Founding and early history for the
Canadian Armed Forces in World War II, published by the Canadian Jewish Congress The immediate predecessor to the CJC was formed in 1915 by the Montreal chapter of
Poalei Zion, a
working class Labour Zionist organization. They were soon joined by thirteen other organizations, mostly other chapters of Poalei Zion and the
Arbeiter Ring, in forming the Canadian Jewish Alliance. The organization, composed of elected officials, set out to represent all of Canadian Jewry on its major political, national and international affairs. It also aimed to respond to problems arising from the
First World War, specifically the
oppression of Jews overseas, the immigration of
Jewish refugees, and Britain's
promises to create a
Jewish state. In 1919, over 25,000 Jews from across Canada voted for delegates to the first convention of the CJC held in
Montreal that March. Groups including the
Canadian Federation of Zionist Societies,
Poalei Zion,
Mizrachi, and the
Arbeiter Ring were present at the convention. While there, they were addressed by the
Solicitor General of Canada, and were entertained at
Montreal City Hall, where a large
Zionist flag was draped over the Mayor's chair. The main decision at that meeting was the founding of the Jewish Immigrant Aid Society to assist Jewish settlers and refugees in Canada. They also passed motions expressing the Jewish community's loyalty to Canada and others declaring their support for the
Balfour Declaration. The convention elected
Lyon Cohen, former President of the Montreal Clothing Manufacturers Union, as their President. Despite this auspicious start, the CJC fell into abeyance and was inactive until 1934, due to lack of leadership and funding. With the rise in
antisemitism and restricted immigration policies in the 1930s, the CJC re-convened in 1934 and held the Congress' second plenum in
Toronto in January. Cohen's friend and close colleague,
Samuel William Jacobs, a prominent Jewish leader and
Member of Parliament, became the revived Congress' first president. In 1938, the Canadian Jewish Congress partnered with
B'nai Brith Canada to create the Joint Public Relations Committee, with the goal of developing a strategy to combat discrimination and find allies within other
minority groups.
Post–World War II The CJC was active before and during
World War II in lobbying the government (with limited success) to open the borders to Jewish refugees fleeing Europe. After the war, over 1,100
child Holocaust survivors immigrated to Canada in the War Orphans Project, a refugee resettlement program administered by the CJC. The CJC also organized relief aid for
Holocaust survivors who were being detained in
Displaced Persons camps. Along with the efforts of Senator
Arthur Roebuck and Rabbi
Avraham Aharon Price, the CJC helped obtain the release of young, Jewish refugees from internment camps, bringing them to study in Toronto. The Congress' dominant figure from 1939 to 1962 was its president,
Samuel Bronfman who was elected president following Jacobs' death in 1938. During the
Cold War at Bronfman's urging, the CJC expelled the
United Jewish People's Order and other
communist Jewish organizations in 1951. At the time, the UJPO was one of the largest Jewish fraternal organizations in Canada. It would not be readmitted to the CJC until 1995. In 1967, the CJC gifted approximately 7,000 volumes of rare
Judaica to the
National Library on behalf of the Canadian Jewish community in honour of the
Canadian Centennial. One of the initiatives sponsored by the CJC was the International Jewish Correspondence, founded in 1978, whose goal was to link Jews around the world as
pen-pals. With the rise of the internet in the 1990s, IJC became less active and had folded by 2002. The organization also provided addresses for Jews living in Arab and Soviet Bloc countries as well as Jewish prisoners who were put in contact with others in the same situation. Jewish people from nearly 20 countries participated in the initiative, including those with declining Jewish populations such as
Estonia,
Morocco and
Zimbabwe.
Later history and disbandment In its later decades, the CJC launched campaigns to pressure the
Soviet Union to allow
Jewish emigration, to pressure the Canadian government to prosecute
Nazi war criminals who had settled in Canada, and to enact and use
hate crimes legislation against antisemites and
Holocaust deniers such as
Ernst Zündel. The CJC actively opposed
Quebec separatism in the 1990s and formed a national coalition of Canada's
Italian,
Greek and
Jewish communities during the debate on the
Charlottetown Accord. The CJC also worked to promote tolerance and understanding between religious and ethnic groups, promote anti-racist work and other campaigns. In 2006, the Ontario branch of the CJC challenged the inclusion of the book "Three Wishes: Palestinian and Israeli Children Speak" by Canadian Author
Deborah Ellis in Schools due to glorification of
suicide bombing and misrepresenting
Israelis, these challenges were disputed but ultimately resulted in the restriction of the book from 5 school boards within Canada, with school libraries refusing the book to students who requested it. Protests from freedom to read organisations like the
Ontario Library Association ultimately failed. The CJC introduced significant changes to its internal organization in June 2007. The previous system of electing representatives to the Board of Directors was discarded, and a new system was introduced wherein Board members were chosen by indirect elections from "regional Congress representatives" and "delegates from Jewish federations." Congress CEO
Bernie Farber supported the change, arguing it would streamline a complicated process. Others argued that the new system would give disproportionate power to the
Canadian Council for Israel and Jewish Advocacy. One individual, described by
The Canadian Jewish News as a "close observer of Congress", argued that CIJA was "stacking the deck" in a bid to take over the CJC. In 2011, the renamed
Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) assumed the functions of the CJC after an 18-month restructuring process in which the functions of the Canadian Jewish Congress, the
Canada-Israel Committee, the Quebec-Israel Committee, National Jewish Campus Life and the University Outreach Committee were consolidated, a move that left the Jewish community divided. On 1 July 2011 the CJC posted a message on its website declaring that it had halted its activities and that its functions would be assumed by CIJA. ==Presidents==