A Voice Behind the Headlines: The Public Relations of the Canadian Jewish Congress During the Holocaust

ABSTRACT

The Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC), the main lobbying group for Canadian Jews during the Holocaust, advocated on behalf of both Canadian and European Jewry by employing a sophisticated public relations strategy. This article investigates three intertwined campaigns to publicize Canadian Jewish war efforts, to raise awareness of the extermination of European Jews, and to advocate that Canada accept refugees. It argues that the CJC used data-driven publicity to demonstrate Jewish loyalty to Canada, which subsequently allowed them to bring attention to Jewish extermination in the non-Jewish press and spurred sustained coverage of the topic. After Jewish extermination became clear, they worked behind the scenes with their allies and used the press to convince the Canadian government to rescue several hundred refugees. By showing the hidden efforts and unknown successes of Jewish organizations, we learn that, while still limited in power, their advocacy methods achieved more than is usually acknowledged. This article breaks with the methodological approach of asking only ‘who knew what and when?’ in press responses to the Holocaust. Instead, it asks how and why stories about the Holocaust made the news. In so doing, it de-emphasizes the decisions of journalists, editors, and publishers and demonstrates the Jewish voice behind stories in the non-Jewish press.

KEYWORDS:

• Press
• Holocaust
• public relations
• refugees
• Canadian Jewish Congress
• public opinion

Acknowledgements

Thank you to Richard Menkis and Heidi Tworek for giving me feedback and helpful advice from the beginning to the end. Thank you to Banu Kayir, Eben Prevec, and Ryan Sun, each of whom read drafts of this article. I am grateful to Yee Rem Kim, who supported this article’s publication in innumerable ways. This project was funded in part by a grant from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 “Haven in Canada Thrills Refugees After Long Years of Dodging Nazis,” April 10, 1944, Globe and Mail, p. 7.

2 Memorandum, “Incoming Refugees from Spain and Portugal, April 3, 1944, File 120, Box 6, ZA 1944, Alex Dworkin Canadian Jewish Archives (ADCJA), Montreal.

3 This article has been adapted from my master’s thesis: Nathan Lucky, “A Voice Behind the Headlines: The Public Relations of the Canadian Jewish Congress during World War II” (master’s thesis, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, 2021).

4 Jack Lipinsky, Imposing Their Will: An Organizational History of Jewish Toronto, 1933–1948 (Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press, 2011), p. 30. The CJC operated as a national organization headquartered in Montreal with several regional divisions with offices in Montreal, Toronto, and Winnipeg. A National Executive Committee, consisting of the CJC’s leading officers, set policy, and coordinated with the CJC’s major regional branches: the Eastern, Central, and Western divisions.

5 Ibid., p. 188.

6 Franklin Bialystok, “What Was Known? What Was Reported? What Was Done? What Could Have Been Done?” Canadian Jewish Studies/ Études juives canadiennes 27 (2019): p. 100.

7 Originally named Military Committee and Committee of Information and Public Relations.

8 James Walker, “Claiming Equality for Canadian Jewry: The Struggle for Inclusion, 1930–1945,” in L. Ruth Klein, (ed.), Nazi Germany, Canadian Responses: Confronting Antisemitism in the Shadow of War (Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press, 2012), Chap. 7, Kindle. Walker’s assessment of past works is that during this time Jews have been seen as “non-assertive … even submissive”; Franklin Bialystok, “What Was Known? What Was Reported? What Was Done? What Could Have Been Done?” Canadian Jewish Studies/ Études juives canadiennes 27 (2019): p. 96. Bialystok says the pioneering study on Canadian responses to the Holocaust, by Troper and Abella, represents Canadian Jews as “powerless,” and he agreed until recently; Rebecca Margolis, “A Review of the Yiddish Media,” in L. Ruth Klein, (ed.), Nazi Germany, Canadian Responses, Chap. 4, Kindle. Margolis argues the historiography has focused on the “political weakness” of Canadian Jews.

9 I define public relations as the “high strategic intent” of an individual or group in combination with the audience’s “freedom to choose.” See: Karen Miller Russell and Margot Opdycke Lamme, “Theorizing Public Relations History: The Roles of Strategic Intent and Human Agency,” Public Relations Review 42 (2016): p. 745. https://doi-org.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/10.1016/j.pubrev.2016.04.002.

10 It is important to note that public relations were one of several tools Congress used to achieve its aims. Quiet diplomacy – directly lobbying the government – still achieved some successes, such as in the attempt to bring refugee children from Vichy France. Troper and Abella, None is too Many: Canada and the Jews of Europe, 1933–1948, 3rd ed. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2013), p. 112. They also employed legal challenges to fight antisemitism. Walker in Nazi Germany, Canadian Responses, Chapter 7, Kindle.

11 Harvey Berk, Mel Berwin, and Alan Shefman, “B’Nai B’Rith,” in Michael Berenbaum and Fred Skolnik, (eds.), Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2nd ed., Vol. 4 (Detroit, MI: Macmillan), pp. 13–18, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX2587503196/GVRL?u=ubcolumbia&sid=GVRL&xid=675c8952.

12 Lipinsky, Imposing Their Will, pp. 112–15; 134–36.

13 Paula Draper, “The Accidental Immigrants: Canada and the Interned Refugees” (PhD diss., University of Toronto, Toronto, 1983).

14 Letter, unsigned to dear friend, May 4, 1944, Publicity, Correspondence, 1944, Volume 14, MG28 v 101, Reel M-5462, Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada (JHCWC) Canadian Jewish Congress Collection (CJCC), Library and Archives Canada (LAC), Ottawa.

15 Letter, L.W. Housely to Gurston Allen, “Canadian Press Clipping Service,” September 12, 1941, File 1b, Box 16, DA 18.1, War Efforts Committee, CJCC, ADCJA, Montreal. Canadian Press was a Canadian news agency that collected and distributed news to newspapers that subscribed to its services, similar to Associated Press.

16 David Goutor, “The Canadian Media and the ‘Discovery’ of the Holocaust, 1944–1945,” Canadian Jewish Studies/Études juives canandiennes 4–5 (1996–1997): pp. 88–119; Max Beer, “What Else Could We Have Done?: The Montreal Jewish Community, the Canadian Jewish Congress, the Jewish Press and the Holocaust” (master’s thesis, Concordia University, Montreal, 2006).

17 Ulrich Frisse, “The ‘Bystanders’ Perspective’: The Toronto Daily Star and its Coverage of the Persecution of Jews and the Holocaust in Canada, 1933–1945,” Yad Vashem Studies 39, no. 1 (2011): pp. 213–43; David Halton, Dispatches from the Front: Matthew Halton, Canada’s Voice at War (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 2014), pp. 75, 82, 84, 135–36, 248.

18 Patrick Reed, “A Foothold in the Whirlpool” (master’s thesis, Concordia University, Montreal 1996).

19 Norman Erwin, “Confronting Hitler’s Legacy: Canadian Jews and Early Holocaust Discourse, 1933–1956” (PhD Diss., University of Waterloo, Waterloo, 2014), 106–17.

20 Beer, “What Else Could We Have Done;” Margolis, “A Review of the Yiddish Media;” Lewis Levendel, A Century of the Canadian Jewish Press: 1880s-1980s; Erwin, “Confronting Hitler’s Legacy.”

21 Margolis, “A Review of the Yiddish Media,” Chap. 4, Kindle.

22 Janine Stingel, Social Discredit: Antisemitism, Social Credit, and the Jewish Response (Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press, 2000), p. 7.

23 Kathryn Montalbano, Government Surveillance of Religious Expression: Mormons, Quakers, and Muslims in the United States (London, Routledge, 2018).

24 “Fascism in Canada: A Factual Statement,” December 1937, Reports and Publications, Box 34, MG8, CJC, JHCWC, Winnipeg.

25 “Jews and Enlistment,” Vancouver Sun, September 8, 1939, letter to the editor.

26 Michael Marrus, Samuel Bronfman: The Life and Times of Seagrams Mr. Sam (Hanover: Brandeis, 1991), p. 277.

27 Lipinsky, Imposing Their Will, p. 198.

28 “Formation of Committee,” War Efforts Committee, 1941, JHSWC, CJCC, Volume 14, Reel M-5462, LAC, Ottawa.

29 “Placing the Facts about Jews before the Canadian Public,” 6th Plenary Session, January 13–16, 1945, JHCWC, CJCC, Volume 15, Reel M-5463, LAC, Ottawa.

30 David Rome, interview by Eiran Harris, tape 15 side a, CJC history part 5, file SC 1105, fonds P0231, ADCJA, Montreal.

31 This was a strategy they had adopted in the past that had served them well in their publication of Canada’s Jews, by Louis Rosenberg.

32 Minutes, “Inner Executive Committee,” September 20, 1939, Central Division, JHCWC, CJCC, Volume 17, Reel M-5465, LAC, Ottawa.

33 Harvey Golden, “Emergency Program of Immediate Duties to be Undertaken by Jewish Organizations of Montreal and the Eastern Division of the Canadian Jewish Congress,” War Efforts Committee, Montreal, Publicity, JHCWC, CJCC, Volume 14, Reel M-5462, LAC, Ottawa.

34 Ibid.

35 “Jewish War and Patriotic Efforts in Western Canada,” File 10, JHC 277, Patriotic Committee Correspondence, 1939–1940, JHCWC, Winnipeg.

36 Samuel Bronfman, “A Message to the Jews of Canada,” October 1939, JHCWC, CJCC, Volume 14, Reel M-5462, LAC, Ottawa.

37 “Jews Organize for War Work,” October 20, 1939, Globe and Mail.

38 “Jewry United in Effort to Win War – Bronfman,” January 8, 1940, Globe and Mail, 4.

39 Hananiah Meyer (H.M.) Caiserman, “Report to the Fifth General Session of the Canadian Jewish Congress, January 10th, 11th, 12th, 1942,” Fifth Plenary Session, 1942, JHCWC, CJCC, Volume 15, Reel M-5463, LAC, Ottawa.

40 “What you Can do to Help in the Prosecution of the War,” War Efforts Committee, 1939–1945, CJC Western Division, JHCWC, CJCC, Volume 12, Reel M-5460, LAC, Ottawa, undated.

41 “Where to Enlist,” Canadian Jewish Chronicle, July 26, 1940, p. 13.

42 “Appendix II,” Joint Public Relations Committee Minutes, 1944, Box 19, Series DB01, CJC, ADCJA, Montreal.

43 “Notice to Jewish Men Enlisted with the Forces,” Canadian Jewish Chronicle, May 24, 1940, p. 8.

44 Jeffrey A. Keshen, Saint, Sinners, and Soldiers: Canada’s Second World War (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2004), p. 17.

45 Confidential letter, Mr. M. Eidelbaum to Jewish Auxiliary War Service, September 20, 1940, F10, JHC 277, Patriotic Committee Correspondence, 1939–1940, JHCWC, Winnipeg.

46 Watson Kirkconnell, “Canadians All” (Ottawa: The Director of Public information, 1941).

47 “Jewish Boys Seeking Enlistment with Q.O.R.,” October 5, 1939, Globe and Mail, pp. 4; “Jews, Seeking to Serve, Register at New Bureau,” September 27, 1939, Globe and Mail, pp. 4.

48 “Canadian Jewry in the War Effort,” May 9, 1944, Toronto Daily Star; “Jews Active in Canadian Army,” October 12, 1943, Globe and Mail; “Jews in the Fighting Forces of Canada,” August 15, 1941, Alliston Herald, War Efforts Committee, Montreal, JHCWC, CJCC, Volume 14, Reel M-5462, LAC, Ottawa.

49 “Groups of Alien Origin Enlist Commendably, Thorson Tells House,” November 13, 1941, Globe and Mail.

50 “Down with Conscription and Down with the Jews is Chant of 500 Rioters,” March 25, 1942, Toronto Telegram.

51 “Praise Jews in Services,” September 18, 1944, Globe and Mail.

52 “Jewry in the Field,” October 12, 1944, Ottawa Citizen, Publicity & Press, 1944, JHCWC, CJCC, Volume 12, Reel M-5460, LAC, Ottawa.

53 Saul Hayes, “Publicity,” October 30, 1944, Publicity & Press, 1944, JHCWC, CJCC, Volume 12, Reel M-5460, LAC, Ottawa.

54 “Jewish Congress Supplies Troops with Recreation,” May 28, 1941, Hamilton Spectator, editorial.

55 “Promoting Soldiers’ Comfort,” May 30, 1941, Globe and Mail, editorial, p. 6.

56 “Appendix II,” Joint Public Relations Committee Minutes, 1944, Box 19, Series DB01, CJC, ADCJA, Montreal.

57 Memorandum, Saul Hayes to L. Rosenberg, July 20, 1942, F04, JHC 278, JHCWC, Winnipeg.

58 Letter, Saul Hayes to L. Rosenberg, July 20, 1942, F04, JHC 278, JHCWC, Winnipeg.

59 Letter, Saul Hayes to L. Rosenberg, July 23, 1942, F04, JHC 278, JHCWC, Winnipeg.

60 Monty Noam Penkower, “American Jewry and the Holocaust: From Biltmore to the American Jewish Conference,” in Jeffrey S. Gurock, (ed.), America, American Jews, and the Holocaust (London: Routledge, 1998), p. 359.

61 Laurel Leff, Buried by the Times: The Holocaust and America’s Most Important Newspaper (Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005), p. 142.

62 “Review of the Yiddish Press, July 24, 1942,” F04, JHC 278, JHCWC, Winnipeg.

63 Letter, A.M. Shinbane to Morris Smith, July 31, 1942, F04, JHC 278, JHCWC, Winnipeg; The Jewish Labour Committee also held a smaller-scale mass meeting and public talks in the fall and winter of 1942–1943 that used well-known non-Jews to spread awareness about Jewish atrocities. See Erwin, Confronting Hitler’s Legacy, pp. 131–33.

64 “Minutes of Committee Meeting Re Protest Meeting, July 31, 1942.”

65 Memorandum, Saul Hayes to Louis Rosenberg, September 8, 1942, Publicity, National Mass Protest Meeting – 1942, Winnipeg, F04, JHC 278, JHCWC, Winnipeg.

66 “Resolutions for Mass Meeting, October 11, 1942,” Publicity, National Mass Protest Meeting – 1942, Winnipeg, F04, JHC 278, JHCWC, Winnipeg.

67 “Jewish People Pledge to Hasten Huns’ End,” October 12, 1942, Globe and Mail, p. 2.

68 “Mackenzie King Message Read at Rally of Jewish Congress,” Winnipeg Free Press, October 12, 1942, p. 1.

69 “Removing Hitler’s Race Hate Poison Declared War Aim,” October 11, 1942, Ottawa Citizen, reel 960, University of British Columbia Library.

70 Alex Grobman, “What Did They Know? The American Jewish Press and the Holocaust, 1 September 1939–17 December 1942,” in America, American Jews, and the Holocaust.

71 “War Spirit of the Jews,” October 13, 1942, Globe and Mail, p. 6, editorial.

72 “Churchill on the Jews,” October 24, 1942, Winnipeg Free Press, p. 6, editorial, R446, reel 567, University of British Columbia Library.

73 “Jews Under the Axis: A Moral,” November 6, 1942, Montreal Gazette, p. 7 editorial.

74 “The Shape of Terror,” November 26, 1942, Vancouver Daily Province, p. 4, editorial.

75 Letter, Saul Hayes to Samuel Bronfman, March 8, 1943, Doc 130, in Paula Draper and Harold Troper, ed.,) Archives of the Holocaust: An International Collection of Selected Documents, vol. 15 (New York: Garland Publishing, 1991), p. 281.

76 “Draft on Program in Connection with Proposed International Conference on Refugees in Ottawa,” March 9, 1943, File 104, Box 9, ZA 1943, CJCC, ADCJA, Montreal.

77 Letter, Saul Hayes to L. Rosenberg, May 4, 1943, F02, JHC 278, JHCWC, Winnipeg.

78 Watson Thomson, “The Jews in Europe,” Easter Sunday, 1943, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, File 1, Box 5, Watson Thomson Papers, University of British Columbia (UBC) Rare Books and Special Collections (RBSC), Vancouver, Canada.

79 Letter, Saul Hayes to L. Rosenberg, May 4, 1943, F02, JHC 278, JHCWC, Winnipeg.

80 M. Merker, Winnipeg Free Press, undated and unaddressed letter, F02, JHC 278, JHCWC, Winnipeg; Haye’s idea became the pamphlet “The Free Press of Canada Speaks.”

81 Letter, S. Hayes to L. Rosenberg, May 4, 1943, F02, JHC 278, JHCWC, Winnipeg.

82 “Canadian National Committee on Refugees National Executive Minutes,” June 4, 1943, file 28, Vol. 6, MG28, V 43 6, LAC, Ottawa.

83 “Canadian National Committee on Refugees Executive Minutes,” November 30, 1943, file 28, Vol. 6, MG28, V 43 6, LAC, Ottawa.

84 “Day of Compassion,” Saturday Night, in “The Free Press of Canada: Its editorial opinion about the plight of Jewish Refugees,” (Montreal: United Jewish Refugee and War Relief Agencies, 1943).

85 “What Haven?” Halifax Herald, in “The Free Press of Canada.”

86 “Is this Christianity?” Elora Express, in “The Free Press of Canada.”

87 “Homeless Victims of Hate,” April 28, 1943, Ottawa Citizen, editorial, File 2, Box 5, Watson Thomson Papers, UBC RBSC, Vancouver, Canada.

88 “The Jews in Europe,” Evening Citizen, File 2, Box 5, Watson Thomson Papers, UBC RBSC, Vancouver, Canada.

89 “Canadian National Committee on Refugees National Executive Minutes,” June 4, 1943, file 28, Vol. 6, MG28, V 43 6, LAC, Ottawa.

90 “Dominion’s Immigration Policy like Nazi’s, Says Dr. Thomson,” August 30, 1943, Vancouver News-Herald, File 1, Box 8, Watson Thomson Papers, UBC RBSC, Vancouver, Canada.

91 “Jewish and Other Refugees,” Prairie Messenger, in “The Free Press of Canada.”

92 Letter, L. Rosenberg to Watson Thomson, October 11, 1943, F02, JHC 278, JHCWC, Winnipeg.

93 “Report of the Joint Public Relations Committee Conference Central Region,” April 16, 1944, File 88, Box 4, ZA 1944 series, CJCC, ADCJA. Montreal.

94 “News Release,” Publicity & Press, 1944, JHCWC, CJCC, Volume 12, Reel M-5460, LAC, Ottawa.

95 “Something Should be Done for the Jews’ Feeling Rises in all Parts of Canada,” May 1943, Congress Bulletin, File 1, Box 8, Watson Thomson Papers, University of British Columbia Rare Books and Special Collections, Vancouver, Canada; The CJC and its allies’ advocacy for a temporary haven should not be confused with advocacy for post-war Jewish immigration and permanent settlement in Canada. The issue of post-war immigration was intentionally kept separate from their campaign for refugees.

96 A.L.J., Memorandum, August 30, 1943, Doc 136 in Archives of the Holocaust, 298.

97 “Memorandum from Hume Wrong, Department of External Affairs, to the War Cabinet, August 30, 1943, Doc 144 in Archives of the Holocaust, 315.

98 Other studies, such as Reed’s “Foothold in the Whirlpool,” have noted that international pressure from allies was another factor that led to Canada’s decision to admit more refugees.

99 Heidi Tworek, News from Germany: The Competition to Control World Communications, 1900–1945 (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 2019), p. 18.

100 A.L.J., Memorandum, September 10, 1943, Department of Mines and Resources, Doc 11, in Archives of the Holocaust, p. 244.

101 Thomas Crerar, “Press Statement on Refugees,” November 2, 1943, Doc 113, p. 249.

102 Minutes, National Executive Meeting of the United Jewish Refugee and War Relief Agencies, December 11, 1943, United Jewish Refugee and War Relief Agencies National Executive Minutes, 1939–1944, JHCWC, CJCC, Volume 15, Reel M-5463, LAC, Ottawa.

103 An analysis of letters to the editors of the Globe and Mail and Toronto Daily Star shows letter writers overwhelmingly favored admitting refugees. See, Nathan Lucky, “A Voice Behind the Headlines: The Public Relations of the Canadian Jewish Congress during World War II,” Master’s Thesis, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, 2021, p. 55.

104 Letter, David Rome to Saul Hayes, May 5, 1944, File 85, Box 4, ZA 1944 series, CJCC, ADCJA. Montreal.

105 Letter, David Rome to Saul Hayes, April 12, 1944, Publicity & Press, 1944, JHCWC, CJCC, Volume 12, Reel M-5461, LAC, Ottawa.

106 “Haven in Canada Thrills Refugees After Long Years of Dodging Nazis,” April 10, 1944, Globe and Mail, p. 7.

107 “Tired, Happy Refugees Welcomed on Arrival,” June 2, 1944, Globe and Mail, p. 4.

108 “Welcome and Respect these Guests,” April 11, 1944, Toronto Daily Star, p. 6.

109 Some historians, such as Troper and Abella (None is Too Many, p. 231), have used polling from late 1946 to argue that public opinion was against Jewish immigration in the postwar period, and therefore it might be said that the CJC had not changed public opinion towards Jews. It is important to clarify a few points. Polling before 1950 is not a reliable source of public opinion due to several methodological flaws in data collection. See Adam J. Berinsky, In Time of War: Understanding American Public Opinion from World War II to Iraq, Chicago Studies in American Politics (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2009), p. 35. It can still be useful if these flaws are controlled for, but Troper and Abella do not do this. Furthermore, even if the polling data were reliable, we cannot apply sentiments about immigration in general after the war to the sentiments about temporary refugees during the war. Public opinion also changes over time and depends on the context in which it is assessed, such as in times of war and in times of peace.

110 James Walker, “The ‘Jewish Phase’ in the Movement for Racial Equality in Canada,” Canadian Ethnic Studies 34, no. 1 (2002): p. 10, https://ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/login?url=https://www-proquest-com.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/scholarly-journals/jewish-phase-movement-racial-equality-canada/docview/215637367/se-2?accountid=14656.

111 Ibid., p. 14.

112 Ibid., p. 6.

113 In his later work, cited below, Walker argued that the legal tactics Canadian Jews used in the 1950s can be traced back to a “warming up” phase in the 1930s and 1940s.

114 Ibid., p. 15.

115 Walker, “Claiming Equality for Canadian Jewry,” Chap. 7, Kindle; Bialystok, “What Was Known?” p. 96; Margolis, “A Review of the Yiddish Media,” Chap. 4, Kindle.

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Nathan Lucky

Nathan Lucky is a PhD student in the History Department at the Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Clark University, Massachusetts. His interests include Holocaust history, Jewish history, and the history of media, information, and journalism. He holds a BA Hons. in history from The University of British Columbia, Okanagan, and MA in history from The University of British Columbia, Vancouver.