Like Everyone Else but Different : the Paradoxical Success of Canadian Jews

A timely analysis of the possibilities and challenges of multiculturalism as seen in the iconic case of Canada’s Jewish community. A timely analysis of the possibilities and challenges of multiculturalism as seen in the iconic case of Canada’s Jewish community. "Liberal democratic societies with diverse populations generally offer minorities two usually contradictory objectives: the first is equal integration and participation, the second is an opportunity, within limits, to retain their culture. Yet Canadian Jews are successfully integrated into all domains of Canadian life, while at the same time they also seem able to retain their distinct identities by blending traditional religious values and rituals with contemporary cultural options. Like Everyone Else but Different illustrates how Canadian Jews have created a space within Canada's multicultural environment that paradoxically overcomes the potential dangers of assimilation and diversity. At the same time, this comprehensive and data-driven study documents and interprets new trends and challenges including rising rates of intermarriage, newer progressive religious options, finding equal space for women and LGBTQ Jews, tensions between non-Orthodox and Orthodox Jews, and new forms of real and perceived anti-Semitism often related to Israel or Zionism, on campus and elsewhere. The striking feature of the Canadian Jewish community is its diversity. While this diversity can lead to cases of internal conflict, it also offers opportunities for adaptation and survival. Seventeen years after its first publication, this new edition of Like Everyone Else but Different provides definitive updates that blend research studies, survey and census data, newspaper accounts and articles, and the author's personal observations and experiences to provide an informative, provocative, and fascinating account of Jewish life and multiculturalism in contemporary Canada."-- Provided by publisher Cover -- Title page -- Copyright -- Contents -- Preface to the Second Edition -- Preface to the First Edition -- Introduction: A Paradoxical People: Diversity and Success -- 1. Who Are the Jews? The Elements of Jewish Diversity -- 2. Quality, Quantity, and Conflict: The Socio-demographic Context of Jewish Survival -- 3. Building a Community: Migration and Regional Settlement -- 4. Earning a Living: From Work to Wealth -- 5. The Bonds of Intimacy: Jewish Families and Relationships -- 6. The Communal Foundation of Jewish Life: People, Neighbourhoods, and Organizations -- 7. Between High Culture and Daily Life: From Literature and Art to Klezmer and Kugel -- 8. The People of the Book: Jewish Education and Jewish Survival -- 9. Jews, Judaism, and the Public Square: The Political Behaviour of Canadian Jews -- 10. A Holy Nation: Canadian Judaism between Tradition and Modernity -- 11. Sticks, Stones, and Social Relations: The Evolving Forms of Anti-Semitism -- Epilogue: A Canadian Jewish Model? -- Appendices -- Appendix One: Counts of the Canadian Jewish Population -- Appendix Two: Sources of Evidence -- Appendix Three: Bibliographic Essay -- Notes -- Index