PhDs, to be released later this year in the David Koffman (PhD from NYU) “Jews in Time and Space” series and Stephanie Schwartz (PhD from published by Academic Studies DR. RANDAL F. SCHNOOR University of Ottawa). I can see Press out of Boston. In addition, the these two new editors are interested American Jewish Year Book will be in broadening the appeal of our publishing a lengthy piece on the journal and moving it into new directions. I welcome topic later this year. Canadian Jews are hot! this. I look forward to seeing you at our upcoming Some of you may have had the chance to watch conference in Waterloo, Ontario. Squeezing between and participate in a webinar I put together on April 25, Shavuot and Shabbat, the conference will be mid- 2012, entitled “The Distinctiveness of Canadian week this year (Wednesday-Thursday, May 30-31). Jewish Life.” The purpose of this webinar was to Our evening session will include a book launch of highlight the special-edition volume of the journal Nazi Germany, Canadian Responses (McGill-Queens Contemporary Jewry (October 2011) which I guest- University Press) as well as a keynote address from edited (http://www.springerlink.com/content/0147- Professor James Walker (University of Waterloo) 1694/31/3/). This American-based social-science entitled “The Jewish Contribution to Human Rights.” journal commissioned me to develop a special volume In addition, we are delighted to honour on the Jews of Canada. Mort Weinfeld had also Professor Harold Troper, winner of the 2012 Louis guest-edited such a volume on Canadian Jews 30 Rosenberg Distinguished Service Award in Canadian years ago, in 1982 (let’s hope it will be less than thirty Jewish Studies. The ACJS proudly recognizes the years before we see another one!). Along with myself, exceptional contribution Harold Troper has made to Michele Byers of Saint Mary’s University in Halifax the study of Canadian Jewish history (please see presented some of the highlights from the journal cover story). volume. Though I do not have the numbers, it The full program of the conference is contained appears there was a sizeable amount of people logged in this bulletin and available on our website: in to the webinar. www.acjs-aejc.ca/conference.html. While I tried to gear my remarks to an American Thank you to Rebecca Margolis for her efforts in audience, the vast majority of questions came from putting this conference together. q PAGE 4 ACJS BULLETIN This double issue showcases “a diversity of voices, On the Book Shelf: each writing out of and in response to the Jewish heritage Books and articles and identity affirmed by the community as a whole. “The concern with the past and its ever-present published by our members presence, the response to family members, usually parental, and the religious and political challenges in contemporary Jewish life invigorate the poetic conversation. The intensity of speech highlights their poetry in a manner that has been SHARON GUBBAY HELFER (Centre for Oral History and crucial to the development