Jewish School Issue Fails in Quebec Elections; Two Jewish Candidates Win

(Jewish Daily Bulletin)

The Liberal Party, headed by Hon. L. A. Taschereau, was returned to the Quebec Legislature, carrying along with it two Jewish members, both of Montreal. The Liberals gained seventy-six out of eighty-six seats in the province. Peter Bercovitch, K. C., St. Louis Ward, and Joseph Cohen, K. C., St. Lawrence Ward, are the two Jewish members elected.

The issue of separate Jewish schools in the province was fought out in the election.

Louis Fitch, K. C., Conservative candidate, opposing Bercovitch’s reelection on the ground that Bercovitch did not represent the Jewish interests in the school question, lost by 463 votes.

Fitch made the issue of his campaign the demand of separate Jewish schools. The question was brought up two years ago when Montreal Jewish taxpayers claimed representation on the Protestant Board of School Commissioners and no discrimination against employing Jewish teachers in Protestant schools. At the same time the question of the legality of establishing separate Jewish schools was taken up.

The School Act of 1903 which gave right to Jewish children to attend the Protestant schools in the province was declared unconstitutional by the Montreal Protestant Board of School Commissioners. The case came up before the King’s Bench. The Supreme Court allowed the School Act constitutional but declared it gave the Jews no right to representation on the Board. This was appealed against. The case comes up before the Privy Council in London in July.

The defeat of Fitch will not affect the bringing up of the question in July, although disappointment is felt by Jewish voters favoring the separate Jewish schools.

The case will also decide the legality of the other communities to establish separate schools for non-Catholics and non-Protestants.