Le Devoir et les Juifs : Complexités d’une relation sans cesse changeante (1910-1963)

Expressions of anti-Semitism in the Montreal newspaper Le Devoir have been a key issue in Quebec Jewish historiography. The author points out that for more than thirty years, the topic has been passionately debated, at times evoking contradictory statements that usually attract significant media attention. The author claims to approach the question somewhat differently. He undertook a systematic analysis of all editorials published in the newspaper over a fifty-year period, from the foundation of Le Devoir in 1910 to the nomination of Claude Ryan as editor in 1963. He argues that his careful reading of close to 16,000 editorials reveals that Jews and Judaism did not, in fact, attract much attention in the pages of Le Devoir. He claims that the newspaper's editorialists only showed a significant interest in the subject of Jewish people between 1933 and 1939, in the context of the Nazi persecution of Jews in Europe. A mistrust of Jews continued to be expressed in Le Devoir until the mid-1940s, but the most explicit examples were published during the Great Depression of the 1930s. The author attempts to understand why Le Devoir expressed such reticence to the Jewish presence in Quebec, an attitude that was rooted in the teachings of the pre-Vatican II Catholic Church.

Globe. Revue internationale d’études québécoises

Vol. 18

no. 1

169-201

2015

fr