Remembrance Week public lecture at the Miles Nadal Jewish Community Centre: Why it’s time Canada recognized the Jewish men and women who helped win WWll

Double Threat: Canadians, the Military, and World War Two”.  An interactive talk by Ellin Bessner, author and journalist. 

Seventy two years ago, the Second World War came to an end. For the Jews of Canada, this war was what the Prime Minister called a “Double Threat”: he said Hitler was not only dangerous to freedom and democracy, but was a threat to the very survival of the Jewish people as a race. In spite of this backdrop, or maybe because of it, more nearly 17,000 Jewish Canadians enlisted in every branch of the service, and in the merchant marine. They fought and died in every major battle including Hong Kong, Dieppe, the Battle of Britain, the Battle of the Atlantic, North Africa, Ortona, D-Day, Falaise, the Scheldt, and throughout Northwest Europe, and in the Pacific.

Over 190 received military honours for bravery. Nearly 450 did not come home. You can find Canadian Jewish military graves from WWll, in all corners of the world, including the large cemeteries of Normandy, as well as in Germany, England, and Holland…plus in far-flung places such as Iceland, Ghana, Libya, and Crete.

Ellin will introduce you to some of the more famous Canadian Jews in uniform: Farley Mowat’s doctor; a Member of Parliament’s son;  comedian David Steinberg’s oldest brother; “Let’s Make a Deal” host Monty Hall’s cousin; former defence minister Barney Danson’s best friend. Hear about a Communist who ran the Steelworkers union;  Toronto MPP Monte Kwinter’s cousin; the daughter of the biggest department store owner in the Maritimes.

As we mark the 72nd anniversary of the end of the war, and Remembrance Day 2017,  hear Ellin Bessner tell us who these Jewish Canadian fighters were,  why they went, and what their lives were like as Jews, both here in Canada and in the barracks and on the battlefield.

Watch Ellin at the Miles Nadal JCC in 2016, when she interviewed veteran Lorne Winer on why he was honoured to receive the Legion d’honneur from the French Government.