The timeline documents some of the key individuals, initiatives, and movements of newcomers that shaped JIAS' rich history since its inception. Each milestone story features a curated selection of archival materials – documents, photos, posters, audio and video clips etc. – to complement the narrative and help bring it to life. ;xNLx;;xNLx;We hope that viewers enjoy this interactive display, intended to engage and educate the public about the agency's significant contributions and role within the community and country. ;xNLx;;xNLx;Special thanks go out to the archival institutions that provided our team with reference support, advice, and the digital images. This includes the Alex Dworkin Canadian Jewish Archives in Montreal, the Ontario Jewish Archives Blankenstein Family Heritage Centre, and the Montreal Jewish Public Library and Archives. ;xNLx;;xNLx;;xNLx;We see you as our past.;xNLx;We see you as our future.;xNLx;Join us for the next 100 years.;xNLx;;xNLx;;xNLx;;xNLx;
The origins of JIAS trace back as a response to pogroms taking place in Russia and Ukraine. Tens of thousands of Jews were massacred, and family members in Canada were anxious to get their kin left in the old country out of harm's way.
JIAS proved its worth quickly during the early 1920s. The federal government was restricting immigration, with rules that ended up excluding Jews along with other races and religious groups. This resulted in an explosion of Jewish detention cases at Canadian ports. These immigrants were deemed ineligible based on the new legislation and slated for deportation.
JIAS was legally incorporated on August 30th, 1922. The first executive consisted of Louis Fitch (President), H.M. Caiserman (Gen. Secretary), Rabbi Hirsch Cohen (Treasurer), and ex-officio members and representatives from the Jewish Colonization Association, B.Goldstein and L. Lewis.
During the early 1920s, thousands of Ukrainian Jews left their country to flee pogroms, finding temporary refuge in Romania. The government there ordered them to leave, threatening them with forced expulsion to Soviet Russia if they didn’t comply. JIAS issued a plea to the Minister of Immigration to let them into Canada. Minister James A. Robb agreed to grant 5000 Jewish immigrants entry into the country at a rate of 100 a week. In return, JIAS promised to support them for a five-year period, ensuring they wouldn’t become public charges.
As difficult as it was for Jews to enter Canada during the 1920s, it was much worse during the Great Depression and throughout the war years.
During the War, a small number of Jews from German occupied countries escaped and travelled across Europe to the Iberian Peninsula. They were wrongly identified as enemy aliens and interred by the government. Once they were released, they reached out to the U.S. and Canadian consulates requesting sanctuary.
Following the Second World War, CJC and JIAS lobbied the federal government to provide Holocaust survivors and Jews in displacement camps with refuge in Canada.
After the arrival of over 25,000 Jews between 1948 to 1954, JIAS adapted and expanded its operations to accommodate the needs of the post-war Jewish refugees admitted into the country.
In 1953, the Department of Citizenship and Immigration initiated the Approved Church Program (ACP). It included JIAS and three other organizations: the Canadian Council of Churches (CCC), the Canadian Christian Council for the Resettlement of Refugees (CCCRR), and the Rural Settlement Society of Canada (RSSC).
During the mid-1950s, some North African countries experienced uprisings and antisemitic attacks against Jewish synagogues, shops and property. This led to an exodus of Jews from Morocco, and later Algeria and Tunisia.
