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May 29, 2009
Tracing Winnipeg's history
Book shares stories and photographs of Manitoba's Jewry.
REBECA KUROPATWA
The Winnipeg Jewish community has always been a vibrant group, even though it never comprised more than 2.8 per cent of Manitoba's population, according to acclaimed author Allan Levine.
His newly released book, Coming of Age: A History of the Jewish People of Manitoba, tells the story of a determined group of immigrants and their descendants who formed one of the most vibrant North American Jewish communities. Coming of Age is Levine's 10th book to date.
At the Winnipeg launch, Levine told the 170-plus crowd that the city's Jewish population came in waves of immigration in 1870. Most of these new immigrants came through the United States and were of an Anglo-German background.
This wave of immigration increased in 1882, when Russian Jews came to Winnipeg. Levine said, "They were very, very poor and mainstream Winnipeggers felt sorry for them. They often lived in shacks in the industrial district near the Forks and the CPR [Canadian Pacific Railway] mainlines and theirs were heartbreaking stories of struggle and poverty."
Levine writes about Manitoba's history of anti-Semitism, an experience that played a role in reminding younger people that they were Jewish, slowing the spread of assimilation into Canadian society.
His 512-page book provides a comprehensive and accessible history of Manitoba Jewry. It also includes more than 500 photographic images (found in the Manitoba Jewish Historical Society's archives).
Levine covers not only what is already known about the community, it introduces new material and provides a bird's-eye view of the 125-year history of Jews in the province, from the earliest days of settlement in 1885 until today.
Since the 1950s, Manitoba's Jews have played a key role in reshaping and broadening Canadian values – overcoming obstacles like Jews being excluded from entering certain trades and professions, owning property in selected Winnipeg neighborhoods and resort areas, attending the medical school at the University of Manitoba and joining certain clubs and organizations.
Well-known author Peter C. Newman said of Coming of Age that, "Levine's study breaks new ground and will become an important document in the annals of a people whose achievements include not only survival but significant contributions to their community at large, both their province and their country."
Levine told the audience at the launch that he had two main objectives when writing – "to get the story right, and to tell it in a way that people would want to read about it."
Coming of Age is the brainchild of past president of the Jewish Heritage Centre Abe Anhang and the late chair of the editorial committee Harold Buchwald, explained Levine, who began writing the book in May 2007.
While writing, Levine said he "was looking for stories that people wanted to read about. I did mention some things about people with big names, but I tried to balance it with interesting stories about people like Phil Kives. It's a mix of institutional and personal, but the best parts are about people."
Levine said he aimed to provide an accurate portrayal of the community, but that he could not have succeeded without the Jewish Historical Society with its vast archive noting, "that was critical to the success of this project."
Levine received his doctorate in history from the University of Toronto in 1985. He was awarded the Yad Vashem Prize for Holocaust history in Canada in 1999 and has taught history at St. John's Ravenscourt (SJR) since 1984.
"The ethnic mix of kids in my classes now at SJR – an expensive private school – shows us that ethnicity is no longer the barrier it used to be to success," said Levine. "So kids in today's generation have no concept of the discriminatory practices – the anti-Semitism – previous generations experienced. This book reminds us of that struggle."
Some of what is included in Levine's book are stories about the early Jewish pioneers of the 1880s – the rabbis, teachers, politicians, merchants, activists, Yiddishists, Zionists, and leaders – who helped build the Winnipeg Jewish community from the ground up.
"To outsiders, the members of Manitoba's Jewish community were all 'Hebrews,'" said Levine. "In reality, by 1920, the Jews were representative of all classes and ideological orientations. Many were religious, others less so. There were Zionists who campaigned for a Jewish homeland in Palestine, socialists who fought for the rights of the workers and liberals who advocated Jews assimilating into Canadian society. Each particular segment had its own associations, mutual aid societies, schools, synagogues and political clubs."
Levine noted that Winnipeg lawyer and community "macher" Sam Drache, in 1961, described Winnipeg as a "Jewish world that had small cells of every intellectual, controversial Jewish movement represented within it, and it had leadership ... small cells, but they were here and they all gave expression."
At the end of the launch, Levine reminded the audience of the question posed to Allan Gotleib: "Why Winnipeg?"
In response, Levine said, "One answer is simply found in the characters of the people who lived in Manitoba. They worked hard and succeeded – many amassing fortunes beyond their wildest dreams – and unselfishly built the Jewish community brick-by-brick. You can accuse these leaders of elitism and even arrogance – as many still do – but without them, there would be nothing to write about. Their family names reverberate through Manitoba Jewish history. It's their stories and those of many more that form the heart of this remarkable saga."
Rebeca Kuropatwa is a Winnipeg freelance writer.
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