Confronting the Jewish Rejection of Jewish Particularism: Chaim Zhitlowsky’s Anti-Assimilationist Intervention in the American Yiddish Press

This article examines Chaim Zhitlowsky’s (1865-1943) use of the “internal” Jewish space of the Yiddish press to critique the American melting pot and present his alternative “internationalist” model. He also attempted to raise the consciousness of immigrant Jews by analyzing the reasons for their failure to embrace what he defined as “progressive nationalism.” His application of Eastern European autonomist ideas to the American context offers a provocative critique of cosmopolitan tendencies in progressive politics, in Jewish circles and beyond.

1944: What Was Known? What Was Reported? What Was Done? What Could Have Been Done?

It is appropriate, thirty-six years after the publication of None Is Too Many, to reconsider 1944 from the perspective of Canadian Jewry. As Canadians, they were swept up in the war effort, at home and in combat. As Jews, they were frantic about the destruction of Jewish life. In consideration of the questions raised in the title of this paper, we present, somewhat in contrast to Abella and Troper, the following assessment. First, the organized Jewish community, in the context of Canadian ethno-cultural minorities, had a voice. Second that information about the Holocaust, while often inaccurate, was widely published, especially in the Yiddish press. Third, that despite Canada’s complete abdication of political will in providing opportunities for Jews to flee Europe and find a refuge in Canada, the reality of the war, the absence of historical precedent, and the impossibility of foreseeing the calamity, ensured that a comprehensive plan of meaningful rescue could not have been attempted, let alone considered.

1944: A Preview of Much of What Would Follow

This article focuses on the little-known arrival of the first group of Holocaust survivors in Canada in 1944. They arrived from Lisbon and came through the efforts of the Canadian Jewish Congress. Congress Executive Director Saul Hayes spearheaded this refugee project. The author argues that, while few in number, efforts to negotiate the entry of immigrants, and subsequent Jewish communal efforts to absorb immigrant populations in Toronto, and reactions to the immigrants, were to prove paradigmatic predictors of communal management and reaction to much larger Holocaust survivor influxes after the war. While the article focuses on immigrant absorption in Toronto, it also discusses broader issues associated with this movement and the role played by the Yiddish press in reporting refugee arrival.