Alex Dworkin Canadian Jewish Archives
The Alex Dworkin Canadian Jewish Archives is a
program of Jewish Federations of Canada-UIA. Previously
known as the Canadian Jewish Congress CC National Archives
(CJCCCNA), the Archives was established by the Canadian Jewish
Congress in 1934. Our general mandate is to collect and preserve
documentation of the Jewish presence in Quebec and Canada. Since
January 1, 1992, we have benefited from the status of "Service
agréé d'archives privées," a program of the Bibliothèque et
Archives nationales du Québec. Beginning in 2011, we gratefully
acknowledge the support of the Alex Dworkin Foundation for
Jewish Archives of the Jewish Community Foundation of
Montreal. Our name officially changed to Alex Dworkin Canadian
Jewish Archives in January 2016.
The CJ Archives has many
programmatic ties to the Concordia University Chair in Canadian Jewish
Studies and serves on its Community Advisory Board. We also
work in close collaboration with the Association of
Canadian Jewish Studies and have ties to the Quebec Anglo Heritage
Network and the Montreal archives section of the Reseau des
Services d'Archives du Québec.
The focus of our archival
holdings was first developed under the direction of
archivist/historian David Rome. All aspects of the concerns of
the Jewish community are reflected in the collection: immigration,
integration into Canadian society, community organization, Zionism,
oppressed Jewry in other countries, human rights issues and
discrimination, education, literature, genealogy and much more. The
total size of the collection exceeds 1450 linear metres. For
an inventory of fonds and descriptions of some of the major
collections, see under Collections.
Since 2011,
detailed information about much of our holdings is available via
the Canadian Jewish Heritage
Network database, a project initially funded by the
Samuel and Saidye Bronfman Family Foundation, now continuing under
the auspices of the Alex Dworkin Foundation for Jewish Archives.
Information continues to be added to this platform. If you do not
find what you are looking for on a Canadian Jewish topic after
searching this site, we encourage you to contact us in
order to continue your research.
An additional resource available through the Alex Dworkin Canadian
Jewish Archives is our Interpretive Guide to the United
Restitution Organization Claims Files, a series of web
pages designed to assist historians, survivors, and family members
of survivors to understand the complex documents generated in
attempts to obtain compensation from the German government after
World War II. This project was funded by a grant from the
Rabbi Israel Miller Fund for Shoah Research, Documentation and
Education of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against
Germany.
Genealogy and other family
history research using this Archives' resources has become
much easier with the launch of our genealogy resource database, a
component of the Canadian Jewish Heritage Network website made
possible by the support of Penny Rubinoff, with additional
contributions from the Jewish Genealogical Society of Montreal.
Another frequently consulted
resource that we offer is the database of Canadian Jewish
Casualties in the Canadian Armed Forces. This
information is now housed on the Family
History database of the Canadian Heritage Network.
The Archives publishes and distributes a monograph series,
Canadian Jewish Archives, new series,
compiled by David Rome. Some of the collection finding aids are
also available for purchase. Prices for the Canadian Jewish
Archives New Series can be found on our Publications list.
Dr. Norma Joseph, Advisory Committee Chair, Alex Dworkin
Canadian Jewish Archives
Janice Rosen, Director of the Alex Dworkin Canadian Jewish
Archives archives@cjarchives.ca