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.
After the Soviet Union crushed a democratic revolution in Hungary in 1956, there was an exodus of 200,000 Hungarians to the west in search of sanctuary.
A large wave of Indian Jews arrived in Canada between 1964 and 1980. Unlike earlier groups fleeing religious persecution, these immigrants came in search of socio-economic stability for themselves or their children. Many members of this group were highly educated professionals who spoke English and enjoyed a comfortable lifestyle in India.
With the influx of large numbers of new groups from Eastern Europe, North Africa, India, and other parts of the world, JIAS implemented significant changes during the 1960s and 1970s. New departments were established along with additional educational initiatives, clothing centres, and social programming to meet the needs of these diverse newcomers.
In 1968, Soviet troops invaded Czechoslovakia. Anti-Semitism became rife as the new leader, Gustav Husak, scapegoated Jews.
Following the Six-Day-War in 1967 between Israel and a coalition of Arab states, the treatment of Jews in nearby Arab countries drastically deteriorated.
The most sizeable influx of Jewish immigrants to enter the country from the 1970s to the 1990s was that of the Soviet Jews, who left their homeland to escape religious persecution confronting Jews at that time. During this period, Jews around the world engaged in protests and letter-writing campaigns to pressure the Soviet Union to free Jewish Refuseniks and prisoners of conscience. JIAS officials, Dr. Kage and Board member Michael Herling, visited Russia to investigate the possibility of Soviet Jewish immigration to Canada.
Canada welcomed a large wave of South African Jews from the late 1970s until the 1990s. While South African immigrants flowed into the country before that time, immigration peaked in 1977 after the Soweto uprising and massacre.
JIAS’ commitment to immigrants includes investing in their future. The Jack Shindman/ShaRna scholarship helps newcomers pay for university, professional certification, and upgrading of skills to better their employment prospects in Canada.
The early 1980s heralded an era of change after the retirement of three stalwart JIAS leaders, Dr. Joe Kage, Louis Poch, and Tobie Taback, who had been an integral part of the agency since the 1940s. This resulted in the emergence of a new crop of leaders, including Executive Director Perry Romberg, who orchestrated bold new changes to meet the challenges of the day.
Those of us around in the 1990s remember the Bosnian war, when ethnic nationalism led to the mass internment and slaughter of some 100,000 people. Most of the victims were Muslim, but Bosnia has had a Jewish population that dates back to the time of the Spanish Inquisition.
In 1994, Jews in Buenos Aires confronted a major antisemitic incident with the bombing of the Israeli embassy and the local Jewish community centre. Later that decade, Argentina experienced a severe economic crisis. This prompted many Jews to relocate to more politically and economically stable countries, including Canada.
In 2005, JIAS launched the Family-to-Family Matching Program, which was based on a program initiated for Soviet Jewish immigrants in the 1970s and 1980s.
Since the early 2000s, JIAS continues to offer new programs in support of its mandate and clients’ evolving needs. These programs include: B’Yachad (acting as a resource to Jewish Day Schools with newcomer students), Conversation Circles, JUMPStart (employment networking), Youth-to-Youth, and Ready-for School. For more details about these initiatives, please consult the agency’s recent annual reports.
In December of 2014, JIAS received status as a Sponsorship Agreement Holder (SAH) with Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada, enabling JIAS to partner with Canadian citizens to to come to Canada as permanent residents.
In recent years, JIAS has welcomed Jews immigrating to Canada from countries, including Israel, Turkey, Europe, Russia, South America, Mexico, and recently, Ukraine.
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