Frozen Chosen

Canadian Jews numbered 240,000 in the 2001 census. In 2011, the Greater Toronto Area is home to 188,710 Jews. Montreal and Toronto are home to 80-85-% of Canadian Jews. The first Jews immigrated to Canada in the 1750s. They, too, had to compromise their Jewish identity to gain entrance into the Americas. Canada was under the rule of the French colonizers. The Colonizers banned Jews and all non-Catholics from settling. Some Jews side-stepped these restrictions by converting to Catholicism. The first significant wave of Jewish immigrants immigrated to Canada, arriving with General Jeffery Amherst in 1760. Most Jewish settlers emigrated from the United States and settled in urban centers, the majority in Montreal. The 1831 census recorded 197 Jewish residents in Upper and Lower Canada. By 1851, the number had increased in trade and contributed to the country’s economic growth. Jewish immigration to Canada peaked between 1900 and 1914, when almost 100,000 entered the country.