Building the Foundations of Identity: A Rare Look into the Contributions of a Zionist Youth Group within an Early Canadian Jewish Farming Settlement during the 1920’s

In 2010 I discovered the Minute Book of a Jewish youth group called the “Followers of Herzl Club. The book contained the hand written accounts of an early Zionist youth group that began in the Jewish farming community of Ste Sophie, Quebec, Canada. Originating during the early 1920s, this youth group serves an example of similar clubs that became popular throughout North America. According to promotional documents for the Young Judea clubs of that time, these groups had a specific agenda designed to guide Jewish children toward “an intelligent grasp of Jewish culture and Jewish problems….” that confronted the young Jewish community of North America.

Upon closer examination, this documentation provides specific details regarding their regular activities, educational, art and community programs that touch both issues of a secular and religious nature. Reading through these documents, one recognizes how such a community mechanism became a helpful guide toward maintaining Jewish culture in a land that knew little of the Jewish culture

In an effort to understand the role of these early youth groups and its contributions to an emerging Jewish identity, the following two questions will be addressed within this paper; (1) What was the function of this kind of youth group on a Jewish farming settlement in North America? (2) In what way did this kind of youth group contribute to the question of Jewish identity?