recollections with the JPL
A JPL Podcast Production
A gathering of recollections, regarding our collections.
May 2024 marks the 110th anniversary of the Jewish Public Library. Our opening season is a celebration of our Jewish Leftist roots in Montreal. In this podcast, we weave together interviews with scholars, activists, teachers, and fellow archivists that discuss topics such as Jewish immigration to Canada, Jewish languages and culture, labour and feminist movements in the 20th century, and the diversity of political ideologies that existed within the 'left'.
Episode 1
Upon Arrival
May 1, 2024
How well do you know the origins of Jews in Montreal? Episode 1 takes us through The Great Migration, the garment industry, and the humble beginnings of the Jewish Public Library.
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All music courtesy of artist Danijel Zambo and #Uppbeat (free for creators!).
Change (main theme): License code: TZJAN4RPBBM7ECYB
Raindrops: License code: MXUIVYBHUTWOI70X
Traveller: License code: RX894SAYKG0445KJ
Homeward: License code: OJJ0ZXTTZ9QT89IY
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December Sun: License code: MMVILHS4NRKKJX7T
Perspectives: License code: Q698V30C3ENWLPTR
All sound effects courtesy of Pixabay
E01 Crowded market
E01 Sewing machine factory
E01 Factory ambient
E01 Crowd
E01 Street Ambience
E01 Pea Point, New Brunswick
E01 Cruise Ship Horn
E01 Children playing
E01 Pigeons cooing
Episode 2
Hereness
May 17, 2024
We're continuing on our journey to discover the roots of the Jewish Left in Montreal. Episode 2 takes us through the cultural impact of Yiddish, the role of reading circles, and the diversity of the Left's envisioned future for the Jewish People.
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All music courtesy of artist Danijel Zambo and #Uppbeat (free for creators!).
Change (main theme): License code: TZJAN4RPBBM7ECYB
Perspectives: License code: Q698V30C3ENWLPTR
Traveller: License code: RX894SAYKG0445KJ
Caring: License code: FTGUHBBJDVQVKXJU
Silhouette: License code: 25JHBWVO4MMOTLEW
Homeward: License code: OJJ0ZXTTZ9QT89IY
December Sun: License code: MMVILHS4NRKKJX7T
All sound effects courtesy of JPL-A and the Yiddish Book Center’s Frances Brandt Online Yiddish Audio Library
E02 Jewish Folk Songs - Record from Soviet Russia , date unknown.
E02 To the Hammer, poem by Avrom Reyzen (1875–1953), music by Abraham M. Bernstein (1865–1932)
E02 Abraham Sutzkever Reception , April 11, 1959.
E02* Papa was a rollin’ stone, written by Norman Whitfield (1940–2008) and Barrett Strong (1941–2023) and performed by Motown act The Undisputed Truth, 1972
Episode 3
Labour of Love
June 11, 2024
Labour Organizing, Unions, and Activism: Episode 3 highlights the impact language, culture, and Jewish identity had on Montreal's progressive labour history with a special focus on famed organizer Lea Roback.
Listen Now!
All music courtesy of artist Danijel Zambo and #Uppbeat (free for creators!).
Change (main theme): License code: TZJAN4RPBBM7ECYB
Traveller: License code: RX894SAYKG0445KJ
Silhouette: License code: 25JHBWVO4MMOTLEW
Dreamin’ : License code: E4ZRJ8BJXILFB1XS
Homeward: License code: OJJ0ZXTTZ9QT89IY
Pasture: License code: ZHMJ5RA6TRBZRDQR
December Sun: License code: MMVILHS4NRKKJX7T
Raindrops: License code: MXUIVYBHUTWOI70X
Perspectives: License code: Q698V30C3ENWLPTR
All sound effects courtesy of JPL-A
Interview with Lea Roback conducted by Eiran Harris, August 4, 1996, ID: 1243-00306
Episode 4
A Red Cover
August 5, 2024
Secrets, Spies, and Soviets: Episode 4 focuses on a pivotal time in world history, from the 1930s to the 1960s, which encompasses the struggles of the Second World War and the resulting political turmoil of the Cold War.
Listen Now!
All music courtesy of artist Danijel Zambo and #Uppbeat (free for creators!).
Change (main theme): License code: TZJAN4RPBBM7ECYB
Silhouette: License code: 25JHBWVO4MMOTLEW
Raindrops: License code: MXUIVYBHUTWOI70X
Homeward: License code: OJJ0ZXTTZ9QT89IY
Pasture: License code: ZHMJ5RA6TRBZRDQR
Perspectives: License code: Q698V30C3ENWLPTR
December Sun: License code: MMVILHS4NRKKJX7T
Caring: License code: FTGUHBBJDVQVKXJU
Traveller: License code: RX894SAYKG0445KJ
Dreamin’ : License code: E4ZRJ8BJXILFB1XS
All sound effects courtesy of Pixabay
E04 Protesting Crowd, Climate Strike, Guildford, 01-01
E04 Gavel of Justice
E04* Julius and Ethel, written and performed by Bob Dylan (1941-), 1983
E04* Opening speech by Solomon Mikhoels for the Soviet Jewish Antifascist Committee in Moscow, August 24, 1941
Speaker Bios
Pierre Anctil is a full professor in the department of history of the University of Ottawa, where he teaches contemporary Canadian history. He has obtained a Ph. D. in Social anthropology from the New School for Social Research in New York. His main fields of interest are the history of immigration in Québec and in Canada, and Jewish culture in Montreal.
Sam Bick is a first year PhD student in the History department at York University. He graduated from City University of New York in 2013 with an MA in Labor studies. Between 2015-2020, Sam hosted and produced the Treyf Podcast at CKUT 90.3 FM in Montreal.
Moishe Dolman has been a Yiddish teacher for the past decade, and translator for two decades. Born and raised in Montreal, he has been active in left-wing and anti-authoritarian causes for close to half a century.
Shannon has 15 years of archival management and outreach experience in both public and private sectors. Prior to joining Carleton University as Corporate Archivist, Shannon was the Director of the Jewish Public Library Archives of Montreal for 13 years.
Dr. Aaron Krishtalka was born in wartime Montreal and grew up in a literary, book and tradition-loving family—emigrants from southeastern Poland and Volynia, who spoke and sang, wrote, argued, and published in, taught, loved, and spread Yiddish.
Melanie Leavitt has worked on a variety of public history projects exploring labour and women's history. Since 2017, she has been a Board Member of Mile End Memories. She is kin to Léa Roback.
Eddie Paul has overseen collections development, cataloguing, and reference services at the JPL for over 30 years, and has developed education outreach programming including the Michael D. Paul Rare Books Initiative.
Ester Reiter is an American-Canadian historian and sociologist. She is a professor emerita in the School of Gender, Sexuality and Women's Studies, York University.
recollections with the JPL is a production of Jewish Public Library Archives and Special Collections. Additional production, editing, and operations by Ellen Belshaw and Ezell Carter. Research support from Leah Graham, Sam Pappas, and Eddie Paul. Thank you to our sponsors, The Azrieli Foundation and Federation CJA.
recollections with the JPL is a production of Jewish Public Library Archives and Special Collections. Additional production, editing, and operations by Ellen Belshaw and Ezell Carter. Research support from Leah Graham, Sam Pappas, and Eddie Paul. Mastering by Josh Boguski and Ezell Carter. Thank you to our sponsors, The Azrieli Foundation and Federation CJA.
Timeline
1880
First reading circle established in the Pale of Settlement
Jewish intelligentsia and workers in the Odessa begin meeting to discuss socialist ideas aimed at political education. These reading circles quickly spread across the Pale of Settlement and thanks to immigration from the region, begin in North America as well.
October 10, 1880
The Montefiore Club is formed in Montreal
The Montefiore Social and Dramatic Club is formed by young men from established Jewish families. By the early 1900s, it is an important social centre and leader for Montreal Jewry. Members establish organizations to build a stronger community, such as the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies, the Baron de Hirsch Institute, Mount Sinai Sanatorium, and the Young Men's Hebrew Association.
1897
Founding of Jewish Labor Bund
The Jewish Labour Bund (often simply 'the Bund') is established as a secular, anti-Zionist Jewish socialist party in the Russian Empire.
1897
First Zionist Congress is held in Basel, Switzerland
While Zionist ideals had long existed, the birth of modern political Zionism is credited to Theodor Herzl (1860-1904) the year he convened the First Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland and was elected president of the Zionist Organization.
![L'Organisation/The Organizer, January 1, 1937, a bilingual publication created by the Montreal Joint Council of the ILGWU. ID: 1266_[1]_1](https://api.jewishpubliclibrary.org/uploads/ilgwu_poster_19f7731d16.jpg)
1900
The ILGWU founded
The International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) is founded in New York. It was at one time the largest labour union in North America. Throughout nearly a century of organizing, they improved workers benefits and conditions, fought for comprehensive fire safety in the workplace, established unemployment insurance funds, as well as created educational programming and health centres for members and their families.
1902
Harry Hershman arrives in Canada
Hirsch (Harry) Hershman (1876-1955) comes to Montreal from Romania. He soon co-founds the Arbeter Ring and opens a small library in his home (a precursor of the Jewish Public Library). Hershman was active in building the first Peretz School, and was instrumental in bringing orphans to Canada from the pogroms in the Ukraine. Hershman wrote poetry, was a pioneer of the Yiddish press, and published in literary journals.
1903
Quebec passes the Education Act
Jews, as the largest non-Christian community, are designated "honorary Protestants" with privileges to attend English Protestant schools but without full rights. The British North America Act of 1867 only guaranteed confessional school board systems for French-speaking Catholic and English-speaking Protestant communities. Jews were refused the right to be school commissioners, Jewish students were required to attend Christian religious classes, and Jewish teachers or administrators were not hired.
1905
The Arbeter Ring establishes a Quebec chapter
The Arbeter Ring (Worker's Circle) establishes a chapter in Montreal. It was an irretrievable part of the radical labour movement, providing education, enlightenment, health benefits, open forums, a library, clubs and cemetery plots for its members. They operated a soup kitchen during the Depression, organizing the Action Committee for Soviet Jewry in the late-1980s and early 1990s to aid immigration, and supported the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation and political candidates such as A.M. Klein, David Lewis and Kalman Kaplansky.
1907
Der Keneder Adler daily Jewish newspaper is founded
Montreal's Keneder Adler (The Canadian Eagle) was founded by Zvi Hirsch (Harry) Wolofsky. For the following 80 years the Keneder Adler was the major expression of Yiddish journalism in the world by advocating high standards, mobilizing excellent journalists and promoting the establishment of a network of model Jewish institutions and schools in Canada.
March 25, 1911
The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire
A factory fire in Greenwich Village, Manhattan takes the lives of 146 garment workers, predominantly young women of Italian and Jewish heritage. It was the deadliest industrial disaster in the city of New York, and was a catalyst for labour rights organizing and the implementation of fire safety standards in North America.
February 28, 1913
Aberdeen School Strike
When a Protestant teacher at Montreal's Aberdeen school makes disparaging remarks about her Jewish pupils, five students called a strike. Hundreds of Jewish children congregated and appointed strike leaders, established a negotiating committee, and resolved not to return to class until the teacher apologized. Some of them marched to the Baron de Hirsch Institute and the office of the Keneder Adler to demand that action be taken. The situation bold-faced the nascent antisemitism within Anglo-Jewish Montreal and was used as grounds for the creation of Jewish schools separate from the Anglophone Protestant system.
May 1, 1914
Official Opening of the Jewish Public Library
The Jewish Public Library opened its doors on St. Urbain Street with a small collection of 500 books. It quickly becomes a meeting place for literary and cultural exchange and a centre for continuing education.
![Dr. Bernard Illievitz WWI conscription portrait, 1919. ID: 1125_[16]_2](https://api.jewishpubliclibrary.org/uploads/1125_16_2_d30c05e12f.jpg)
July 28, 1914
Beginning of World War I
Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia. Within a week, Russia, Belgium, France, Great Britain and Serbia had lined up against Austria-Hungary and Germany, and World War I begins.
1917
Two Russian Revolutions and Civil War
In late winter, a workers strike leads to a general strike, which results in the Duma forming a provisional government and Tsar Nicholas II (1868-1918) abdicating the throne. In the fall, a second revolution takes place which results in Vladimir Lenin (1870-1924) and the Bolsheviks gaining power. A civil war breaks out between the Red Army (Lenin's Bolsheviks) and White Army (monarchists, capitalists and supporters of democratic socialism).
![Promotional poster for Emma Goldman's lecture on "Two Communisms: Bolshevism and Anarchism, A Parallel", 1934. ID: 1099_[58]_1](https://api.jewishpubliclibrary.org/uploads/1099_00058_1_7ab32783e5.jpg)
November 11, 1918
End of World War I
Germany and the Allies reach an armistice, marking the end of four years of horrific fighting and the loss of millions of lives.
May 15 - June 25, 1919
Winnipeg General Strike
More than 30,000 workers walk off the job, constituting the largest strike in Canadian history. Factories, shops, transit and city services shut down. The strike results in arrests, injuries and the deaths of two protestors. It did not immediately succeed in empowering workers and improving job conditions, but did help unite the working class in Canada. Some of its participants helped establish what is now the New Democratic Party.
![Trilingual (French, English and Yiddish) May Day Poster, 1943, ID: 1099_[058]_17](https://api.jewishpubliclibrary.org/uploads/1099_058_17_522a8f63ab.png)
1919
The Jewish Immigrant Aid Society is Established
In anticipation of renewed Jewish immigration after the war, The Canadian Jewish Congress establishes Jewish Immigrant Aid Society (JIAS). JIAS' mandate was to lobby the government on behalf of potential Jewish immigration. It acted on a national scale to facilitate the legal entry of Jews to Canada and then to help them adapt and integrate into their new home.
1921
Founding of the Communist Party of Canada
The CPC is founded under conditions of illegality by labour organizers and anti-war activists. Their goal was to improve living standards and labour rights of working people. They have operated under different names during the years that they were illegal, such as the Workers Party of Canada and the Labour-Progressive Party.
1922
Der Freiheit Communist Newspaper Established
Der Freiheit Yiddish newspaper is established as a communist publication promoting the Jewish labor movement, the defense of the Soviet Union, the advancement of proletarian culture, and the defeat of racism in America.
1923
Russian Civil War Ends
Vladimir Lenin's (1870-1924) Red Army claim victory in the civil war, and the Soviet Union is formed.
!["The Truth About the Jews of Russia" by Reuben Brainin in 1926, reprinted in the Jewish Times, date unknown. ID: 1001_[2]](https://api.jewishpubliclibrary.org/uploads/1001_20_26e4cd160c.jpg)
1923
Camp Kinderland Founded
Camp Kinderland is established by Jewish union activists in New York to provide a summer escape from the city for working class families. The founders of Kinderland believed that Jewish culture includes a responsibility to social justice. The camp program continues to focus on the labor movement and other progressive causes.
1929
Lea Roback Joins the Communist Party
Lea Roback (1903-2000), trailblazing feminist, activist and union organizer, joins the Communist Party while studying in Berlin.
1934
Emma Goldman Speaks in Montreal
Emma Goldman (1869-1940), anarchist revolutionary, political activist, and writer, speaks on the topic of "Two Communisms: Bolshevism and Anarchism, A Parallel" in Montreal. She was a trusted source in Montreal's Jewish communities for her expertise on the rise of fascism in Europe and the situation in the Soviet Union.
1935
Opening of the Modern Bookshop
Lea Roback (1903-2000) begins managing the Modern Bookshop on Bleury Street in Montreal. The Modern Bookshop became a hub for those interested in left-wing ideologies. Roback remembers the constant persecution by police faced by the Bookshop.
![We Remember: A Bulletin dedicated to the Jewish volunteers in concentration camps in France", Published by the Committee of the Friends of the Botwin Battalion, Summer 1939. ID: 1099_[65]](https://api.jewishpubliclibrary.org/uploads/1322_1_020_5b11f8c885.jpg)
1936
The Spanish Civil War Begins
A military conflict between Republicans and Nationalists erupts in Spain. More than 1,500 Canadian volunteers join the cause on the Republican side. Beloved Canadian surgeon, advocate for socialized medicine and member of the CPC, Norman Bethune (1890-1939), is among them, offering his medical services. The Spanish Civil War ends when the Nationalist leader, Francisco Franco, enters the capital on April 1st 1939.
1936
Maurice Duplessis is elected as Quebec's Premier, marking the beginning of the 'Grande Noirceur'
Maurice Duplessis (1890-1959) is elected premier of Quebec. He holds office until 1939, and again from 1944 to 1956. While campaigning in 1944, he leans on xenophobia, including a false antisemitic conspiracy theory which claimed that the liberal government had made a deal with an "International Zionist Brotherhood" to settle Holocaust survivors in exchange for campaign contributions. The period of his time in office is often called the 'Grande Noirceur' because of the corruption and regression of this period.
![Playbill for the screening of "Des Lumieres dans la Grande Noirceur", Quebec, 1991. ID 1243[3]_1](https://api.jewishpubliclibrary.org/uploads/1243_3_11_72d06200dd.jpg)
![The Story of the Padlock Law by Thomas C. Roberts, c.1950s. ID: 1354_[1]_001](https://api.jewishpubliclibrary.org/uploads/1354_1_001_abefefadcb.png)
1937
The Padlock Law Takes Effect
The Act Respecting Communistic Propaganda, or the 'Padlock Law' as it was known colloquially, was a Quebec statute brought forth by premier Maurice Duplessis (1890-1959), which empowered the attorney general to close, for one year, any building used for propagating "communism or bolshevism" (undefined). Further, the Act empowered the attorney general to confiscate and destroy any printed matter propagating communism or bolshevism. Anyone printing, publishing or distributing such material could be imprisoned for up to a year, without appeal. The lack of definition of "communism or bolshevism" meant this law could be interpreted by police and was exploited.
1937
THE DRESSMAKERS OR MIDINETTE STRIKE
The ILGWU carried out a successful strike. In three weeks, Rose Pesotta, Lea Roback, and Yvette Charpentier, among others, rallied a primarily female French-Canadian workforce of more than 5,000 into a successful strike and cooperation of Jewish and French-Canadian workers in union setting. Lea Roback's ability to communicate fluently in Yiddish, English and French, and her ability to relate to people from French-Canadian and immigrant communities, is recognized as being a major reason for the strike's success.
SEPTEMBER 1, 1939
SECOND WORLD WAR BEGINS
Germany invades Poland, marking the beginning of the Second World War. Great Britain and France respond by declaring war on Germany two days later.
1943
FRED ROSE ELECTED AS MP OF MONTREAL'S CARTIER RIDING
Fred Rose (1907-1983) wins a by-election in the Cartier riding of Montreal to become the first (and in 2024, still the only) Communist Party MP elected to federal parliament in Canada.
![Yiddish and English Fred Rose re-election campaign booklet 1945, ID: 1448_[3]_1](https://api.jewishpubliclibrary.org/uploads/1448_003_1_d68bed4ebd.jpg)
!["Look at their Faces" article on the Warsaw Ghetto, The Montreal Star, November 27, 1954. ID: 1099_[65]](https://api.jewishpubliclibrary.org/uploads/1322_1_021_357301519c.jpg)
APRIL-MAY 1943
WARSAW GHETTO UPRISING
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising[a] was the 1943 act of Jewish resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto in German-occupied Poland during World War II to oppose Nazi Germany's final effort to transport the remaining ghetto population to the gas chambers of the Majdanek and Treblinka extermination camps. The uprising started on 19 April when the ghetto refused to surrender to the police commander SS-Brigadeführer Jürgen Stroop, who ordered the destruction of the ghetto, block by block, ending on 16 May. A total of 13,000 Jews were killed, about half of them burnt alive or suffocated.
SEPTEMBER 1943
JEWISH DELEGATES FROM THE U.S.S.R. TOUR NORTH AMERICA
Soviet Delegates to the United States and Canada and members of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee of the Soviet Republics, Solomon Mikhoels and Itzik Feffer, are dispatched to North America to bolster support for the Soviet war effort against Nazi Germany. However, the masses Mikhoels and Feffer encounter are starting to question whether Stalin has the best interest of Jews in mind, and it is clear that Jews in North America and outside the Soviet Union have a vastly different notion and understanding of what the Communist party stands for. The trip is perceived by some as the decisive point in the dismantling of Jewish progressive support of Soviet Communism. Both men had a front row seat to the atrocities committed by Stalin, and Mikhoels, in particular, refused to be affiliated with the Communist Party--a decision which would later cost him his life. He was assassinated on Stalin's orders in 1948, and Feffer died during the Night of the Murdered Poets in 1952.
![Promotional piece for Solomon Michoels and Itzik Feffer's visit to Montreal as part of the Soviet Delegation Tour to strenghen ties between North America and the U.S.S.R. The mass rally in New York boasted 47,000 attendees. September, 1943. ID: 1300_[1]_19](https://api.jewishpubliclibrary.org/uploads/1300_1_33_1_87d9fbcef3.jpg)
1944
FORMATION OF THE UNITED JEWISH PEOPLE'S ORDER
The Jewish Labour League Mutual Benefit Society and the Canadian Workers Circle merge to form the United Jewish People's Order. The UJPO is a secular socialist Jewish cultural, political and educational fraternal organization in Canada. At its peak in the 1940s and 1950s the UJPO had more than 2,500 members across Canada. In Montreal, the Order's headquarters were at the Morris Winchevsky Cultural Centre on avenue de l'Esplanade.
MAY 7, 1945
SECOND WORLD WAR ENDS
In May, The German Third Reich surrenders after being conquered by the Soviet Union on the East and the Allied forces on the West. In September, Japan surrenders following the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, marking the end of the Second World War.
SEPTEMBER 1945
IGOR GOUZENKO CLAIMS EVIDENCE OF A SOVIET SPY RING IN CANADA
Igor Gouzenko (1919-1982) claims to have evidence of a Soviet spy ring in Canada and the United States, and names Fred Rose as one of the accused.
FEBRUARY 1946
FRED ROSE IMPRISONED ON SPY ALLEGATIONS
Fred Rose (1907-1983) is imprisoned for allegedly leading a ring of up to 20 Soviet spies. In January 1947 he was formally expelled from the House of Commons, and remained in jail until 1951.
![Fred Rose's campaign office with a smashed window, circa. 1935. ID: 1243_6_[6]_PR014410](https://api.jewishpubliclibrary.org/uploads/pr014410_618868a162.jpg)
MARCH 12, 1947
START OF COLD WAR
The Cold War began with the announcement of the Truman Doctrine in 1947, an American foreign policy that pledged American "support for democracies against authoritarian threats." The Cold War started a gradual winding down with the Sino-Soviet split between the Soviets and the People's Republic of China in 1961, and ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
MAY 14, 1948
THE STATE OF ISRAEL ESTABLISHED IN PALESTINE
The establishment of the State of Israel is proclaimed by David Ben-Gurion. U.S. President Harry S. Truman recognized the new nation on the same day.
![Photograph of Itzik Feffer and Solomon Michoels seated beside Paul Robeson at the Soviet consulate, 1943. ID: 1300_[1]_15](https://api.jewishpubliclibrary.org/uploads/1300_1_15_1_7c369f3928.jpg)
AUGUST 1949
PAUL ROBESON PERFORMS AT CAMP KINDERLAND IN UPSTATE NEW YORK
Jewish communities continued to embrace Paul Robeson despite his being blacklisted for his anti-colonial, pro-communist, anti-racist political views. In August 1949 he was scheduled to perform at the communist-affiliated Yiddish summer camp, camp Kinderland. It was a peaceful, joyous event, unlike what transpired for his scheduled performance later that month, which is known as the Peekskill Riots.
JANUARY 27, 1950
WINCHEVSKY CENTRE IS PADLOCKED
The Morris Winchevsky School and headquarters of UJPO is raided, padlocked, and has documents confiscated by police under order of the provincial Padlock Law.
1951
INTERNATIONAL WORKERS UNION IS LIQUIDATED BY NEW YORK STATE
The International Workers Union (IWO) was an insurance, mutual benefit and fraternal organization founded in 1930 and disbanded in 1954. At its height in the late 1940s, the IWO reached nearly 200,000 members and provided low-cost health and life insurance, medical and dental clinics, and supported foreign-language newspapers, cultural and educational activities. The IWO was forced to disband as the result of legal action undertaken by the state of New York in 1951 on the grounds that the organization was too closely linked to the Communist Party.
AUGUST 12, 1952
NIGHT OF THE MURDERED POETS
Thirteen Soviet Jews, including notable Yiddish poets and members of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, are executed on false accusations of espionage and treason, among other crimes. This incident is now referred to as the Night of the Murdered Poets.
![Pamphlet for Solomon Michoels and Itzik Feffer's visit to Montreal as part of the Soviet Delegation Tour September 6-7, 1943. ID: 1300_[1]_13](https://api.jewishpubliclibrary.org/uploads/1300_1_13_e426b1f415.jpg)
![Page 82 of scrapbook, featuring two photographs of Solomon Michaels and Itzik Feffer with dinner guests at Bucharest House., September 1956. ID: 1300_[1]_82](https://api.jewishpubliclibrary.org/uploads/1300_1_82_1_ed3005113c.jpg)
MARCH 3, 1953
DEATH OF JOSEPH STALIN
The death of Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) brings an end to his long tenure as leader of the Soviet Union. Many Jews in diasporic communities had initially admired Soviet Russia's ideals of Jewish tolerance and acceptance during Stalin's early leadership. After his death, the truth of his actions—including news of assassinations and the Night of the Murdered Poets—caused shock and rifts within communities, and led to a broader acknowledgment of the reality of antisemitism under Stalin's regime.
JUNE 19, 1953
EXECUTION OF THE ROSENBERGS
American Jewish couple Julius (1918-1953) and Ethel (1915-1953) Rosenberg are executed following a conviction of espionage for the U.S.S.R., the first civilians in the United States to be executed during peacetime. Protests took place internationally to try to stop their executions. Many still maintain that the Rosenbergs were innocent and that they were victims of Cold War paranoia.
!["Save the Rosenbergs!" Yiddish and English flyer for a public mass meeting on November 30, 1952, ID: 1354_[10]_1](https://api.jewishpubliclibrary.org/uploads/image_b5cf498411.jpg)
1956
UJPO BREAKS FROM THE LABOUR PROGRESSIVE PARTY
The UJPO breaks from relations with the Labour Progressive Party (Canada's Communist party) after J.B. Salsberg returns from a trip to the Soviet Union with reports on the abuse of Jews and suppression of Jewish culture. By 1959 thousands of members left the group feeling that UJPO was not vocal enough in their critique of the U.S.S.R.
1957
FRED ROSE'S CITIZENSHIP IS REVOKED
Fred Rose (1907-1983) has his citizenship revoked while in Poland. The "Fred Rose amendment" was added to Canada's Citizenship act in 1958 to ensure that revoked citizenships could never happen again.
![Proceedings of the Special Committee on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms at the Senate of Canada, May 9, 1950, featuring Mr. Morris Biderman of the United Jewish People's Order. ID: 1354_[2]](https://api.jewishpubliclibrary.org/uploads/1354_2_6d12fd997d.png)
1957
THE PADLOCK LAW DEEMED UNCONSTITUTIONAL
After 30 years and much campaigning by members of Quebec's Jewish communities, the Supreme Court of Canada declares the Padlock Law unconstitutional, an invasion of the federal field of criminal law.
1960
QUEBEC PROVINCIAL ELECTIONS MARK THE BEGINNING OF THE QUIET REVOLUTION
Liberal Jean Lesage is elected premier of Quebec, ending the 'Grande Noirceur'. This sparks a time of rapid change and wide-ranging social and economic reform. In the first two years, the Lesage administration carried out and plans many reforms: amongst others, the establishment of a public hospital network, the creation of ministries of cultural affairs and of federal-provincial relations, and the foundation of the Société générale de financement (General Investment Corporation).
!["Notre Place dans e futur code civil par la Comité des femmes du S.P.G.Q", write-up in Le Ballet de la condition feminine, 1981. ID: 1243_[15]](https://api.jewishpubliclibrary.org/uploads/1243_15_2f0f78c882.jpg)
