Throughout the long history of your ancient race it has preserved its own characteristics with a continuity that is almost unique among the peoples of the world, Lord Bessborough, the Governor-General of Canada, said yesterday when he attended here the ceremony of ground-breaking for the first Jewish hospital in Montreal. Over two thousand people were present, and the Governor-General turned the first spadeful of sod. Mr. Alan Bronfman, co-chairman of the Jewish Hospital campaign which raised 1,600,000 dollars two years ago, greeted Lord Bessborough in the name of the Jewish Community.
Among these characteristics, Lord Bessborough continued his speech, there is one that has always earned the admiration of your friends and foes alike. It is your magnificent loyalty to your own kindred. In times of prosperity or adversity, in face of misfortune, exile and persecution, nothing has ever shaken the ties that unite one member of Jewry to another. Nor has this loyalty manifested itself only in sentiment. It has always taken, when the need arises, very practical shape. The generosity of the richer members of your race in furthering projects for the benefit of those less fortunate is well known throughout the world.
From my own personal experience in the city of London, he said, I can recall many instances of this generosity when my admiration has been stirred by the unfailing and often unrecorded response made by the Jewish business men to appeals on behalf of the poorer sections of the Jewish community.
The site on which we stand today is destined to carry one more example of that generous spirit. On it we shall soon see a monument to the practical spirit of the Jewish community in Montreal for its sick and suffering fellows, a refuge from pain and sickness created for them by their own people who have not hesitated to give and give generously that this project might be realized. I am honoured in being thus associated with you in breaking the earth on which this great hospital is to be erected. I express my sincere hope that with God’s blessing it may long fulfil the errand of mercy for which it is destined.
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.
