Rome Among the Bishops: An Immigrant Jew Explores The Unknown Worlds of French Canada

The Lithuanian-born David Rome (1910-1996) immigrated to Canada in 1921 and settled in Montreal in the 1930s. In 1942 he was hired as press officer by the Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC). From 1953 to 1972, he was Director of the Jewish Public Library; thereafter he served as archivist at the CJC. The author outlines a case study of the role played by Rome in pioneering Jewish-Christian dialogue initiatives in Quebec during the complex and evolving relationship between Montreal's English-identified Jewish community and the French-speaking Quebec majority, as the latter transitioned in the years after the Second World War from a Catholic religious to a secular language-and-culture based nationalist society.

Canadian Jewish Studies / Études juives canadiennes

Vol. 20

15-55

2012

en