Negotiating Jewish Canadian Identity: Montreal Yiddish Literary Journals in the Interwar Period

In the first decades of the twentieth century, Yiddish journals emerged worldwide in tandem with the periodical press as a vanguard of modern Jewish culture. Canada's Yiddish publishing capital of Montreal produced a dozen interwar journals dedicated to Yiddish literature. The author argues that these journals published innovative works by writers across Canada while forging links with both international Yiddish culture and world literature. With a shared roster of Canadian writers, the journals gave voice to ideological rifts in the Yiddish world: journals of the 1920s such as "Nyuansn" promoted an "art for art's sake" approach; the proletarian journals that dominated the Depression era such as "Montreol" and "Heftn" linked literature with the struggle of the working class. Together, the journals provided a forum for emerging writers in a minor Yiddish center, closely connected to the major centers in Europe and the United States, to negotiate their evolving identities as Canadian Jews.

Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies

Vol. 27

no. 4

24-48

Summer 2009

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