“When you stop to realize that out of a world population of nearly two billion, only 13,000,000 Jews have exercised so commanding an influence in world affairs, it is some indication that they are indeed the Chosen People.” Thus spoke the Hon. R. B. Bennett, Canada’s newly elected Conservative premier in an interview with Betty Ross, Jewish writer and novelist, as she interviewed him in his private train on the Canadian Pacific Imperial Limited en route to Banff.
Banff is the Premier’s home. Returning after seven long weeks of campaigning, at each station he was enthusiastically welcomed by throngs of people with contingents of Jewish supporters everywhere in evidence. The tall, well-knit Canadian prime minister was so weary from his numerous political activities that he did not permit even one secretary to journey with him.
He was accompanied only by his sister, Miss Mildred Bennett. Reporters and photographers were denied admittance to the private train but when the Premier was informed that an American representative of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency was present, he paid tribute to Canada’s Jewish citizens.
“When we hear how other countries are torn by anti-Semitic revolts and anti-Jewish strife, we, in Canada cannot understand it. We do not know what anti-Jewish feeling means. This is a country where people of all races ‘Jew or Gentile, Greek and barbarian, bound and free,’ are working together to develop our common country. We have no time to waste our energy in internecine strife,” Premier Bennett said.
The Canadian Premier pointed out that “we have only to turn to Leviticus to realize the wisdom of the old Jews. We are glad to have their spiritual heritage as one of the assets of our country. From time immemorial, the antiquity of this race has brought beauty and art to whatever land it graced.”
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.
