Collection

LABOUR ZIONIST ALLIANCE : Addition to JPL fonds at CJCNA.

Description Level

Fonds

Physical Description

Env. 6.1 metres of textual records. - 32 photographs. - 16 sound elements. - 6 artefacts.

Scope and Content

9 boxes of records (of which about 1 box was discarded, of financial records.) One of the boxes includes files of photos and another box has framed items and artifacts. Records include cemetery plots of the LZA, office business.Addition 2007: 8 additional boxes of paper records. Much of the material concerns financial records and cemetery management information. Also one small box of receipts and bank materials less than 7 years old which will be discarded once the legal retention date has passed.Addition 2010: This addition to the Farband/ Labour Zionist Alliance collection consists of slightly more than two boxes (approximately 80 centimetres) of documents, including a minute book from 1957-1962 and minute book from 1996-1998 and loose minutes from the 1990s, correspondence between the local office and the New York, Toronto offices, as well as affiliated organizations, local office publications and national LZA publications, and some clippings and ephemera, mostly loose in a scrapbook. The scrapbook items were assembled by the Executive Directors of the LZA (Reuven Shultz) and Histadrut (Abraham Shurem.) Included among the publications are a few American newsletters or booklets which reference the Canadian branches. The papers include a file of documents pertaining to the Jewish People's School in the 1950s and to the Habonim Youth movement, donated by LZA member Deena Delusy Apel, and a collection of LZA newsletters donated by newsletter editor Izzie Naschshen. Also on paper, framed, oversize, is the original 1956 charter of the Jewish National Worker's Alliance, Caiserman Branch #336, Montreal (the LZA name changed to Jewish National Worker's Alliance in 1982.) There is an album containing 28 photographs as well as 1 loose regular size photos and 4 oversize ones, two of which are rolled and two framed. One of the framed photographs is of the founding of Canadian Jewish Congress in 1919 (copy print.) The other oversize framed photograph is of a Farewell dinner for Hyman Riett, IGWU manager, before his departure for Israel in 1950 (now removed from frame.) A third large framed copy print, of the members of the Syrkin branch c. 1920s, was discoloured and in a damaged glass frame, so was discarded. The two unframed oversize photos, now unrolled, depict a 1946 Labour Zionist movement group gather for the Berl Locker dinner at the Jewish People's School, and a 1948 Histadrut group from Winnipeg, donated by Tamar Kofsky to the LZA. There are 3 audio cassettes, dated in the 1970s, of meetings where Abraham Shurem spoke, 12 videocassette (VHS) recordings of interviews and meetings, and one DVD (transferred from a videocassette.) There is also a metal sign measuring 10" by 16" showing the LZA name in Yiddish and English, 2 convention kit bags (Labour Zionist Allience and Histadrut 1981) and two Labour Zionist banners with logos, used at conferences, one in the 1980s and one earlier.

Date

1942-2007.

Fonds No.

I0085

History / Biographical

The Labour Zionist Alliance works for peace, economic justice and pluralism in Israel and America through a variety of programs and activities. The organization reinforces Jewish continuity through Habonim Dror, the Labour Zionist youth movement. Claiming an official founding date of 1905, the Labour Zionist Alliance arose out of the Poale-Zion and the Farband. Poale Zion was started in 1905, while the Farband was formed in 1910 of a number of organizations, with the Poale Zion joining the Farband somewhat later, even though they had similar roots. The name 'Labour Zionist Alliance' was a modernization of the name Farband and also signified its ties to the Israel Labour Party, which historically had been the party of governance in Israel. Though it officially changed its name to the Labour Zionist Alliance of Canada in 1980 when the organization legally separated from the Labour Zionists in the United States, the Yiddish, and more popular name 'Farband', continued to be favored by the membership.Although 'Poale-Zion' is Yiddish for 'Labour Zion' and 'Farband' means 'Alliance', the two terms can also be seen as milestones marking different periods of life, as young people were attracted for the most part to Poale Zion, while older people were attracted to the Farband. Despite much overlap, Poale Zion was considered the more political and radical organization, with the mission of addressing the working class, pointing to the Yishuv (settlement) in Palestine as a model, and initiating education to prepare for life on a kibbutz. The Farband was primarily a welfare organization which addressed the need for a cemetery and health care and maintained a Yiddish culture through its club activities. Another distinction between the two, although not as sharp in Montreal as it was elsewhere, was the tension over Yiddish. Throughout the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s the youth did not have the deep feelings about Yiddish that the older members had. Whereas the veteran members wanted to continue proceedings in Yiddish, the younger members associated this language with an inglorious past, sharing the view of the dominant Labour Zionists in Israel who were antagonistic to it.As was the case with many other Jewish organizations, the Labour Zionist Alliance was an international organization, and the members shared the common culture of the new immigrants in the first decades. But with time the Canadians felt overshadowed by the Americans. Canadians felt they were under-represented and undervalued and that their cultural values were parting ways. In particular, the establishment of universal health care in Canada represented one essential benefit that the Canadian organization did not have to provide, a factor that allowed the Canadian organization to experience less financial difficulties than the American one and that increased the separation between the two. (Based on notes provided by R. Shultz, LZA director, Dec. 2006.)

Custodial History

The donation was arranged through Robert Shultz at the Labour Zionist Office on Kildare Ave., by initial deposit at the Jewish Public library on the advice of LZ member and library deposit volunteer Henry Rabin. It was then transferred to us by E. Harris. sa. other Labour Zionist records at CJCNAAddition 2007: The collection was transferred on March 20, 2007 from the Jewish Public Library to CJCCCNA, with the help of Reuven Shultz. They were orignally donated to the JPL in April 2005 by the organization.Addition 2010: This addition was made on July 13 and 19, 2010 by Robert Shultz at closing of Labour Zionist Alliance office.

Notes

Alpha-numeric designations: P03/18, MC 11, Add, P07/08, and P10/10.General note: The Labour Zionist movement consists of the Labour Zionist Allience (formerly known by its Yiddish name, the Farband), Naamat, Histadrut and Habonim. The LZA became the Jewish National Worker's Alliance in 1982. The Labour Zionist Alliance is now known as the LZ Trust. (information from Reuven Shultz.).

Archival / Genealogical

Archival Descriptions

Repository

Canadian Jewish Archives

Less detail