Association for Canadian Jewish Studies

05/22/2026

🎤 Episode 13 of Tête-à-tête: Conversations in Canadian Jewish Studies 🎤

"Parchment and the Meaning of Canadian Jewish Literature," with Orly Zebak

After a twelve-year hiatus, Parchment Journal, the only literary journal devoted to contemporary Canadian Jewish writing, is back!

The latest iteration of the journal is supported by a coast-to-coast-to-coast who’s who of Canadian Jewish writers, scholars, and litterateurs and will feature a mix of fiction, poetry, literary non-fiction, and translation that explores the many shades of Canadian Jewish life.

In this episode, host Jonathan Slater sits down with Parchment’s new editor-in-chief, Orly Zebak, for a conversation about what the journal’s return means for the Canadian Jewish literary ecosystem, the role it's primed to play in the wider Canadian literary conversation, and the perennially debated question: What is Canadian Jewish literature?

Find the episode on our website (https://acjs-aejc.ca/tete-a-tete/) or wherever you listen to podcasts!

05/20/2026

The Association for Canadian Jewish Studies 2026 Annual Conference is 12 days away!

Join us May 31–June 1 at York University's Koschitzky Centre for Jewish Studies for an exciting array of panels, roundtables, workshops, and book launches, and a Jewish Toronto walking tour and live taping of our podcast, Tête-à-tête: Conversations in Canadian Jewish Studies, to boot.

View the full program here:https://acjs-aejc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/ACJS-2026-Conference_FullProgram.pdf

And it's not too late to register by our extended deadline of May 24: https://www.zeffy.com/en-CA/ticketing/association-for-canadian-jewish-studies-2026-annual-conference

We look forward to learning with you in Toronto!

With many thanks to our sponsors, the Israel and Golda Koschitzky Centre for Jewish Studies at York University and the Canadian Race Relations Fdn / Fondation canadienne des relations raciales.

05/01/2026

🎤 Episode 12 of Tête-à-tête: Conversations in Canadian Jewish Studies 🎤

Fiddler on the Roof, Yiddish Divas, and a Life in Canadian Jewish Theatre, with Theresa Tova

Theresa Tova, the Paris-born, Calgary-raised actor, singer, and playwright, is synonymous with the Canadian Jewish musical stage. Creator of the award-winning Holocaust-themed musical Still the Night, one-third of the globe-trotting sensation The Three Yiddish Divas, and now starring as Yente in the first-ever Canadian production of Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish, Theresa joins the show for a wide-ranging conversation about her life, career, and the relationship between identity, memoir, and performance.

Find the episode on our website (https://acjs-aejc.ca/tete-a-tete/) or wherever you listen to podcasts!

04/29/2026

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: The Canadian Jewish Life Writing Project

The Canadian Jewish future wants your stories!

From now through October 30, the Association for Canadian Jewish Studies is inviting submissions for the inaugural edition of the annual Canadian Jewish Life Writing Project, a national initiative dedicated to collecting, preserving, and sharing the personal stories of Jewish life in Canada.

This year’s theme, “Growing Up Jewish in Canada,” calls for short, previously unpublished autobiographical essays that reflect on childhood, adolescence, and coming of age through the intertwined lenses of Jewish and Canadian identity. Writers are encouraged to explore family histories, communities, schools, camps, friendships, migrations, celebrations, struggles, and the moments that shaped who they became.

Your stories will be housed in a permanent public collection at the Alex Dworkin Canadian Jewish Archives, as well as a digital repository hosted by the ACJS, ensuring that the richness and diversity of Canadian Jewish experience is archived for future generations. The top three submissions, as selected by our advisory board, will be featured prominently on the ACJS website and recognized at a spring 2027 launch event.

Submissions are open until Oct. 30, 2026!

For submission information and other details, please visit: http://acjs-aejc.ca/lifewriting

04/20/2026

Parchment, the re-launched literary journal of contemporary Canadian Jewish writing supported by the ACJS, was written up this past weekend in the Canadian Jewish News (The CJN).

>> Check out the article link in the first comment!

>> And don't forget to pre-order your copy of Parchment at https://www.parchmentmag.ca/!

04/16/2026

Parchment, the only journal devoted to contemporary Canadian Jewish writing, is coming in hot!

Pre-orders are now open for Parchment's spring 2026 issue, as well as one-year subscriptions for its spring and fall issues. Place your order here: https://www.zeffy.com/en-CA/ticketing/parchment-contemporary-canadian-jewish-writing

The ACJS is proud to publish Parchment alongside a dedicated team of editors, writers, artists, and literary professionals. Stay tuned for more information in the weeks ahead!

Behold, Parchment's Spring 2026 issue. Claim your copy today by pre-ordering and subscribing to the only literary journal devoted to Canadian Jewish writing.

To read this issue of Parchment is to hold in your hands a world as dynamic as the Canadian Jewish community itself. Inside our Spring 2026 issue, you will find a splendour of poetry, non-fiction, and fiction from Shel Krakofsky, Ronna Bloom, Stuart Ross, Marc Bendavid, Adam Seelig, Rachel Morgenstern-Clarren, and more.

Fill your future with Parchment at https://www.zeffy.com/en-CA/ticketing/parchment-contemporary-canadian-jewish-writing.

04/05/2026

The ACJS is thrilled to announce “Studies Show,” a new collaboration between authors published in our flagship academic journal, Canadian Jewish Studies / Études juives canadiennes, and Scribe Quarterly, the magazine of the Canadian Jewish News (The CJN). The initiative is designed to introduce leading academic research on Canadian Jewry to a wider public by translating scholarly articles into clear, engaging summaries for general readers.

Why are we so excited about “Studies Show”? By reimagining rigorous academic research as digestible recaps for magazine readers, the section offers a model for how humanities scholarship can circulate far beyond the academy. It strengthens connections between researchers and the communities they study, while showcasing the intellectual dynamism—and impact—of Canadian Jewish studies.

“Studies Show,” which will appear regularly in future issues of Scribe Quarterly, kicks off with three punchy features: Libby Bear and Randal Schnoor on the attitudes and behaviours of Jewish singles; Robert Brym and Rhonda Lenton on the state of Jewish intermarriage; and John Cappucci on Reform Jewish beliefs in Windsor, Ontario.

Enjoy!

03/24/2026

🎙️ Episode 11 of Tête-à-tête: Conversations in Canadian Jewish Studies 🎙️

Revamping Holocaust Museums, with Yasmine Lucas

Museums have long been at the forefront of public engagement with the history and memory of the Holocaust. But as the possibilities of technology for discovery and learning about such an emotionally fraught subject expand, and the question of what the Holocaust has to teach us remains as thorny as ever, at museums old and new the goals of that public engagement are undergoing serious revision.

Yasmine Lucas, an anthropologist at the University of Toronto, joins host Jonathan Slater to discuss the ways in which Holocaust museums in North America—their curators, advisors, funders, and visitors—are navigating this moment. Taking a particular interest in the Montreal Holocaust Museum, which is preparing to open a more modern and interactive exhibit inside a new building in 2027, Lucas explores the role of the twenty-first-century Holocaust museum, how curatorial decisions respond to the reality of a dwindling survivor population, and the changing needs and demands of visitors in a climate of political and social divisiveness.

Find the episode wherever you listen to podcasts!

https://acjs-aejc.ca/tete-a-tete/

03/09/2026

ICYMI (January 2026): Adrien Arcand and the Legacies of Canadian Fascism, with Tyler Wentzell

Episode 9 of Tête-à-Tête: Conversations in Canadian Jewish Studies explores the career of antisemitic provocateur Adrien Arcand, one of twentieth-century Quebec's most notorious political figures. Host Jonathan Slater and Tyler Wentzell, a historian of far-right extremism in Canada, sift through questions surrounding Arcand's reach, how his ideology was received inside and outside Quebec, among Jews and non-Jews, and what a deeper look at the man and his audiences tells us about histories of hate and interethnic solidarity in Canada.

Check out the episode on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts!

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-09-adrien-arcand-and-the-legacies/id1799627166?i=1000746656685

02/26/2026

The ACJS is thrilled to unveil the digital archive of the Canadian Jewish Historical Society Journal!

The Canadian Jewish Historical Society was the first national organization devoted to the study of the Canadian Jewish experience. Founded in 1977, one year after the Society, the Canadian Jewish Historical Society Journal was the journal of record in Canadian Jewish history until it ceased publication in 1988. (The Society changed its name to the Association for Canadian Jewish Studies in 1996.)

Over its eleven-year run, the journal published eighty-five items, including research articles, book reviews, and Society affairs, across nineteen issues. Many of the day’s leading scholars of Canadian Jewish life, both academic and professional, appeared in its pages. These include David Rome, Saul Hayes, Ben Kayfetz, Arthur Chiel, Abraham Arnold, Paula Draper, Evelyn Miller, and Adam Fuerstenberg, as well as American Jewish historians Jonathan Sarna and Gary Zola.

The ACJS is proud to publish the Canadian Jewish Historical Society Journal in open access via the Open Journal System platform, hosted by York University Libraries. We thank the Ontario Jewish Archives, Blankenstein Family Heritage Centre and the Alex Dworkin Canadian Jewish Archives for their support.

The journal is accessible from the ACJS website or, directly, at the following link:

https://cjs.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/cjhs/index

You can learn more about the journal, its rich contents, and a few browsing tips in the ACJS's February 2026 newsletter:

https://canadianjewishstudies.substack.com/i/188895489/announcing-the-digital-archive-of-the-canadian-jewish-historical-society-journal