Behind the Headlines Recent Trends in Canadian Jewry

While the Canadian Jewish population of about 300,000 is miniscule compared to close to six million Jews in the United States, it has a very sharp profile in the Canadian economic picture.

The Jewish component in the wholesale and retail market is very pronounced in Canada. One of the major food outlets in Canada is the Montreal-based Steinberg’s organization.

Founded by a prominent Montrealer, the Steinberg’s empire is particularly strong in Quebec and Ontario. It is instructive to note that in some of the Ontario centers the firm’s name is “Miracle Mart” — a name change, it is said, induced by anxieties about an excessively Jewish sounding name.

Peter Newman, former editor of the Toronto Star, and before that of Maclean’s Magazine (Canada’s version of Time) has written two recent books about the business elite in Canada.

SOME OF THE JEWISH BUSINESS ELITE

One of his books, a bestseller, “The Bronfman Dynasty,” chronicled the development of the famous Montreal family which made Seagrams and Crown Royal a household name. The Bronfman clan still commands considerable clout within the Canadian corporate structure.

While members of the family are to be found both in Montreal and Toronto, they are internationally active in New York and elsewhere in the investment community. One of the famous Bronfmans, Edgar, serves as the current president of the World Jewish Congress.

In his other treatise on Canadian business, Newman identifies several other members of the Canadian Jewish community who have soared to prominence. One of the latter, the Belzbergs, owners of City Trust in Vancouver, are said to have vast business investments in Canadian and American real estate.

One branch of the family in Calgary, Alberta, was the object of considerable news coverage recently when a brother was kidnapped in that prairie city and held for ransom. Readers were stunned to learn that one of the participants in the kidnapping was not only Jewish but had some kind of family tie to the unfortunate victim.

Most of the members of the Canadian Jewish business elite have succeeded in avoiding the kind of flamboyant publicity associated with the Belzbergs–whose every investment move in Los Angeles and New York tends to be scrutinized by the newspapers.

George Cohon, the man who put the McDonald’s fast food outlets into operation in Canada (and who started his business with an initial investment of about $70,000) receives a lot of media attention in Canada but not regarding his business enterprise.

A Chicago native, Cohon is one of the most community-conscious Jewish businessmen in Canada. He divides his time between civic obligations (sponsoring the Santa Claus parade in Toronto) and numerous activities for the Jewish community and for Israel.

Canada is also unique in having the Reichman family among its residents. Despite yeoman efforts to avoid publicity of any kind, the Toronto based family has attracted massive news coverage both in the business journals and in the general press.

The Reichimans have a special persona about them both because of the vast real estate holdings in Canada and the United States (Manhattan in particular) but also because of their commitment to Jewish observance which is unique among Jewish business magnates.

Their construction firms are known in the trade for contracts stipulating that no work is to be done on Sabbath and Jewish holidays. Despite these seeming obstacles to speedy construction projects, the firm always seems to finish the job ahead of time.

Last year the Reichman clause excluding Sabbath and holiday work involved the company in a labor dispute with certain Chicago unions that were working on a Reichman project in the “Windy City.” Fortunately, the problem was resolved to everyone’s satisfaction.

In Canada it is said that “the Reichmans are giving Judaism a good name.” This frequently quoted dictum derives in part from the company’s scrupulous observance of highly ethical business transactions and from the Reichman’s strong support of Canadian and Israeli Jewish educational institutions. On Sunday mornings the Reichmans receive a steady stream of emissaries from Jewish institutions all over the world, and the word is that few go away empty-handed.

HIGH RISE JEWISH DIRECTORS

Another prominent industrial giant in Canada is the Cadillac Fairview construction corporation which is Jewish in the sense that many of its top directors have been Jews. Much of the high rise construction which dots the metropolitan areas of Canadian cities from Halifax through western Canada originated with Cadillac Fairview planners.

So successful have they been that the company has, for the last decade, extended its market into the United States where Cadillac Fairview building standards and designs are being introduced into Texas, Florida and other American states.

It is instructive to note that Jewish success in business has, in Canada, taken many of the same routes it has in other countries — retail food industry, franchising, pharmaceutical supplies and construction — because some of the other avenues of investment such as the banking and steel producing sectors were denied to Jews.

The situation may be changing. Milton Harris, the current president of the Canadian Jewish Congress, for example, is the owner of a small (by U.S. Steel standards) but successful steel business. Within the banking elite, however, few Jews are represented — as is the case in the United States.

ONE DISCORDANT NOTE

There is only one discordant note in the Canadian Jewish business scene, although some observers deny that there is any Jewish dimension involved.

In 1983 the assets of a major Canadian trust company (whose president is a Jew) were taken over by the government of Ontario in order, it was said, “to protect the investments of depositors.” The government alleged that the company was involved in mortgage schemes which were designed to benefit only the trust company directors.

What is disquieting is that although the government took over the assets of the company it has never presented any charges against the president in question — who has alleged quite openly that he has been the victim of anti-Semitic prejudices on the part of the government. (Tomorrow: Part Three)