Documents found
-
-
-
-
5.More information
This paper examines the participation of members of Montreal's tiny Jewish community in the city's economic development between the 1840's and the 1870's. Based largely on the R. G. Dun & Co. credit reports, this study reveals that Jews concentrated mainly in the retailing of jewellery and fancy goods, tobacco and dry goods and in clothing manufacturing. Most were petty traders; they were often transitory figures who succumbed to the vagaries of business fluctuations, or were incompetent, poorly financed or dishonest. Although his Jewishness was always taken note of, a businessman's creditworthiness was apparently assessed as objectively as that of a non-Jew: there is no evidence that antisemitism - of which there is plenty in these reports - by itself adversely affected Jewish business mobility or success to any significant extent. In this period Jewish businessmen tended to keep to trades or businesses with which they were familiar before immigrating; they often brought inventory with them, relied on family credit and kept largely to themselves. Most achieved a modest living while a few successful tobacco and clothing manufactures emerged.
-
6.More information
Vanderhaeghe's The Englishman's Boy engages with contemporary critical debate on racial discourse in literature. The thread of allusions to H.L. Mencken, whose anti-Semitic views were not publicly known at the time the novel is set but had become infamous by the time of its publication, brings the question of critical influence and responsibility to the fore. The echoing of Mencken's rhetorical style and ideas through characters like Harry Vincent, Damon Chance, and Rachel Gold serves as a barometer of personal morality by exploring the relationship between morality and the use or abuse of language in the telling of history. Vanderhaeghe's use of faith-based allusions raises the postmodern question of whether truth exists beneath the constructed stories of history. However, while acknowledging the complexity of historical truth, the novel ultimately suggests that all narrative is connected to real life, and that writers like Mencken should be held accountable for their words, whether spoken or omitted.
-
-
9.More information
Bishop Isaac Hellmuth is the undisputed father of The University of Western Ontario, and his devotion to Christianity is celebrated as part of its rich history. Hellmuth, however, was born a Jew. Both Anglican and evangelical sources have treated his Judaism and his 1841 conversion to Christianity in a variety of ways, but they are limited. This paper will revisit Hellmuth's conversion and career through a Jewish lens, profiling a Christian missionary movement in which Hellmuth was active as both a prospective apostate and long-time emissary. Hellmuth's conversion has been described as an exclusively religious experience, but amidst European anti-Semitism, it might have been partly motivated by a desire for position and wealth. Certainly, Hellmuth's conversion reaped him rewards, although in London, Ontario, he was never quite able to elude his Jewish past.