Canadian Jewish Congress Opens Five-day National Parley in Montreal

An increase in grants and scholarships for Jewish education was urged here today in the opening, keynote address delivered before the 14th plenary session of the Canadian Jewish Congress, which convened here today. The five-day parley, attended by more than 700 delegates from all over the Dominion, heard Saul Hayes, executive vice-president, deliver a plea for bolstering Jewish education as a Jewish existence.” (For details on the plenary session, see Page 2 of the Community News Reporter Supplement.)

Canadian Jewry need not fear Jewish survival, Mr. Hayes said, “if by survival we mean existence.” But only the vigorous promotion of every phase of Jewish education, he told the Congress, with more time and more money devoted to that aim, “will enable Canadian Jewry to have a meaningful experience and will prevent the Jews here from being simply a statistic of identity.” Such meaningful Jewish living, he stated, will be possible in spite “of a few professional anti-Semites who want us consigned to concentration camps, and despite the considerable energy we devote to vigilance against these people.”

On the agenda of the session, which will close Monday, are many topics covering a wide scope of issues of vital concern to Canadian Jewry, Highlights of the agenda topics are: An examination and evaluation of the contemporary aspects of Jewish life in Canada, including spiritual, religious and cultural content and trends; the Canadian Jewish community as part of worldwide Jewry, including Canadian Jewry’s relationship to Israel; Jewish education, including adult education; and an analysis of the place of the Canadian Jewish community in the Dominion’s general political and cultural life.