Anglo-Jewish Association - Oddfellows Chambers

1881 - 1882
270 Rue St-Antoine Ouest

The Anglo-Jewish Association was a Jewish community organization created in Montreal at the end of the 19th century to provide assistance to both Jews abroad and Jewish refugees arriving in Canada. Founded in 1881 as a branch of the Anglo-Jewish Association in London, its original membership comprised prominent figures in the community, including Clarence de Sola, as well as young Jews who were involved in philanthropic work and fully integrated into Montreal’s English-speaking social and business fabric. In their response to the needs of their less fortunate fellow Jews, this group of Montrealers reflected an attitude similar to that of certain families of Britain’s Jewish elite, such as the Montefiores and the Rothschilds.

In the 1880s, when the first Jewish refugees fleeing the pogroms in Eastern Europe arrived in Canada, the Association mobilized Montreal’s Jewish population to help the newcomers. As the community was not prepared to accommodate such a large number of refugees, its various organizations had to pool their resources. In 1882, the Anglo-Jewish Association joined the Young Men’s Hebrew Benevolent Society and the Ladies’ Hebrew Benevolent Society to create the Jewish Emigration Aid Society (JEAS). Together, these organizations coordinated aid for refugees to help them find work, housing, and medical assistance upon their arrival in Montreal. Relocation assistance to other parts of Canada and the United States was also provided.

Like the British organization on which it was based, the Anglo-Jewish Association practiced a form of paternalistic philanthropy. Indeed, it represented a Jewish equivalent to ethnic associations such as the St. Patrick’s and St. Andrew’s Societies in the English-speaking community and the Société St-Jean-Baptiste in the French-speaking community. For upper class Jews, participation in such philanthropic activities was a matter of pride, and also of acceptance and prestige in the Montreal society of the time.

Compiled by Valérie Beauchemin, translated by Helge Dascher

Links

Liens

Anglo-Jewish Association - Jewish Encyclopedia
Anglo-Jewish Association - Jewish Virtual Library
The Anglo-Jewish Association
Year Book of the Anglo-Jewish Association - Berman Jewish Policy Archive

Sources

Scheinberg, Stephen J. "From Self-Help to National Advocacy: The Emergence of Community Activism." From Immigration to Integration The Canadian Jewish Experience: A Millenium Edition. Toronto: Institute for International Affairs, B’nai Brith Canada, 2001.

Tulchinsky, Gerald. "Immigration and Charity in the Montreal Jewish Community Before 1890." Social History 16, No. 32 (1983): 359-380.

Tulchinsky, Gerald. Taking Roots: The Origins of the Canadian Jewish Community. Toronto: Éditions Lester Publishing Limited, 1992.

*Images courtesy of the Alex Dworkin Canadian Jewish Archives.

Media

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