Between Ashkenaz and Québécois
Fifty Years of Francophone Sephardim in Montréal
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 19463590 |
|---|---|
| Authors | William F S Miles (0000-0001-5557-9222, Northeastern University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2012 |
| Volume | 16 |
| Issue | 1-2 |
| Pages | 29-66 |
| Publication date | 2012-03-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Diaspora A Journal of Transnational Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1044-2057 • E-ISSN: 1911-1568 |
| Publisher | University of Toronto Press Inc. (UTPress) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.3138/diaspora.16.1-2.29 |
| OpenAlex | W4239575525 |
| Language | DE |
| Citations received | 2 |
As a result of its historical cleavage on the basis of language (English and French) and the continuing importance of a majoritarian Francophone province (Québec), Canada is proactive about protecting communal identity. This double context of a proactive Canadian commitment to identity and Québécois commitment to Francophonie inadvertently encourages the preservation of ethnolinguistic distinctions within the Jewish community. Diasporic Jewish experience in Canada is thus intrinsically different from what prevails in the United States, particularly as it relates to Francophone Jewry. In Montréal, the religious ideal of klal Yisrael—unity of the Jewish people— is significantly tempered by the bilingual host environment. Canadian multiculturalism serves as a buffer for the ethnic identity of Jews from North Africa, while Montréal bilingualism encourages Frenchspeaking Jews to preserve their identity as Francophones. Ideal notions thus operate in contradiction with social fact: the ethnoreligious ideal of a single Jewish people transcending all sub-group divergences versus the lived reality that Ashkenazim and Sephardim are distanced by divergent histories, traits, languages, and rites. This surrounding national (and, in Québec, sub-national) context fosters— indeed, encourages—the preservation of ethnolinguistic distinctions within the Jewish community. In this way, the Québec Jewish experience differs substantially from both Israel (where language is no longer a significant differentiator between Ashkenazim and Sephardim) and the United States. These conclusions remain salient fifty years after the Sephardic community first began its collective emigration to Québec
Aesthetics · Art · Ethnic group · Ethnology · French · Genealogy · Humanities · Jewish identity · Judaism · Multiculturalism · National identity · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Anthropology · Canadian Identity and History · Gender Studies · History · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies · Jewish Identity and Society · Law
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,33 |
| Citation span | 2020 - 2023 (4) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |