The JCC has a stone on it's front facing wall that commemorates the Jews who served Canada in war, and today just under a dozen of them were on the street at Bloor and Spadina with flags, dressed in white gloves, with their medals on their coats and wearing their service berets.
They are officially known as the Wingate Branch, or Branch 256 of the Canadian Legion. More information about them here.
More about Orde Wingate here.
(There is an extraordinary figure in the CJN article linked to above. I was not aware that 38% of all Jewish males living in Canada during WWI served in the Canadian Expeditionary Forces.)
Thirty-eight
per cent of all Jewish males living in Canada during World War I served
in the Canadian Expeditionary Forces. - See more at:
http://www.cjnews.com/node/115573#sthash.H1iOVXlt.dpuf
Thirty-eight
per cent of all Jewish males living in Canada during World War I served
in the Canadian Expeditionary Forces. - See more at:
http://www.cjnews.com/node/115573#sthash.H1iOVXlt.dpuf
Thirty-eight
per cent of all Jewish males living in Canada during World War I served
in the Canadian Expeditionary Forces. - See more at:
http://www.cjnews.com/node/115573#sthash.H1iOVXlt.dpuf
Thirty-eight
per cent of all Jewish males living in Canada during World War I served
in the Canadian Expeditionary Forces. - See more at:
http://www.cjnews.com/node/115573#sthash.H1iOVXlt.dpuf
There weren't many of them, but they were in fine form!
Standing straight, taking the occasional glance around them to see who was there. An exuberant woman in traditional Orthodox Jewish gear (hair covered, modest skirt) walked right up to them and said "thank you for your service". She sounded American. That's a very American thing to do-us Canadians are generally a bit more shy about directly thanking our servicemen and women (in my experience).
The sky was grey as it is wont to be in November. A podium and microphone was set up outside and there were a few little drops of rain.
Then the doors of the JCC opened and dozens of little pre-school children started flooding out of the doors clutching home-made red poppies drawn by hand on white paper plates. They were all bundled up and clutching bristol board works of collage art with pictures of people and poppies and Canadian flags mixed with Magen Davids. They had little paper poppies pinned to their little snow suits and winter coats. They took their seats on the front steps and sat politely and quietly on the grey steps.
It was so beautiful.
I know there are those amongst us who are not proponents of daycare and pre-school, but I want to assure you that there are pre-schools where good messages and loving and thoughtful formal and informal education is conveyed to enthusiastic little minds. It's not for everyone, not for every child, and this is not an endorsement of any particular program but it was certainly a spectacularly overwhelming and beautiful thing to see little children clearly understanding the meaning of the poppy. It had been taught to them-conveyed to them with intelligence.
One of the veterans walked over to just look at the children and the bristol boards. He was smiling. I started crying. Just a beautiful vignette.
O Canada was sung.
The Hebrew Kaddish was recited and translated for those in the crowd who didn't understand the prayer.
Taps was played.
And at 11:00 there was a flyover by Canadian Forces airplanes-I don't know what kind.
The wind was blowing and the rain started falling, and the sensation of ancient melodies, modern bugle fare, the old and the young, the words of prayer and the sounds of airplanes was quite a unique and overwhelming sensory and spiritual experience.
Many people on the street stopped and participated. All were invited to honour the veterans at a breakfast following the ceremony.
I've been to many ceremonies and this one was truly a humbling and meaningful one.
In the elevator, two veterans, who were 80 and 85 years old respectively joked that they were the youngsters of the crowd and by gosh they looked amazing. They were both from Britain and had moved to Canada.
One was in the Navy and told us that he had brought many Canadians home-he ferried them home he said, so many without limbs, and then he paused and said 'but were here now and we're going to carry on'.
And carry on they did indeed, socializing with the dozens of people from the Jewish community and the community at large.
I'm very grateful to have experienced such a sincere, yet very modest and heartfelt show of remembrance.
