About 10,000 Jews, almost all of them refugees from DP camps, came to Canada during 1948, it was reported here at the regional conference of the Canadian Jewish Congress.
Many of the immigrants arrived because of liberalized legislation regarding the admission of relatives of Canadian citizens, which the Canadian Jewish Congress asked for repeatedly for many years. Others arrived as industrial workers under schemes which the Congress assisted and encouraged. One thousand arrivals came as war orphans and are wards of the Canadian Jewish community.
The financial commitments involved–totaling $750,000–were met by the Congress. In addition to these expenditures, the C.J.C. purchased supplies in Canada to the extent of hundreds of thousands of dollars for shipment overseas, as part of the relief program organized by the Joint Distribution Committee. This was part of the $2,500,000 relief program of Canadian Jewry.
The conference also heard that “Quebec, which once might have been considered a hotbed of anti-Semitism, is now as free of anti-Semitism as any other section of Canada.” This report was submitted by S.D. Cohen, recently-appointed chairman of the joint public relations committee of the Canadian Jewish Congress and B’nai B’rith, who paid high tribute to the Roman Catholic and Protestant clergy in Quebec for fighting prejudice.
The all-day session also considered reports on education, stimulation of literary and youth activities, community organization, relief agencies, immigrant settlement and public relations.
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.
