J. D. B. News Letter

The resolution adopted by the Protestant Committee of the Council of Public Instruction of the Province of Quebec to refuse Jewish representation on their board, has brought up once more the school question in this province. A great deal of discussion and litigation has followed the speech made by Peter Bercovitch, K.C., M.L.A., in which the well-known legal mind declared that he would fight for the rights of representation on the Board of the Council of Public Instruction, which he stated the Privy Council granted the Jews of Quebec. In an open letter to the Montreal “Daily Star,” Reverend Elson I. Rexford, member of the Protestant Board of School Commissioners of the Province of Quebec, stated that he can assure Mr. Bercovitch that he can count upon the cooperation of the members of the Protestant Committee in securing for the Jewish people the fullest enjoyment of the educational rights and privileges accorded to them under the existing legislation. He further added that the Privy Council states that only Protestants are eligible for appointment to the Protestant Committee, but that the personnel of the Committee is, however, subjected to the control of the Provincial Legislature. The Jew has the right of representation on the Council of Public Instruction of Quebec, but only Protestants can be appointed to the Protestant Board. Rev. Rexford wrote further that the Protestant Committee was opposed to Jewish representation because they believe that such a step would be the beginning of a disorganizing influence in the Protestant educational system of the province, and because they feel that they have no mandate from the Protestant population of the province to surrender sacred rights which Protestants have always enjoyed in the province of Quebec, for more than half #century.

The fundamental situation is as follows: as common schools do not exist in the province of Quebec, and are not likely to be adopted, two dominant religious sections in the province divide all the public schools between them, under a purely sectarian system, pre–serving its own lingual and religious culture. The Jews, however, who attend these schools hold an inferior position, as they are compelled to live in a sectarian atmosphere, and cannot demand an equal right to their own Judaistic religious and cultural teachings. In view of the decision that no Jew be allowed on the Protestant Board, the only solution to this problem is the creation of a separate Jewish school panel.

If Montreal’s Protestant-Jewish school question resolves itself into the creation of a separate Jewish panel, the financial angle would not prove to be hampering, stated Joseph Cohen, K.C., M.L.A., for the St. Lawrence division of Montreal, when it was suggested to him that separate schools would be unpopular with the Jews because of the necessary taxation. He continued that Montreal Jewry is already paying its full share of the cost of education in schools common to Jews and Protestants alike. The Montreal Protestant Board maintains that it costs $75 a year to educate a child in its schools. It does not cost so much for a Jewish child, for the Jews of whom there are some 10,000 attending school, are all in the congested areas and therefore highly centralized.