“There were cries of joy, some of sorrow”: Canadian Jewish Soldiers and Early Encounters with Survivors

A close study of the early contacts between Canadian Jewish soldiers and survivors reveals many of the features largely associated only with the “liberation” of the camps in 1945. Already in 1944, in France, Belgium and the Netherlands, Canadian soldiers had encountered evidence of the Holocaust, especially the stories of deportations, deprivation and loss told by Jews emerging from hiding. Many soldiers heard the stories, were deeply affected by them, and reached out to the survivors and wrote about their experiences to family members. Some accounts of these encounters appeared in the Canadian Jewish press. These accounts fed into a homefront discourse and strategy, encouraged by the Canadian Jewish Congress, which sought to demonstrate to both Jews and non-Jews the role of Canadian Jews in the war effort and the need to help European Jewry

Ectomycorrhizal fungal diversity and community structure associated with cork oak in different landscapes

Cork oak (Quercus suber L.) forests play an important ecological and economic role. Ectomycorrhizal fungi (ECMF) are key components for the sustainability and functioning of these ecosystems. The community structure and composition of ECMF associated with Q. suber in different landscapes of distinct Mediterranean bioclimate regions have not previously been compared. In this work, soil samples from cork oak forests residing in different bioclimates (arid, semi-arid, sub-humid, and humid) were collected and surveyed for ectomycorrhizal (ECM) root tips. A global analysis performed on 3565 ECM root tips revealed that the ECMF community is highly enriched in Russula, Tomentella, and Cenoccocum, which correspond to the ECMF genera that mainly contribute to community differences. The ECMF communities from the rainiest and the driest cork oak forests were distinct, with soils from the rainiest climates being more heterogeneous than those from the driest climates. The analyses of several abiotic factors on the ECMF communities revealed that bioclimate, precipitation, soil texture, and forest management strongly influenced ECMF structure. Shifts in ECMF with different hyphal exploration types were also detected among forests, with precipitation, forest system, and soil texture being the main drivers controlling their composition. Understanding the effects of environmental factors on the structuring of ECM communities could be the first step for promoting the sustainability of this threatened ecosystem.This work was supported by Fundacao Ciencia e Tecnologia (FCT/MCTES/PIDDAC, Portugal), under the project (PEst-OE/BIA/UI4046/2014; UID/MULTI/04046/2013) and PhD grant to F.R. (SFRH/BD/86519/2012)

La négociation de l’ethnicité, du régionalisme et de l’historiographie: Arthur A. Chiel et les Juifs du Manitoba: Une histoire sociale

In this paper, Richard Menkis analyzes the production and reception of the earliest scholarly monograph in Canadian Jewish history. By examining Chiel’s intellectual formation, Menkis suggests that in his early communal work Chiel consciously chose a positive attitude which sought to combat despair, and that he brought that sensibility to his historical writing. Menkis also examines the context of the production of the narrative, namely the re-conception of Manitoba as a polyethnic society and the interest in ethnic histories at the Manitoba Historical Society. One of the major emphases in the Society was to show the “contributions” of the ethnic groups, which reinforced Chiel’s inclination to ignore unhappy subjects, such as antisemitism. Although Chiel studied a number of factors in the development of the Jewish community, he also reproduced some of the “blind-spots” of other histories, especially the role of left-wing politics. Not surprisingly, he was harshly criticized by those who had been excised from the history. Chiel’s work is thus also a product of a postwar climate in which the government began to encourage the engagement of ethnic groups with the society at large, but on certain conditions.Dans cet article, Richard Menkis analyse la production et la réception de la monographie savante la plus ancienne de l’histoire des Juifs canadiens. En examinant la formation intellectuelle de Chiel, Menkis suggère que dans ses premiers travaux communautaires Chiel a volontairement choisi d’adopter une attitude positive qui cherchait à combattre le désespoir, et explique qu’il a incorporé cette sensibilité à ses écrits historiques. Menkis examine aussi le contexte de la production de la narration, c’est à dire la re-conception du Manitoba comme société polyethnique et l’intérêt dans les histoires dans la Société manitobaine de l’histoire. Un des éléments importants pour la Société était de mettre à jour les “contributions” des groupes ethniques, ce qui a renforcé la tendance de Chiel à ignorer des sujets malheureux, tels que l’antisémitisme. Bien que Chiel ait étudié un nombre de facteurs dans le développement de la communauté juive, il a aussi reproduit certains des endroits où d’autres récits historiques ne voyaient pas clair, surtout en ce qui concerne le rôle de la politique de gauche. Il n’est donc pas surprenant qu’il ait été sévèrement critiqué par ceux qui avaient été retranchés de l’histoire. Ainsi, le travail de Chiel est aussi un produit du climat de l’après-guerre dans lequel le gouvernement a commencé à encourager l’engagement de groupes ethniques avec la société en général, mais sous certaines conditions