Canadian Jewish Congress

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Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC)

The Canadian Jewish Congress was Canada’s main Jewish advocacy group for about 90 years, from 1919 to 2011. It was often called the Parliament of Canadian Jewry and worked to defend human rights, promote immigration reform, and protect civil rights. In 2011 it dissolved after a reorganization that created the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA); the CJA became its successor in 2007.

Origins and early years
- A predecessor group formed in 1915 in Montreal with Poalei Zion members and others.
- In 1919, more than 25,000 Jews across Canada elected delegates to the first CJC convention in Montreal. They founded the Jewish Immigrant Aid Society and expressed loyalty to Canada and support for a Jewish state. Lyon Cohen was elected president.
- The organization paused for several years but revived in 1934 as antisemitism and immigration restrictions rose. Samuel William Jacobs became the revived Congress’s first president.

World War II and after
- In 1938 the CJC and B’nai Brith Canada created the Joint Public Relations Committee to fight discrimination and build alliances.
- During World War II the CJC lobbied to open Canada’s doors to Jewish refugees. After the war, it ran the War Orphans Project to help Holocaust survivors and other refugees.
- Samuel Bronfman led the CJC from 1939 to 1962. In 1951 the CJC expelled the United Jewish People’s Order during the Cold War; it rejoined Canada’s Jewish community in 1995.

Cultural and international work
- In 1967 the CJC donated about 7,000 Judaica volumes to the National Library for Canada’s centennial.
- In 1978 the CJC started the International Jewish Correspondence to connect Jews worldwide; the program faded by 2002.
- The CJC campaigned to pressure the Soviet Union to allow Jewish emigration, pushed to prosecute Nazi war criminals in Canada, and supported hate-crimes legislation against antisemitism and Holocaust denial.
- It opposed Quebec separatism in the 1990s and helped form broad coalitions during the Charlottetown Accord debates.

Later developments and end
- The CJC restructured in 2007, with debates about power dynamics involving CIJA.
- In 2011 CIJA took over the CJC’s functions after an 18-month restructuring, and on July 1, 2011, the CJC announced it had ceased operations as an independent body.