Between Jewish State and Diaspora: Exploring the Founding of the Canadian Jewish Congress

Abstract

This article explores the lead up to, formation, and immediate aftermath of the first Canadian Jewish Congress (1919). Meeting minutes, letters, and newspaper articles related to the early CJC suggest that it was an institution built in response to nationwide excitement and agreement concerning the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine. The CJC was driven by an agenda to invigorate and expand Jewish life in Canada without practical commitments to similar efforts in Palestine. This logic was dissimilar from other contemporary conceptions of Zionism and reflects the reality that Zionist ideas and institutions have been consequential to the endurance of the Jewish diaspora throughout the twentieth century. In the Canadian case, the central factors shedding light on this counterintuitive logic are the influence of the Socialist Zionist Poale Zion upon the CJC’s mandate, coordination between CJC leadership factions to ensure the longevity of Canadian Jewry, and the CJC’s resolution to create the Jewish Immigrant Aid Society, which represents the practical thrust of the CJC and its broadest-reaching and longest-standing policy outcome.