Quebec Premier Robert Bouressa promised a delegation of the Canadian Jewish Congress yesterday that all questions regarding religion would soon be removed from tax forms. The Montreal Urban Council had begun to use the letter J on tax bills sent to Jewish taxpayers after a law that went into effect in Jan. abolished the old system of separate tax lists for Jews, Catholics and Protestants. The assessment bills of Catholics and Protestants are marked C and P in the “religious code” box.
Montreal area Jews, some of them concentration camp survivors, protested recently against the J on their tax forms which they said was reminiscent of the J the Nazis had forced Jews to wear. Murray Spiegel, chairman of the CJC’s Eastern Region, said after the meeting with Premier Bouressa that “This has been a source of great concern to Jewish people since it evoked memories of the 1939-45 period when Jews were forced to bear symbols indicating their religion.”
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
