AROUND OUR REGION : PEI
PEI NEWS A Snapshot of the Jewish Community in Charlottetown 100 Years Ago BY JOSEPH B. GLASS, POWNAL, PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND If one were to visit Charlottetown 100 years ago, it would have been difficult to find the Jewish community. There was no synagogue and no ground on the Island had been consecrated for Jewish burial. The 1921 Census of Canada listed nineteen Jews living in the city of 10,814. In this snapshot of the tiny community in 1921, the Jewish denizens are contextualized within Prince Edward Island’s political, demographic, economic, and social backdrops. For its small size, the Jewish population figured prominently in the local news, not as a community, but as individuals in various circumstances—business, education, charity, sports, and legal matters. The Liberal government of John H. Bell held a majority in the provincial legislature since 1919. Bell promoted investment in “good roads” for a province whose ban on automobiles was only fully lifted in 1919. Dr. Leo Frank, a Jewish resident, was an early adopter of the car. He gained notoriety for challenging a speeding charge. He was accused of exceeding the seven and half mile per hour speed limit in Summerside in 1920. Most Jewish adults were ineligible to vote. Some were not naturalized, and women were not enfranchised to vote provincially until May 1922. Leo Frank, an American citizen, was politically connected. In 1920, he chaired a banquet honouring a Japanese guest. Among the over 100 attendees were the Lieutenant Governor, Premier, United States Consul, Charlottetown Mayor, Attorney General, and prominent businessmen. A general emigration from PEI continued during the early 1920s. The Jewish population, which number around 45 in 1914, witnessed an outmigration during and after World War One. For example, in 1920 Israel Block, a resident for over fifteen years, moved to Boston with his wife and two daughters. His two brothers and their families remained in Charlottetown. Six Jewish households were found in Charlottetown in 1921—three married 30
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couples with children, an older married couple without children, and two single men. Six of the nine children were school-aged, and they attended West Kent School. In 1921, two of Louis and Jennie Block’s daughters were mentioned in the Guardian. Beatrice made the Grade 5 honour roll for February and Ethel, who was in Grade 7, received a certificate for attendance. Abie and Ethel Block’s son Maurice was placed on the Grade 4 honour roll for September. These mentions in newsprint surely made their parents proud. The province’s economy was primarily agricultural with potatoes and seed potatoes taking a prominent place. Jewish merchants traded in hides, wool, horsehair, and other non-perishable items produced in rural areas. Fishing played a significant role in the economy and the silver fox industry flourished after the Great War. Leo Frank owned and operated a silver fox farm in Southport across the Hillsborough River from Charlottetown. During prohibition bootlegging and rumrunning existed in PEI. Some Jews engaged in the illicit sale and trade of alcohol. Two Jewish persons were charged with violating provincial alcohol laws in 1918 and 1923. Under prohibition Jews were permitted to produce and consume wine for religious practices. Ethel Block, according to her granddaughter, made her own wine which was used for Shabbat and holiday benedictions. The occupations of the Jewish men were: three traders in junk and scrap metal, one fox rancher, a dry goods store clerk, a livery stable worker, and a business representative who was also a violinist. The women did not work outside their homes in 1921. In April, Moses Jacobson, a junk dealer, was charged with receiving stolen copper. At a largely attended police court session, a witness testified that some boys had taken the copper from a dredge, entered Jacobson’s premises with it, and left without it. Jacobson was theAJC .ca
FIGURE 1 Figure 1: A number of Silver Fox in one pen (Charlottetown in the background). Courtesy of the Keystone-Mast Collection, UCR/California Museum of Photography, University of California, Riverside.
remanded to the Supreme Court for trial. In July, the jury returned a verdict of not guilty. Leo Frank grew up in Scotland, lived in the United States, and moved to PEI in 1914. He had been active in various aspects of the silver fox industry including exporting breeding pairs to Japan in 1920. He was praised for his promotion of PEI’s silver fox industry. He commissioned a series of photographs of the local industry which made their way into newspapers across North America in 1921 [Figure 1]. He was congratulated for “placing dear old Prince Edward Island on the map.” The Jewish households lived in the central core of the city [Figure 2]. Louis and Jennie Block and their four children lived in a two and a half storey house on Water Street near Pownal Wharf. He had a warehouse for scrap metal and other items. Abie and Ethel Block and their four children lived on King Street, and Moses and Ida Jacobson lived with their three children on Dorchester Street. Jacobson had a junk yard, a small stable, and storage shack on the property. These families had arrived in the first years of the 1900s. The family heads had been peddlers who transitioned to junk and scrap metal dealers and merchants.
