SOCI 210 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Canadian Jewish News, Jewish Defense League, Chevra Kadisha
SOCI 227 – Jews in North America
Jewish Community – March 19th
Readings: Weinfeld chapter 6, 8, Anctil
Community is rooted in religion
• Idea of jewish community starts within the religion
• In order for Jews to pray, you had to have 10 Jewish men
• Judaism never had the idea of a solitary munk
Commandments in the bible
• Commanded to do these things
• This means you need a community organization to look after these people
Diaspora – Jews created a jewish burial society
• When migrating, they made certain every Jewish person who died had somewhere to go
• The diaspora experience led to community development
Institutional completeness – the community is institutionally complete
• Why are they so complete? From cradle to grave you will find jewish communal
organizations
• This can be found in other religions but largely in Judaism
• 2 explanations for this
o 1. Jewish culture
o 2. Anti-Semitism
▪ i.e. why is there a Jewish hospital in large cities? Anti-Semitism evident in
medical profession
Idea of a Jewish community
• Does NOT mean uniformity or unity
• Why do we have these organizations?
o The ouit is ot just a ouit, its POLITY, its like a STATE
▪ Political organizations running the community
o This is also evident in other communities, particularly Aboriginals in Canada
Organized community organizations
2 functions:
1. Relations to the external government
a. Foreign affairs
2. Internal function of governance
a. Domestic policies
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Why do they have this community?
• They have learned to live as a minority for over 2000 years, since the diaspora
Informal community
• Where you live, grocery store, friends, etc.
• In Jewish world – community is often forced
o Lived close to each other
o Mostly they chose to live in relative proximity to other Jews, not ONLY jews, but
other jews
o Movement from very concentrated areas to more spread out
o Now, there are neighborhoods and choice
• The most residentially concentrated group in Canada are the Jews
• Ongoing preference for some Jews for proximity
Ethnic/Jewish Polity
• Ray Breton – coined the term of institutional completeness
• From him, political scientist Daniel Elazar who went into the notions of polity
o Identified 5 spheres where Jewish polity played a role:
▪ 1. Religious congregational
▪ 2. Educational congregational
• YMHCA, Bronfman center, schools, etc.
• Jewish cultural institutions as well as schools
▪ 3. Community relations defense
• Organizations that defend Jews
• Ex. the ADL – mandate to fight against anti-Semitism
▪ 4. Communal welfare
• welfare organizations of the Jewish community
• Hebrew-free loan association in Montreal
• Jewish immigrant and aid societies
▪ 5. Israel-overseas
• organizations that relate to Israel and the Jewish world
• Jewish world is extremely institutionally complete
o E. tpe i Caada 411, jeish – tons of organizations
Jewish Polity
• Can be studied using approach of political science in the same way you could study the
Canadian state
• Same tools, same approaches
• How does it work?
o Its totally voluntary
o Nobody has to contribute a dime
• Historically If people didt like hat ou ere saig or doig, ou ould e
expedited of the Jewish community
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find more resources at oneclass.com
• Network Canadian Jewish News, covers the Jewish news and world in Canada, with a
variety of views, community newspaper, its own medium
• CAD Jewish Congress no longer exists
o Used to be called the Parliament of Canadian Jewry, due to their elections
system
o Lost power – all $ collected was for the federation
o They tried to have a wide net of people, except there were limits as to who could
be accepted in this net
▪ JDL – Jewish Defense League, 50-year-old organization, interested in
militant defense of Judaism and would sometimes engage in acts of
violence
• NOT part of Congress, it was excluded
▪ Those who rejected the right for Israel to exist
• Either left or ultra-orthodox groups, and were not accepted or
welcome in CAD Jewish Congress
▪ Outlined above are the boundaries of the Jewish community
Shift in Post-War Period
• Federations combined organizations, or organizations, they collect $ as in charity and
voluntary donations
o Power has shifted from national organizations to confederations
• Synagogues used to have a great deal of power, now seen as having less because they
are localistic
o The federations are more cosmopolitan and global – they acquired more power
this way, umbrella groups collecting funds and dispersing them to Jewish
communities
o Welfare, fun collecting operations
• Federations are umbrella groups that collect funds and disburse them to communal
agencies – a voluntary state – contributions are voluntary
o To fund all agencies – Jewish Polity can be seen as a voluntary state
o Contributions are voluntary
o This means philanthropy is key to understanding Jewish polity
▪ Without philanthropy, there would be NO jewish polity and a lot of these
institutions could not exist
▪ But there are fees – fee for service, Jewish schools, taxation, fees, etc.
▪ These services can parallel the state
• CAD provides recreation, education, culture, old age, healthcare,
etc.
• Jewish community can parallel these services
• Its like a state ithi a state
o Combination of subsidy and fee for service
▪ i.e. YMHA, synagogue, schools, etc.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Idea of jewish community starts within the religion. In order for jews to pray, you had to have 10 jewish men. Judaism never had the idea of a solitary munk. Commandments in the bible: commanded to do these things, this means you need a community organization to look after these people. Diaspora jews created a jewish burial society: when migrating, they made certain every jewish person who died had somewhere to go, the diaspora experience led to community development. From cradle to grave you will find jewish communal organizations: this can be found in other religions but largely in judaism, 2 explanations for this, 1. 2 functions: relations to the external government, foreign affairs, internal function of governance, domestic policies. Why do they have this community: they have learned to live as a minority for over 2000 years, since the diaspora. Informal community: where you live, grocery store, friends, etc.