Secular Yiddishkait: Left Politics, Culture, and Community

Presents a history and personal memoir of the experiences of secular Jewish radicals in Canada in the early decades of the 20th century. The Canadian Jewish community consisted largely of recent immigrants from Eastern Europe who came to Canada and the United States to escape both pogroms and poverty. The article focuses on elements of the culture and community life of this immigrant population, particularly on the role played by children's summer camps and the experience of exploitation and anti-Semitism in the Americas that explains the strong attraction of socialism and communism for the immigrant Jews.