By Elena Kingsbury

A3.7: Learning about settler and newcomer groups in Canada has been expanded to explicitly include experiences and contributions of Jewish communities. Students learn to identify some of the impacts of antisemitism on these communities’ development and/or identities.

As we head into warmer weather and see the first hopeful green shoots springing through the ground, we suggest that it is an ideal time to explore the history of Jewish immigrants on the Western Canadian “frontier” who, among many other immigrant groups made Canada their home in the pre-War decades. Through hard work, they sought to establish a life  in the newly formed nation by farming the land.

Jews, who for many years were not allowed the privilege of farming or owning land in Europe, were among the first groups to establish agricultural settlements in western Canada. Their arrival coincided with a period of active immigration, or more accurately a “refugee crisis” in the 1880s, when Jews in Russia’s Pale of Settlement experienced a wave of violent pogroms ignited by the assassination of Czar Alexander II. This led to thousands of deaths. Their misery was compounded by changes in the economy that eliminated many occupations traditionally held by Jews. Many fled Russia to western Europe where Jewish aid agencies assisted their emigration to North America.

Jewish immigrants wanted more than survival in their new homeland- Canada wanted to populate the west, and many of the Jewish newcomers, inspired by the international “back to the land movement,” wanted the opportunity to farm.

With land as the incentive as well as immigration propaganda and improved services, the Department of the Interior began to admit a greater number of immigrants from Eastern and Central Europe. Jews, who at other times in Canadian history were subjected to more severe restrictions, started trickling into the country in greater numbers. However, unlike several groups including the Mennonites who were encouraged to settle blocks of land, the government ruled that the Jews could not do so: they had to be interspersed with their non-Jewish neighbours.

In spite of continued restrictions, Jewish communities began to emerge in the late 19th century. Rural Jewish communities thrived over several decades across Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta before most immigrants moved to urban centers by the mid-20th century.

The gradual decline of Jewish farm settlements was driven by many factors including drought, the poor economic and environmental conditions of the 1930s and World War II. This was followed by “modernization” and the mechanization of farm equipment, more children acquiring higher education and moving away from home, and the desire by many to live in larger Jewish centres. Despite these changes, there are descendants of the original immigrants in several communities who still either farm or own the original homesteads today.

Further Reading:

https://jewishvirtuallibrary.org/saskatchewan

https://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/mb_history/89/jewishfarmcolony.shtml

https://esask.uregina.ca/entry/jewish_rural_settlements.html

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