A Joyful Harvest: Celebrating the Jewish Contribution to Southern Alberta Life, 1889-2005 (review)

A Joyful Harvest offers a rich account of the settlement and the development of a vibrant Jewish community in southern Alberta through photographs and historical documents, covering the community's religious, social, political, cultural, and economic dimensions. Despite some serious barriers, such as anti-Semitic immigration policies in the 1930's and 1940's, as well as isolated hate crime incidents in the 1980's and 1990's, this Jewish community manages to flourish and become one of the most educated and prosperous ethnic communities in the province of Alberta.

The beginning of Jewish settlement in southern Alberta in the late nineteenth century is a result of both the persecution of Jews and severe economic hardships in Eastern Europe in the 1880's and, at the same time, the rapid development of Western Canada (2). Consequently, the Russo-Jewish Committee and the Jewish Colonization Association join forces in assisting Jewish refugees to establish farming communities in Western Canada. A Joyful Harvest provides the reader with a detailed portrayal of the Jewish community life in southern Alberta from the pioneering stages in the failed agricultural colonies of the North West Territories (25) to their settlement in Calgary and various farm-serving towns in the vicinity (55,58).

The quick establishment of Jewish communal institutions in the first three decades of the twentieth century which included synagogues, schools, a Jewish cemetery and burial services, welfare and settlement services, veterans' fraternal organizations, Zionist organizations, loan associations, women's and youth organizations, is quite impressive (34). Moreover, the development of numerous cultural projects and events (41) such as concerts, dances, Yiddish literary clubs, and Jewish sports teams reaches the level of what sociologists label "institutional completeness."

While the years of the great depression, WWII, and the holocaust bring the growth in the Jewish community in Alberta to a complete halt, the fifties and the sixties are characterized by a dramatic expansion of the community (82, 98). The establishment of the state of Israel in 1948 and the Six-Day War of 1967 energizes the community and its institutions (100-125). The post-war prosperity in Canada, including the increase in gas and oil revenues, stimulates the move to the suburbs and the building of new religious and secular Jewish schools, synagogues, and community centres.

In the seventies and eighties, as Alberta continues to prosper, the Jewish community experiences a new wave of immigrants form Ontario and Quebec, as well as from the Soviet Union, Israel, and South Africa (148,172). The Jewish community becomes further immersed in the cultural, social, economic, philanthropical, and political life of Calgary. In the nineties, as Calgary is transformed into a major commercial and cosmopolitan city, new organizations are established within the Jewish community — reflecting the unprecedented economic and cultural achievements of this community. The first few years of the twenty-first century are marked by the intensification of Jewish involvement in the educational, political, and economic growth of Calgary and by the acceleration of community building. The Jewish community in Calgary also plays an increasing leadership role in the national Jewish community (188).

It is clear from this collection of visual and documentary evidence that despite anti-Semitism during the thirties and the forties and some serious hate crimes in the second half of the twentieth century, this community not only survives, but also strengthens and flourishes! A high degree of institutional completeness, intra-group economic activity, entrepreneurship, a strong emphasis on religious, cultural and educational preferences result in an unprecedented upward mobility. From poor refugees of pogroms in Eastern Europe, the Jews of Alberta turn into prosperous upper-middle-class professionals, academics, and businesspeople who are very active in both their distinctive ethnic community and the larger Canadian society.

A quick analysis of the documents in the book demonstrate that while community building at the beginning of the twentieth century focuses on constructing religious institutions...