Honorary Protestants: The Jewish School Question in Montreal, 1867-1997

by David Fraser, The Osgoode Society

Overview

When the Constitution Act of 1867 was enacted, section 93 guaranteed certain educational rights to Catholics and Protestants in Quebec, but not to any others. Over the course of the next century, the Jewish community in Montreal carved out an often tenuous arrangement for public schooling as “honorary Protestants,” based on complex negotiations with the Protestant and Catholic school boards, the provincial government, and individual municipalities. In the face of the constitution’s exclusionary language, all parties gave their compromise a legal form which was frankly unconstitutional, but unavoidable if Jewish children were to have access to public schools. Bargaining in the shadow of the law, they made their own constitution long before the formal constitutional amendment of 1997 finally put an end to the issue.

In Honorary Protestants, David Fraser presents the first legal history of the Jewish school question in Montreal. Based on extensive archival research, it highlights the complex evolution of concepts of rights, citizenship, and identity, negotiated outside the strict legal boundaries of the constitution.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781442630505
Publisher:	University of Toronto Press
Publication date:	11/26/2015
Series:	Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	536
File size:	916 KB

About the Author

David Fraser is a professor in the School of Law at the University of Nottingham.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Introduction: Constituting Law, Constituting Justice in the Jewish School Question
Chapter 2: Invoking Equality, Invoking Legality: Jews Constituting Their Canadian Identity
Chapter 3: Schools, Taxes, Jews, Catholics (and Protestants): The Origins of the Jewish School Question
Chapter 4: Jews and Roman Catholics, School Taxes and Protestants: The First Jewish School Question
Chapter 5: Taxes, the Rabbi and the Schoolboy: S 93 and the Pinsler Case
Chapter 6: Promises, Promises: “Honorary Protestants” in Protestant Schools
Chapter 7: Jews, Protestants, and Taxes (Again): The Jewish School Question in the 1920s
Chapter 8: Jews, Protestants, Roman Catholics, and the Law: The Jewish School Question Goes to Court
Chapter 9: Jews, Protestants, and Roman Catholics: Two Crises, and the Jewish School Question, 1928–31
Chapter 10: The Protestant Jews of Ste. Sophie and La Macaza: Constituting School and Community in Rural Quebec
Chapter 11: Outremont and Beyond: The Jewish School Question Moves West
Chapter 12: Hampstead and Beyond: From the Ghetto to Citizenship and Equality under Law’s Shadow
Chapter 13: TMR, St. Laurent, Côte Saint-Luc: Democracy, Law, and the End of the Jewish School Question
Chapter 14: Constituting Canada and the Jewish School Question in Montreal

What People are Saying About This

Gerald Tulchinsky

“The story of the ‘Jewish School Question’ has never before been told in such compelling detail, nor within the context of a learned discussion of ‘rights,’ ‘citizenship,’ and ‘identity.’ ‘Honorary Protestants’ constitutes an exceedingly important contribution to the history of Canadian education, the social politics of the Montreal Jewish community, and the relationships between the Jewish, Protestant, and Roman Catholic constituencies in the province of Quebec.”

Eric H. Reiter

“‘Honorary Protestants’ presents an important corrective to the twentieth-century focus of much of the history of civil liberties in Quebec and Canada. As David Fraser demonstrates, fundamental rights and liberties were being debated already in the nineteenth century, long before conscription crises, the Red Scares, and Duplessis’s guerre sans merci of the 1930s and 1940s.”

Editorial Reviews

‘With the appearance of Fraser’s Honorary Protestants, I can refer to a full legal history of the topic that is exhaustive in its attention to detail. The book is extensively researched and forcefully argued.’

—Roderick MacLeod, Canadian Jewish Studies vol 24:2016

‘ Honorary Protestants is an impeccably researched history of the tensions, contexts, and meanings of the struggles to delineate how, in what manner, and with which accommodations Jewish children were schooled in the Montreal public school system.’

—David S. Koffman, University of Toronto Quarterly vol 86:03:2017

" Honorary Protestants is a valuable new contribution to educational history that should appeal to all historians in Canada interested in understanding the intricate links between law, policy, and the social realities of public schooling. Fraser’s study is a welcome addition to educational history, and has set new standards for research into the legal underpinnings of mass schooling. It will serve students and senior scholars well in the years to come."

—Anthony Di Mascio, Bishop's University, History of Intellectual Culture, vol 11 1

“The story of the ‘Jewish School Question’ has never before been told in such compelling detail, nor within the context of a learned discussion of ‘rights,’ ‘citizenship,’ and ‘identity.’ ‘Honorary Protestants’ constitutes an exceedingly important contribution to the history of Canadian education, the social politics of the Montreal Jewish community, and the relationships between the Jewish, Protestant, and Roman Catholic constituencies in the province of Quebec.”

—Gerald Tulchinsky, Professor Emeritus, Department of History, Queen's University

“‘Honorary Protestants’ presents an important corrective to the twentieth-century focus of much of the history of civil liberties in Quebec and Canada. As David Fraser demonstrates, fundamental rights and liberties were being debated already in the nineteenth century, long before conscription crises, the Red Scares, and Duplessis’s guerre sans merci of the 1930s and 1940s.”

—Eric H. Reiter, Department of History, Concordia University

From the Publisher

'Honorary Protestants is an impeccably researched history of the tensions, contexts, and meanings of the struggles to delineate how, in what manner, and with which accommodations Jewish children were schooled in the Montreal public school system.'

University of Toronto Quarterly vol 86:03:2017 - David S. Koffman

'With the appearance of Fraser's Honorary Protestants, I can refer to a full legal history of the topic that is exhaustive in its attention to detail. The book is extensively researched and forcefully argued.'

Canadian Jewish Studies vol 24:2016 - Roderick MacLeod

"Honorary Protestants is a valuable new contribution to educational history that should appeal to all historians in Canada interested in understanding the intricate links between law, policy, and the social realities of public schooling. Fraser's study is a welcome addition to educational history, and has set new standards for research into the legal underpinnings of mass schooling. It will serve students and senior scholars well in the years to come."

History of Intellectual Culture, vol 11 1 - Anthony Di Mascio