100 Years of CHW History After passionately supporting programs and services for Children, Healthcare and Women in Israel and Canada for over 100 years, CHW has a lot of stories to tell. And so continues this special series, featuring the history of CHW Centres across Canada.
CHW in New Brunswick: The Strength of Saint John By Esther Kulik
The generation of Holocaust survivors is now elderly, but the challenge of living with the history of being the victims of a mass extermination campaign has not disappeared. Canada opened its doors to immigrants and holocaust survivors after World War II. Unlike most immigrants to Canada, Jews did not come from a place where they were the majority cultural group. As time passed, the new immigrants settled in and built new lives across Canada, including Saint John, New Brunswick. The Jewish population growth was progressively established by three waves of immigration that built the foundation of the Saint John Jewish community. These three waves of immigration span more than a century, beginning long before any world war, and each group contributed culture and history to the city.
Alice Hart
Bessie Newfield
Solomon Hart
The First Wave of Immigration The first Jewish resident of Saint John was David Gabel, who immigrated with his wife and children in 1783, arriving after the American Revolution. He established a butcher shop and bakery at Kings Square. However, the founding of the Saint John Jewish community began in 1858 with 46
ORAH Magazine Summer 2019
the arrival of Solomon and Alice Hart and their extended family. The Harts sailed from London, England, by way of New York City, to Saint John and then made it their permanent home, where they had twelve children; six of whom survived. Solomon Hart established a successful tobacco business, and by 1860, Saint John was already known as a large hub of commerce and the third largest urban centre in North America. There were 15 Jewish families in Saint John when the city’s first synagogue was built in 1881, with the help of people of all faiths in the community. Only 10 years later, there were 43 Jewish families living in the city. The first Jewish wedding was between Elizabeth Hart and Louis Green in October 1882. It was an elite social event and was attended by top civic and political figures, regardless of religious affiliation. The first organized Jewish women’s group in Saint John was ‘The Daughters of Israel,’ founded in January 1899 by Alice Hart to “help the needy and nourish the sick.” These women were committed to providing assistance to immigrant families, as well as aiding the sick. Barred from political and economic involvement in Victorian society, middle and upper class women begun to take an active role in philanthropic work. By 1900, much of the immigrant aid work, and early benevolent societies were founded and performed by women. The Daughters of Israel were one of the first of a growing number of ladies-aid societies across Canada, Jewish and non-Jewish, which raised funds for relief work and immigration assistance, among other community programs.
