Jews of Canada: From Montreal to Toronto and Beyond

Early Arrivals

The first known Jewish resident of Canada was Aaron Hart, who arrived in Trois-Rivières, Quebec, in 1760 — the year the British conquered New France. Hart became a successful merchant and landowner, founding a family dynasty that would span generations.

Early Jewish settlers were primarily Sephardi Jews from Britain and its colonies, arriving in small numbers during the late 18th century. The first synagogue in Canada, Shearith Israel (the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue), was founded in Montreal in 1768 — and still operates today, making it one of the oldest continuously functioning synagogues in North America.

The fur trade attracted Jewish entrepreneurs to Canada’s vast interior. Jewish traders established networks connecting Montreal to trading posts across the Canadian west, playing a role in the commercial development of the young colony.

The Great Migration

The transformation of Canadian Jewry came with the massive wave of Eastern European immigration between 1880 and 1920. Fleeing pogroms, poverty, and military conscription in the Russian Empire, tens of thousands of Jewish immigrants arrived in Canada.

Most settled in Montreal, which became the undisputed capital of Canadian Jewish life. The neighborhoods of the Plateau Mont-Royal and Mile End became the Jewish heartland — a world of garment factories, Yiddish theaters, synagogues on every block, and the legendary bagel shops (St-Viateur and Fairmount) that still operate today.

The immigrant experience was vividly captured in the literature of Mordecai Richler, whose novels — particularly The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz and St. Urbain’s Horseman — immortalized the Jewish streets of Montreal with unsentimental brilliance.

The Bronfman Dynasty

No family exemplifies the Canadian Jewish experience more than the Bronfmans. Arriving from Russia in the 1880s, the family built a liquor empire — the Seagram Company — that became one of the largest corporations in the world.

Samuel Bronfman, the patriarch, became a towering figure in both Canadian business and Jewish communal life. He led the Canadian Jewish Congress, established the Samuel and Saidye Bronfman Foundation, and used his influence to advocate for Jewish causes including refugee admission during World War II (when Canada’s record was disgraceful — Prime Minister Mackenzie King’s government admitted fewer than 5,000 Jewish refugees between 1933 and 1945, a failure documented in the landmark book None Is Too Many).

The Bronfman family’s philanthropic legacy extends across Canadian cultural life, including the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, McGill University, and countless Jewish institutions.

”None Is Too Many”

Canada’s response to the Holocaust was shameful. Under the influence of Frederick Blair, the director of immigration, and Prime Minister Mackenzie King, Canada had one of the worst records among Western nations for admitting Jewish refugees. When asked how many Jews should be admitted, a Canadian official reportedly responded: “None is too many.”

The most infamous incident was the MS St. Louis affair of 1939. After the ship carrying over 900 Jewish refugees was turned away from Cuba and the United States, Canada was asked to accept the passengers. Prime Minister King refused. The ship returned to Europe, and many of its passengers eventually perished in the Holocaust.

This history has been honestly confronted by subsequent generations of Canadians, and it has shaped the community’s advocacy for refugee rights and humanitarian immigration policies.

Montreal vs. Toronto

For most of the 20th century, Montreal was the center of Canadian Jewish life. The community supported dozens of synagogues, an extensive school system, hospitals (Jewish General Hospital), Yiddish cultural institutions, and a vibrant social life.

The shift began in the 1970s with the rise of Quebec nationalism. Bill 101 (1977) required French-language education for immigrants and restricted English signage. Many English-speaking Jews — who had been educated in English and felt culturally aligned with anglophone Canada — began moving to Toronto and other English-speaking cities.

Toronto’s Jewish community grew rapidly, centered along the Bathurst Street corridor stretching from downtown north through Forest Hill, Lawrence Park, and into the suburbs of Thornhill and Vaughan. By the 1980s, Toronto surpassed Montreal as Canada’s largest Jewish community.

Today, Toronto’s Jewish community is remarkably diverse — Ashkenazi and Sephardi, Orthodox and secular, immigrant and Canadian-born. The community supports hundreds of synagogues, one of the most extensive Jewish day school systems in North America, and major institutions including UJA Federation, the Miles Nadal JCC, and the Prosserman JCC.

Canadian Jewish Culture

Canadian Jews have made contributions to the nation’s cultural life far out of proportion to their numbers:

Literature: Mordecai Richler, Leonard Cohen (who was also one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century), A.M. Klein, Irving Layton, and Naim Kattan created a distinctly Canadian Jewish literary tradition.

Business: Beyond the Bronfmans, Jewish entrepreneurs built major Canadian companies in real estate, retail, media, and technology.

Politics: Jews have served as provincial premiers, Supreme Court justices, senators, and members of Parliament. Irwin Cotler, a former Minister of Justice, became internationally recognized for his human rights advocacy.

The Mosaic

Canada’s official policy of multiculturalism — adopted in 1971 and enshrined in the Canadian Multiculturalism Act of 1988 — has been favorable to Jewish communal life. Unlike the American “melting pot” model, the Canadian “mosaic” encourages ethnic communities to maintain their distinct identities while participating fully in national life.

This has allowed Canadian Jews to maintain strong communal institutions, high rates of day school enrollment, and a robust organizational infrastructure. The community remains deeply engaged with both Israel and the broader Canadian society — navigating the balance between particularity and universality that defines diaspora Jewish life everywhere.