J. D. B. News Letter

Montreal, known as the “city of campaigns” among Canadian Jewish communities, is now busy preparing for the campaign for $600,000 to build a Jewish Hospital. The need of such a hospital has been discussed for many years and came to a climax when the Hebrew Maternity Hospital was closed down last year.

Under the direction of Allan Brontman, who has been appointed general campaign chairman, tentative plans have been drawn up and the opening date of the campaign set for September 22. The executive working with Mr. Bronfman consists of: Michael Hirsch, Michael Morris, Morris Ginsberg, Sam Bronfman, H. M. Ripstein, A. H. assby, A. M. Vineberg, I. Silverstone, Alderman Schubert, Louis Salomon, David Kirsch, Dr. Max Wiseman, representing the Loan Syndicates, H. Reubens, representing the Sick Benefit Societies, and C. B. Fainer, representing the Hebrew Maternity Hospital.

Various loan syndicates, medical socities, the Independent Order of B’nai B’rith, the Zionist Order Habonim, the Young Men’s Hebrew Association, Men of the Shaar Hashomayim Synagogue, the Temple Emanu-El Brotherhood, Sons of Israel, and other organizations, have offered to aid in the hospital campaign. The need is such a pressing and immediate one, that the entire Jewish community here is expected to give their support. Although the hospital will be non-sectarian, it will be administered and operated by a Jewish body, and will afford training facilities for Canadian Jewish nurses, and a new field for Canadian Jewish medical men. This is one of the prime causes for the need of such a hospital ni Montreal.

The progress being made by Montreal as a Jewish communal center is seen in structures which are being erected to house communal and philanthropic needs of the city. Last year the new Old People’s Home was built by the Federation of Jewish Philanthropics of Montreal. A few weeks ago the new home of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association, known as the Sir Mortimer B. Memorial Building, was opened and now affords every facility for physical and recreational work among the Jewish youth here. The Young Women’s Hebrew Association has moved into the old quarters of the Y. M. H. A., and is already planning for a building of its own.

Another indication of the advancement of the community along philanthropic lines, is the number of summer camps now in existence for underprivileged children and mothers. Camps like the B’nai B’rith Camp for underprivileged boys are model camps of their kind. The Montreal Council of Jewish Women is again conducting its

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camp for under-privileged girls, and the Jewish Laurentian Fresh Air Camp affords summer holidays for poor mothers and their young children. These camps are operated with the assistance of the Family Welfare Department of the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of Montreal. Besides these, there are a number of other summer camps operated by arbeiter circles and other organizations.

A group of 125 Jewish Boy Scouts is proceeding to the Boy Scout Camp Tamaracouta, where they will remain for the summer. Scoutmaster Machlovitch is in charge of the boys and supervises the kosher meals, which are served under the auspices of the Jewish Advisory Committee of the Boy Scouts Association of Canada. Morning services and Sabbath services are conducted by the Jewish scoutmaster while the Jewish boys are at camp.

An old Jewish landmark in the down-town district of the city will pass with the transfer of the Old Hebrew Free School, founded thirty-five years ago and the first Talmud Torah in Canada, to its temporary headquarters in the Baron de Hirsch Institute. The center of the Jewish population in the city is moving northward, and with the departure of the Jewish children in the neighborhood, it has been necessary to move the school and sell the old building.

The official immigration figures issued at Ottawa for the first two months of the fiscal year, April and May, show that the fear expressed in certain quarters that there is a preponderance of Eastern European immigration into Canada, is without foundation. The statistics issued show that more people from Northern Europe and also from the United States, but decidedly less from other countries, are entering Canada; and that the increase in British immigration, compared with the corresponding period last year, was eleven per cent.

The decrease from Southern and Eastern Europe is attributed to the restriction applied to immigration from the area covered by the Railway Agreement, the companies acting therein as recruiting agents. It will be remembered that at the beginning of January, instructions were issued by the Canadian Department of Immigration that immigration covered by the Railway Agreement must be cut down to 30 per cent of the previous year. This reduction particularly affected single men, unaccompanied by families, many of whom secured entry as farm workers, but failed to remain on the farms. The new order was to be effective by the end of May and the new figures now issued by Ottawa shows that this objective has been exceeded by a reduction of forty-five per cent.