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SYDNEY, N.S. —

They came, they flourished, and they left – all in just over 100 years.

And while there are still Jews on the island side of the Canso Causeway, the public face of Cape Breton’s Jewish community is but a mere shadow of what it was in the 20th century.

The main streets in the downtowns of the former industrial areas are now depleted of most of the Jewish-owned businesses that once dominated the retail landscape of yesteryear. Names such as Schwartz, Jacobson, Nathanson, Epstein, Yazer, Allen, Shore, Simon, Gold, Rosenblum, David, Ein, Chernin, Moraff, Spinner and Mendelson were once commonplace on storefronts and shops in the downtowns of Sydney, Whitney Pier, Glace Bay and New Waterford. But names familiar to older generations are now unknown to many young people.

So, what happened to these once vibrant Jewish communities?

A Matter of Survival

To understand why Jewish immigrants came to Cape Breton, one needs only to look at world history and specifically that of the Jewish people whose existence has always been punctuated with persecution. It dates back long before the Holocaust in which more than 6,000,000 Jews were killed by the Nazis during the Second World War.

Indeed, some 200 years before Christ, the Greek-controlled Seleucid Empire (that included the Holy Land) made it a capital offense to be in the possession of Jewish scriptures. By the Middle Ages, many Christians came to hold the Jewish people collectively responsible for the killing of Jesus. Jews were massacred during the Crusades, blamed for the plagues that devastated Europe, and discriminated against almost everywhere they settled.

Rabbi David Ellis

The Jewish people who arrived in Cape Breton in the late 1800s and early 1900s were also on the run. Most escaped Russian-governed Eastern European territories, including present-day Belarus and Ukraine, where rampant anti-Semitism targeted Jews in organized, violent and wide-scale government-condoned attacks known as “pogroms” in Russia.

Halifax-based Rabbi David Ellis said that while they fled across the globe, those who came to Cape Breton were quick to recognize the opportunities afforded by the area’s burgeoning coal and steel industries.

“Given what was happening in the old countries, they came here looking to escape the pogroms and to find a better life,” said Ellis.

“Cape Breton was a place where people could make their way because there were lots of opportunities with the world wars, the steel and coal industries, it was a perfect economic place at one time.”

CAPE BRETON’S SYNAGOGUES

Glace Bay

1902 – Sons of Israel synagogue built for congregation of about 140 people

1929 – community hall and school erected

2010 – synagogue closed and put up for sale

2018 – congregation’s Torah sold and moved to Toronto

Whitney Pier

1913 – synagogue constructed

1960 – synagogue burns down

1962 – synagogue rebuilt

1970 – Young Men’s Hebrew Association (YMHA) building burns down

Sydney

1919 – Temple Sons of Israel synagogue established by younger members of Whitney Pier congregation

Present Day – Last remaining synagogue in Cape Breton although public worship is rarely held, rabbi travels from Halifax for High Holidays, funerals and special minyans

New Waterford

1922 – synagogue with Hebrew school constructed

1941 – town’s Jewish population peaks at 99 people

1967 – synagogue is sold



A Better Life

The golden period of Cape Breton’s industrial age began to take shape in 1901 with the establishment of a state-of-the-art steel mill in Sydney. Then known as the Dominion Iron and Steel Company, the new plant required coal to create the coke needed to fuel the blast furnaces. The obvious source was the plethora of mines in nearby towns like Glace Bay and New Waterford.

The problem was a shortage of workers. Part of the solution was found in Eastern Europe, where potential employees were offered free Trans-Atlantic passage in return for work in the pits.

According to Rabbi Ellis, most of the Jewish newcomers arrived with little or no resources save for the support of family and fellow Jews.

“They would come with some pocket money but not a whole ton of it necessarily — some people may have had rings or pearls, but it was really a beginning from the beginning,” he said.

There was plenty of work available in the mines, but the job was dangerous and demanding and the pay was low.

Well-known Sydney businessman Martin Chernin, one of the area’s unofficial custodians of local Jewish history, said it wasn’t surprising that most of the newly arrived Jewish miners didn’t stay in the pits for long.

“No, they weren’t miners — it wasn’t the life for them,” said the 74-year-old Chernin, whose grandfathers both arrived in Cape Breton from Belarus.

“They saw great business opportunities here because of the heavy industrialization and because of the coal and the steel — they became tailors and peddlers and eventually shop owners and professionals.”

But while life was safer and opportunities more plentiful, the Jews who came to Cape Breton weren’t always welcomed with open arms.

Discrimination

Among those seeking a better life were Jews fleeing from the constant threat of harassment and violence they faced at home. But, while they found a much more safe and tolerable environment, it was not, according to Ellis, without discrimination.

“At one time, Canada was not that tolerant of a place, and there was lots of anti-Semitism — it wasn’t necessarily bloody, but it was very definitely here in those days,” noted Ellis.

“Cape Breton was different — Halifax, for example, was an old British town with old British-type ways, while Cape Breton had more Scottish and Irish Catholic communities that had themselves been persecuted and so they had somewhat of a natural understanding of what the Jews were going through.”

Sydney native Stephen Nathanson recently discussed anti-Semitism during a January presentation to the Old Sydney Society about Cape Breton’s Jewish communities.

“When they came to Cape Breton they found the discrimination was insignificant — yes, it was here, but compared to Europe it was like a little tap on the backside,” said Nathanson, whose lecture on the island’s Jewish history attracted a full house to the society’s new home in the former Bank of Montreal building at the corner of Charlotte and Dorchester streets.

Sydney native Stephen Nathanson presented an overview of Jewish life in Cape Breton in January when he addressed a packed house at the Old Sydney Society’s home in the old Bank of Montreal building at the corner of Charlotte and Dorchester streets in Sydney. The audience included several members of Cape Breton’s remaining Jewish community including Moe Lieff, owner of Captain Capers Fish and Chips in Baddeck and former proprietor of Moe’s pool hall, a once popular Charlotte Street establishment that was located in the Charlotte Street building that is now home to Daniel’s Restaurant and Lounge.

Mount Saint Vincent University professor Sheva Medjuck wrote about anti-Semitism in Cape Breton in her 1986 book “Jews of Atlantic Canada”.

“First, while there seems to have never been any major direct overt anti-Semitism in Cape Breton, all of our informants indicate that undercurrents of anti-Semitism were always present. Jews were denied membership in some service clubs. It is believed that Jews could not get jobs at some banks in the 1920s and 1930s, and later,” wrote Medjuck, who has spent more than 40 years at the Halifax post-secondary institution.

“During the Depression tensions between Jews and non-Jews increased, particularly during strikes. During one strike in Glace Bay the windows of some Jewish homes were smashed. Nevertheless, during this strike Jewish merchants extended full credit to their customers (mostly miners) and their stores were not damaged though the strikers did burn down the company stores.”

The Synagogues

One of the first priorities of the Jewish newcomers was to find places to meet for religious worship and instruction. The early meetings were held in homes or rented halls.

The Talmud Torah Building, left, was officially opened in 1929 after being constructed adjacent to the Congregation Sons of Israel synagogue in Glace Bay. The synagogue was built in 1902 and was the first in the Maritime provinces to be in a building specifically constructed for that purpose. FROM THE SHIRLEY CHERNIN COLLECTION, BEATON INSTITUTE, CAPE BRETON UNIVERSITY

In 1902, Cape Breton’s first synagogue was built in Glace Bay at a cost of about $5,000. According to Atlantic Jewish Council records, the building was the first in the Maritime provinces to be constructed for sole purpose of being a synagogue, or a “shul” as it is sometimes referred to in an informal manner.

Whitney Pier was the site of the second synagogue which was built on Mt. Pleasant Street in 1913. The structure burned in 1960 but was rebuilt and now serves as the home of the Whitney Pier Historical Society Museum.

A few years later, a breakaway group of young men established the Temple Sons of Israel congregation and by 1922 had built a synagogue in Sydney that catered to its more conservative (as opposed to the orthodox nature of Cape Breton’s other synagogues) members.

In New Waterford, a synagogue that also housed a Hebrew school was completed in 1922. But by 1967 the mining town’s Jewish population had declined to the point where the synagogue was sold.

A Sense of Community

But while each of those four communities had its own synagogue there were strong relations between the congregations. The interaction between the island’s Jewish enclaves included marriage, business, religion and socialization. But Cape Breton’s relatively small Jewish community also developed links to the outside world and kept in touch, both business-wise and socially, with family and friends who had settled in places like Halifax, Montreal and Toronto.

Many of the connections took root at Camp Kadimah, a cultural and recreational lakeside youth retreat located in the Nova Scotia interior about 40 km west of Mahone Bay. Established in 1943, the camp attracted Jewish children from across Atlantic Canada and beyond.

The camp is still in operation, but the number of visitors from Cape Breton has dwindled. Martin Chernin attended Kadimah when he was a child and has fond memories of his time at the camp interacting with other Jewish kids from distant communities.

“It was a wonderful place. I went there for 11 years so I knew everybody from around the Maritimes,” recalled Chernin, who can still be found in his downtown Sydney office every weekday morning by 8:30.

“The camp is still very popular, but I think about 90 per cent of the kids going there now are coming down from Toronto and Montreal because it was a place their parents went — in fact, my brother-in-law’s nephew, Jason Budovitch, lives in Hong Kong and he sends his son over, so the connections keep going.”

Setting Up Shop

Back in the early days, the religious and social needs of Cape Breton’s Jews were taken care of through the synagogues, camps and holiday gatherings. All the while, efforts to improve their economic stead continued as miners became peddlers, peddlers became shop owners, and the retail business districts of the four communities eventually came to be dominated by Jewish merchants.

This 1974 photo shows people lined up waiting to enter the Temple Sons of Israel Synagogue for a bazaar. The shul at the corner of Whitney Avenue and Center Street in Sydney was built in 1919 after being established by a group of younger and more conservative members of the Whitney Pier synagogue. It still stands, but regular public worship sessions are no longer held, save for special occasions. BEATON INSTITUTE, CAPE BRETON UNIVERSITY

Stories of the early Jewish peddlers became the stuff of legends.

It’s said that Jack Yazer, a Polish Jew who arrived in Canada in 1928 at the age of 15 with nothing but two words of English and the clothes on his back, kicked off his lengthy business career by walking around Cape Breton Island with his brother Mendle, selling clothing out of a pack sack. The pair would later open Yazer Brothers Friendly Clothing in Sydney Mines followed by the establishment of a Sydney store after the Second World War. The Charlotte Street store closed its doors in 2014, while Yazer died a year later at the age of 102.

Golden Age of Downtowns

Yazers certainly wasn’t the only downtown Sydney business under Jewish proprietorship. In the days before suburban shopping malls, big box stores and online shopping, Sydney’s Jewish-owned clothing stores also included Jacobson’s Ladies Wear, Dave Epstein’s Men’s and Boy’s Clothing, Oak Hall, Smart Shop, Chernin’s and Nathanson-Wolfson ladies, to name just a few.

Similar demographics existed in Cape Breton’s other Jewish communities.

Whitney Pier’s once vibrant main street, Victoria Road, included landmark businesses such as the store operated by Archie Nathanson, the self-proclaimed “king of lower prices”. In Glace Bay, Rosenblum’s offered the latest in women’s fashions, while Ein’s sold men’s clothing. In New Waterford, the Schwartz furniture store was for many years a mainstay of Plummer Avenue.

In acknowledging the business success of Cape Breton’s Jewish merchants, Rabbi Ellis said there is no doubt that the relatively small communities punched far above their weight.

“I don’t think there was any city in Canada where Jewish businessmen, pound for pound, made that kind of contribution to the wider communities — I think of names like Schwartz and David, and, of course, Marty Chernin, who is the ultimate businessman’s businessman.”

For his part, Chernin grew up in a family that operated both retail and wholesale food operations and was sent to Montreal to learn the trade at Steinberg’s, which at the time was the largest supermarket chain in Québec.

“And then I came home to work in the family business and the rest is history,” laughs Chernin, who is a driving force behind a proposed multi-million-dollar development on the Sydney waterfront.

For many years, Jewish-owned and operated businesses flourished in Industrial Cape Breton.

But times change, and so did the downtown sections of the area’s urban centres.

Exodus

The demise of the “downtown” is not unique to Cape Breton. Perhaps, its days were numbered as far back as the 1950s when shopping malls began drawing people away from the traditional downtown cores. Nor did the advent of the “big box” stores help downtown businesses. And, nowadays, online shopping has put yet another nail in the coffin of main street retailers.

Successful businesses still exist on Charlotte Street, Commercial Street, Plummer Avenue and Victoria Road, but their numbers are far less than they were.

Rabbi Ellis suggests the decline of Jewish-owned businesses also has a lot to do with the fact that the children of downtown retailers were encouraged to pursue their education.

“Virtually all young Jewish people in the area were told that while it was okay for their parents to stay and run the business, it was not okay for them to stay, that they should instead go at least as far as Halifax or maybe Montreal or Toronto,” said Ellis.

Chernin agrees there was always pressure on local Jewish children to be successful and for many that meant leaving Cape Breton for the more abundant opportunities in Halifax and beyond.

“Most of them went to university, got educated and moved away — those guys that went away and got their law or medicine, they got the taste of the big city and didn’t want to come back to a small town,” said Chernin, a member of the Cape Breton Business Hall of Fame who in 2015 was inducted as a Member of the Order of Canada.

“There was just more opportunities for education, business and even for finding a wife.”

JEWISH JARGON

Shul – another word for synagogue

– another word for synagogue Rabbi – a Jewish religious leader, teacher or scholar

– a Jewish religious leader, teacher or scholar Minyan – meeting for Jews for public worship

– meeting for Jews for public worship Kosher – food that satisfies the requirements of Jewish law

– food that satisfies the requirements of Jewish law Shalom – means peace, and can be used as both hello and goodbye

– means peace, and can be used as both hello and goodbye Torah – specifically refers to first five book of the 24-book Tanahk; sometimes used to mean totality of Jewish teachings, culture and practice

– specifically refers to first five book of the 24-book Tanahk; sometimes used to mean totality of Jewish teachings, culture and practice Schlock – cheap, shoddy or inferior

– cheap, shoddy or inferior Shmooze – to chat or make small talk

– to chat or make small talk Schmuck – insulting word for a fool

– insulting word for a fool Shtick – something one is known for doing; a routine or gimmick used to draw attention to one’s self

– something one is known for doing; a routine or gimmick used to draw attention to one’s self Goy – a non-Jew, a Gentile; “goyish” used as an adjective

The legendary Gaums

Chernin’s mother Etta, born in 1920, was the seventh of eight children born to Byelorussian immigrants Louie and Pearl Gaum. The Gaums went on to become one of the most well-known and respected families in Cape Breton.

The eldest son, Abe, became a physician and established the Gaum Clinic in Whitney Pier. He was joined in the practice by younger brother Dave, who was also a doctor. Youngest brother Cyril also entered the field of medicine but moved to Massachusetts where he became one of the world’s leading endodontists while also spending 40 years teaching at Tufts University.

Another of Etta’s brothers was Percy, perhaps better known as “Pinky”, who was best known as the Cape Breton Nova MLA between 1956 and 1970. Pinky was a Canadian Air Force veteran who spent two years as a prisoner after being captured during the Second World War before returning home where he worked in the retail and insurance businesses before entering politics.

Etta’s eldest sister Bella managed the Gaum Clinic office and answered the phones, Elizabeth (Libby) married Harry Brenner and moved to Corner Brook, Newfoundland, where they operated a clothing store, and Bessie (Bunny) married Dr. Harold Davidson, a Sydney Academy graduate who would go on to establish a successful eye, ear, nose and throat practice. Davidson, who served as an orthopedic surgeon overseas during the Second World War, was noteworthy for introducing contact lenses to the Maritimes provinces and for co-founding the Seaview Golf Course in 1950.

Etta, who passed away in 2013, was the last of her siblings.

“They all went away”

Martin Chernin sits back in his office chair and mentally accounts for each and every one of his 26 first cousins. After some silent reflection he vocalizes his thoughts.

“Of all my first cousins on both the Gaum and Chernin sides, there are only two of us still here in Cape Breton. Other than Mark Chernin and me, they all went away,” he said.

Marty Chernin

“Most went to Toronto, but there’s also my brother Daniel who went to the Himalayan part of India — he went there 45 years ago when he was 23 for the meditation and he’s still there.”

But it wasn’t just the Gaums and Chernins who left.

Some, like Glace Bay’s Irwin Simon, found success in business south of the border. Irwin, who made his fortune in the organic food industry and built up a multi-company empire, still resides in the New York City area, but recently purchased majority shares in the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles major junior hockey club.

Others, like Irwin’s first cousin Phil David, also became businessmen but remained in Canada. David, who now serves as the executive director of Toronto’s Adath Israel Congregation, was raised in Sydney but knew from a young age that his future lay elsewhere both in terms of career opportunities and love.

“Most of our parents married Jewish and there was always the idea that we would also marry Jewish,” said the 53-year-old David, who grew up above Ike’s Gourmet Delicatessen, a landmark eatery and Jewish food store on Charlotte Street that was owned and operated by his parents.

“We grew up in a very tight community. We were all good friends and we did a lot together, but we always said that we would never find love amongst our friends and that we would have to go away to find that special person.”

Ike’s Delicatessen

Back in Cape Breton, David’s mother Faye, known affectionately as “Tootsie”, reminisces about the old days.

Faye (Tootsie) David, shown in her Sydney high-rise apartment beside pictures of her children and Ike’s Gourmet Delicatessen, says she still misses living above the popular Charlotte Street eatery and store she ran with her late husband Isaac (Ike) David. The delicatessen closed in the early 1990s after more than 40 years in business. The shop, which was well-known for its smoked meat sandwiches and kosher foods, was just one of dozens of Jewish-owned and operated businesses in the urban areas of Industrial Cape Breton in the 20th century.

The New Waterford native, who spent more than a half a century living above the Charlotte Street delicatessen, says she had no desire to return to Cape Breton after moving to Montreal when she was 19.

“I spent nine years there and I loved it — I didn’t really want to come back and I suppose it was what delayed things between me and Ike,” said the nonagenarian, who now resides in a Cabot House apartment that affords a scenic view of Sydney harbour and the surrounding environs.

“I do have a wonderful view, but I miss living downtown because it was where the action was. It was where everything happened. I could take a walk down Charlotte Street and meet someone I knew in every shop along the way.”

Indeed, the delicatessen located at 413 Charlotte Street was one of the most popular businesses in Sydney. And, over the decades, Ike and Tootsie served up more than a few of their famous smoked meat sandwiches to the establishment’s loyal lunchtime crowd.

The delicatessen closed in the early 1990s, while Ike passed away in 2010 at the age of 94.

Present Day

Ike’s wasn’t the only Jewish-owned business to close. But while few stores remain, Cape Breton’s Jewish community still exists – it’s just smaller and less visible than in the 20th century.

Although based in Halifax, Rabbi Ellis is the spiritual leader and advisor to the island’s Jewish communities. However, he’s not making the trip to Cape Breton as often as he once did.

“It’s down to major holidays and funerals,” admitted Ellis, who added that he will journey to the Temple Sons of Israel synagogue in Sydney if needed.

However, the rabbi acknowledged those occasions are few and far between as it is becoming more and more infrequent to assemble the minyan (a quorum of at least 10 men over the age of 13) that is required for traditional Jewish public worship.

“The story of Cape Breton’s Jewish people is fascinating and unique – I’m not sure what the future will hold here for Jewish people, but they’ve certainly had a tremendous impact on their communities.”

JEW OR JEWISH?

It’s okay to use Christian and Muslim as nouns, but is it acceptable to call a person a Jew? Or is it better to refer to someone as a Jewish person? Author and freelance journalist Mark Oppenheimer addressed the issue in an opinion piece that appeared in the New York Times on April 23, 2017. Here is an excerpt:

“Jews, like other minority or marginalized groups, are entitled to a noun to call our own. Such a word will have as many meanings as there are people who claim it, but no matter. When asked by somebody scrutinizing our last name or facial features, “What’s your heritage?” we should be able to answer, with whatever meaning we impart to it, “I’m a Jew.” For most of us, speaking such a sentence would feel odd, even scary. But it doesn’t have to. It shouldn’t.”



