Diaspora Solidarities: Refugees, Human Rights, and the Jewish Labour Committee of Canada, 1936-1967

This transnational history of the Jewish Labour Committee of Canada (JLC) retraces the organisations narratives, networks, and practices of diaspora solidarity, from the moment of its establishment and into the post-war period. The JLCs activists refracted their solidarities through the lens of a diasporic Jewish identity. At a time when Canada imposed strong barriers against refugees, the JLC worked to send aid to the anti-fascist resistance in Europe while participating in a series of immigration schemes to bring Jews from displaced persons camps over to Canada. It was in this unique moment that the JLC could also launch pioneering human rights and anti-racism campaigns within the labour movement. Representing one section of the organised Jewish community in Canada, the JLC proved a critical part of the transformation of the countrys treatment of refugees and minorities in the following decades.