Social Discredit: Anti-Semitism, Social Credit, and the Jewish Response

299 Pages·2000·17.54 MB·English

by  Janine Stingel

Social Discredit
Anti-Semitism, Social Credit, and the Jewish Response
In Social Discredit Janine Stingel exposes a crucial, yet previously
neglected, part of Social Credit history - the virulent, anti-Jewish
campaign it undertook before, during, and after the Second World
War. While most Canadians acknowledged the perils of race hatred
in the wake of the Holocaust, Social Credit intensified its anti-
Semitic campaign.
By examining Social Credit's anti-Semitic propaganda and the
reaction of the Canadian Jewish Congress, Stingel details their
mutual antagonism and explores why Congress was unable to stop
Social Credit's blatant defamation. She argues that Congress's inef-
fective response was part of a broader problem in which passivity
and a belief in "quiet diplomacy" undermined many of its efforts to
combat intolerance.
Stingel shows that both Social Credit and Congress changed
considerably in the post-war period, as Social Credit abandoned its
anti-Semitic trappings and Congress gradually adopted an assertive
and pugnacious public relations philosophy that made it a champion
of human rights in Canada. Social Discredit offers a fresh perspec-
tive on both the Social Credit movement and the Canadian Jewish
Congress, substantively revising Social Credit historiography and
providing a valuable addition to Canadian Jewish studies.
JANINE STINGEL is a research consultant in Ottawa.
McGill-Queen's Studies in Ethnic History
Series One: Donald Harman Akenson, Editor
1 Irish Migrants in the Canadas 9 The People of Glengarry
A New Approach Highlanders in Transition,
Bruce S. Elliott 1745-1820
Marianne McLean
2 Critical Years in Immigration
Canada and Australia Compared 10 Vancouver's Chinatown
Freda Hawkins Racial Discourse in Canada,
(Second edition, 1991) 1875-1980
Kay J. Anderson
3 Italians in Toronto
Development of a National 11 Best Left as Indians
Identity, 1875-1935 Native-White Relations in the
John E. Zucchi Yukon Territories, 1840-1973
Ken Coates
4 Linguistics and Poetics of Latvian
Folk Songs 12 Such Hardworking People
Essays in Honour of the Sesquicen- Italian Immigrants in Postwar
tennial of the Birth of Kr. Barons Toronto
Vaira Vikis-Freibergs Franca lacovetta
5 Johan Schroder's Travels in 13 The Little Slaves of the Harp
Canada, 1863 Italian Child Street Musicians
Orm 0verland in Nineteenth-Century Paris,
London, and New York
6 Class, Ethnicity, and Social John E. Zucchi
Inequality
Christopher McAll 14 The Light of Nature and the
Law of God
7 The Victorian Interpretation of Antislavery in Ontario,
Racial Conflict 1833-1877
The Maori, the British, and the Allen P. Stouffer
New Zealand Wars
James Belich 15 Drum Songs
Glimpses of Dene History
8 White Canada Forever Kerry Abel
Popular Attitudes and Public
Policy towards Orientals in 16 Louis Rosenberg
British Columbia Canada's Jews
W. Peter Ward Edited by Morton Weinfeld
(Second edition, 1990)
17 A New Lease on Life 22 Resistance and Pluralism
Landlords, Tenants, and Immi- A Cultural History of Guyana,
grants in Ireland and Canada 1838-1900
Catharine Anne Wilson Brian L. Moore
18 In Search of Paradise 23 Search Out the Land
The Odyssey of an Italian Family The Jews and the Growth of
Susan Gabori Equality in British Colonial
America, 1740-1867
19 Ethnicity in the Mainstream Sheldon J. Godfrey and
Three Studies of English Judith C. Godfrey
Canadian Culture in Ontario
Pauline Greenhill 24 The Development of Elites in
Acadian New Brunswick,
20 Patriots and Proletarians 1861-1881
The Politicization of Hungarian Sheila M. Andrew
Immigrants in Canada, 192.3-1939
Carmela Patrias 25 Journey to Vaja
Reconstructing the World of a
21 The Four Quarters of the Night Hungarian-Jewish Family
The Life-Journey of an Elaine Kalman Naves
Emigrant Sikh
Tara Singh Bains and
Hugh Johnston
McGill-Queen's Studies in Ethnic History
Series Two: John Zucchi, Editor
Inside Ethnic Families With Scarcely a Ripple
Three Generations of Portuguese- Anglo-Canadian Migration into
Canadians the United States and Western
Edite Noivo Canada, 1880-1920
Randy William Widdis
A House of Words
Jewish Writing, Identity, and Creating Societies
Memory Immigrant Lives in Canada
Norman Ravvin Dirk Hoerder
Oatmeal and the Catechism
Scottish Gaelic Settlers in Quebec
Margaret Bennett
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Social Discredit
Anti-Semitism, Social Credit,
and the Jewish Response
JANINE STINGEL
McGill-Queen's University Press
Montreal 8t Kingston • London • Ithaca
McGill-Queen's University Press 2000
ISBN 0-7735-2.010-4
Legal deposit first quarter 2000
Bibliotheque nationale du Quebec
Printed in Canada on acid-free paper
This book has been published with the help of
a grant from the Humanities and Social Sciences
Federation of Canada, using funds provided by
the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council
of Canada.
McGill-Queen's University Press acknowledges the
financial support of the Government of Canada
through the Book Publishing Industry Development
Program (BPIDP) for its publishing activities. We also
acknowledge the support of the Canada Council
for the Arts for our publishing program.
Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data
Stingel, Janine, 1966-
Social discredit : anti-semitism, Social Credit, and the
Jewish response
(McGill-Queen's studies in ethnic history)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-7735-2010-4
1. Antisemitism - Alberta - History - 2oth century.
2. Alberta Social Credit League. 3. Canadian Jewish
Congress - History. 4. Jews - Alberta - Politics and
government, i. Title, n. Series.
JL339.A57S75 2000 099-900853-6
305.8'92'4O7i 2309043
Typeset in Sabon 10/12
by Caractera inc., Quebec City
For Keegstra's "children," whose trust was betrayed
"I never really knew much about Jews until this year.
In other grades, all I was told was that the Jews are a
RACE that are discriminated against. They had never had
a fair chance. But not one of the teachers ever stopped
to tell me of their TRUE origin. This year I learned of
their origin and their wicked plans, and I am very scared
that the world is going to fall to them. I only hope that
we Christians will be strong enough to fight off their
Satanic hate."
Student essay, Eckville High School, quoted in "Keegstra's
Children," by Robert Mason Lee, Saturday Night,
May 1985
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Contents
Tables xi
Preface and Acknowledgments xiii
Abbreviations xvii
Map xviii
Illustrations between pages 78-84
1 Introduction 3
2 Social Credit and the Canadian Jewish Congress 8
3 Early Confrontations 32
4 Denials and Duplicity 56
5 A Worsening Climate 85
6 "Hamlet without the Ghost" 122
7 A Period of Watchful Waiting 152
8 Conclusion 187
APPENDICES
A Social Credit Career Sketches 193
B Canadian Jewish Congress Career Sketches 203
Notes 211
Bibliography 251
Index 271