Jewish Collection

Third Biennial Maritime Judean Conference, 1936, Beaton Institute Collection MG 21.5 C.4.1.38

This collection of interviews provides insight into the Jewish communities in Sydney, Whitney Pier, New Waterford, and Glace Bay during the 20th century. With Jews arriving at the Halifax pier from 1880 through to the 1940s, many moved to Cape Breton Island for work in trading, retail, accounting, law and medicine. The accounts of settlement, establishment, community building and migration to larger metropolitan cities in North America reveal a pattern common amongst Jewish communities across Canada. These interviews and audiovisual materials are meant to complement family collections preserved by former residents. Recordings found in this living archive were collected by Ely Rosenblum, with the hope that more will be added to enrich the legacy of a Jewish Cape Breton.

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