by Fred Allen
The following day they conducted a thorough review of Jadan’s qualifications in an attempt to identify a skill that would be marketable in Canada while Jadan applied himself to learning the English language. He already spoke German with reasonable fluency and this would certainly help. Of all his skills the only skill that offered employment possibilities was his experience as a kosher butcher. The professor dealt with a small butcher in the city and he described the experience of his newly arrived friend and the butcher agreed that he could use the services of a skilled assistant.
Jadan was highly successful in his first job in Canada. He was shocked at the amount of waste accepted by his new employer and, largely through better utilization of various meats, Jadan was able to introduce significant savings and increase his employer’s profits. It was only much later that Jadan gave any thought as to the number of Fredericton’s citizens, mostly WASPs, who had been, unknowingly, eating Kosher during his initial term of employment.
All thoughts of Montreal quickly evaporated as Jadan reveled in his friendship with the Professor. Their friendship was not merely based on their love for chess but the Professor soon recognized the intellectual prowess of his new friend. As Jadan’s English rapidly improved, he was invited to join the Professor and some of his colleagues in far ranging and highly informative discussions. Within two years Jadan was recognized as the equal to even the most senior members of the faculty who never hesitated to ask for his opinion on a wide variety of subjects.
The Professor had always considered Jadan over qualified for his job in the butcher’s shop and, after two years, now reasonably proficient in the language, Jadan decided to set out on his own. With financial support from the Professor and a few other faculty numbers, Jadan established a small meat processing plant in which he eliminated a lot of middlemen and brought high quality meats directly to consumers from the farmers’ fields.
Jadan also gave consideration for those he had left behind in Russia where the political situation was not improving. He arranged to have nearly a dozen men, including family members and friends to come to Canada. Some took up employment in his meat processing business and others were assisted in setting up their own businesses. Jadan’s only demand was that they attend weekly classes in Jadan’s basement where they would be taught the new language as well as the history and customs of their new country. There would also be classes on Jewish history and Jewish culture but, above all, Jadan was determined that these new arrivals would be good knowledgeable citizens.
Included in this first group was a young office worker by the name of Jacob Rosenburg who was employed working on Jadan’s accounts and was encouraged by Jadan to set up his separate business in picking up bottles, scrap iron and other items of value that Canadians discarded every day. In 1912 Jacob and some of the other men returned to Russia to get married.
As Jacob told Peter, all the marriages had been arranged in advance by relatives in Russia. Jacob had never even seen his Sara before the wedding. In fact, activities of the Czar’s police on the day of the wedding made it wise for the Canadians to leave immediately before having any opportunity to consummate their unions.
All the brides had arrived in 1913, and Jacob and Sara worked diligently during the war years to establish their business and support Jadan in building the growing Jewish community. While he had never completed his formal training as a Rabbi, Jadan was the unanimous choice as community leader and performed many of the duties provided by a Rabbi. When the services of a fully ordained Rabbi were required, the Rabbi from the Saint John synagogue would visit the city. The young men who had arrived shortly before the war were classified as potential enemy aliens by a very suspicious and cautious Federal Government and were restricted from military training. Regardless of the stigma of this completely unjustified cloud of suspicion the Jewish community threw its full support behind the war effort.
The twins, Paul and Martin, were born in 1920 joining an increasing number of children in the community and Jadan undertook their religious training at the earliest practicable point with daily sessions after they came home from public school.
The community prospered but expansion was curtailed by what Jadan referred to as restrictive covenants in property deeds partially because of the high proportion of city land that was owned, or had been owned, by the Anglican Church and the University. The oft encountered restriction of property ownership to Christians was quoted as the reason for not selling to Jews but was recognized by Jadan as thinly veiled discrimination if not actually Anti-Semitism. The prosperity and vitality of the Jewish community once again was generating envy and restricting members of the Jewish community from full participation in city wide community activities. For example, it appeared, although difficult to prove, that Jews were not welcome in either the golf or curling clubs or several other community organizations.
As leader of the Jewish community, Jadan recognized the dangers of heightened success and visibility and he counseled members of the community to be patient. He embraced and practiced the philosophy of the “inevitability of gradualness”. Despite these potential problems with the local citizenry, Jadan was enjoying enhanced status within the academic community at the University. His initial patron, the Professor, had passed away but Jadan continued to be invited to University functions and to sit on panels that counseled and examined graduate students. He was writing again and contributing to a variety of European publications which catered to the large Russian émigré groups in various countries in Europe. The content of his scholarly articles drew praise from scholars on both sides of the Atlantic but their tone drew several visits from the RCMP.
Peter remembered that Jadan, Jacob as well as Paul and Martin had participated in an innovative-for 1937 at least-exercise. This was to be a history project that would draw upon the resources of the community. It was the brainchild of a young history teacher who had been hired recently after a brilliant record both at the local university and in graduate work at the University of Toronto. The project would be titled Religions of the World and local church leaders would be invited to participate in a presentation to all junior and senior year history students. The Archbishop, from the Cathedral, would represent the Anglican Church. The Monsignor, from St. Dunstans’, would represent the Catholic Church and Jadan was invited to introduce the students to Jewish history and religion. Twelve hours of classroom time had been allocated to the project with four hours for each presentation and each would consist of two blocks of two hours each.
The Anglican presentation was first followed by the Roman Catholic and they consisted of mostly readings from the Bible and detailed description of both the role and various rituals of their churches. Both presentations were not unlike lengthy church services. The opinions of the students whispered in the hallways often included the word “boring”.
The first two-hour session presented by Jadan and Jacob, assisted by Paul, Martin and Esther, was very different. They added life to their presentation as they used slides and pictures to illustrate the history and culture of their people. This presentation had quite obviously been thoroughly researched and well rehearsed. Jadan’s erudition and his commanding presence made an unexpected impression on the students who had seen him walking the streets so often deep in meditation. Their idea of him as just an eccentric old Jew was totally erased. They also met a very different Jacob from the shabbily dressed man who drove his horse and cart up and down the city’s streets collecting scrap and buying beer bottles. Now, they saw a different Jacob, immaculately dressed and so well prepared and even eloquent in his parts of the presentation.
Student reaction to Jadan’s presentation was completely different from their reaction to the Anglican and Roman Catholic presentations. The students found the well-designed program did exactly what their teacher had envisioned; it brought authoritative and very interesting concepts of history to the classroom using community resources.
&nb
sp; Following the completion of the first three blocks a special meeting of the school board was called. Who had instigated this meeting was never announced, but rumor had it that a group of Anglican and Catholic parents had questioned the wisdom of such an avante garde method of presenting material and the wisdom of exposing impressionable young minds to such a contrast of ideas. The result of the meeting was that the project was cancelled after suitable letters of thanks were directed to the Archbishop, Monsignor and Jadan. The teaching contract of the young history teacher was not renewed.
Esther had been born in 1921, and Jacob referred to her as their love child for it had been at the birth of the twins Jacob had fallen in love with Sara. Esther was very special to both of them but particularly to Sara. She was a beautiful child, very pretty, vivacious, friendly and highly intelligent. Jadan took her on as a special project and she was always far ahead of her classmates. But what Esther wanted more than anything else was to belong and mix freely with all those girls of her own age who she met and played with at school. And she appeared to have achieved this objective as she became increasingly popular, though public school where children were still children and had not yet commenced to acquire the social prejudices that seemed to be the heritage of their parents.
As Jacob spoke of Esther, Peter sensed that his earlier concern had been justified. The subject of Esther was extremely painful to Jacob and his voice nearly broke as he spoke about their beloved daughter. In high school Esther, for the first time, became exposed to the thinly veiled discrimination that starts with envy. She was so pretty, so bright, so intelligent and so full of life that Peter could remember how she would light up a room whenever she made an entrance. But, he also remembered something else as Esther grew into a beautiful young woman. In the locker room male students started to direct rather explicit sexual remarks about her various physical attributes.
Then one day in their junior year, Esther was absent from school. This, in itself, was remarkable because she had never missed a day of school. That afternoon news of the tragedy spread quickly through the school, Esther was dead. Further details quickly followed; Esther had committed suicide by hanging herself in a storage shed behind her family’s house. The entire school was in a state of shock and then, more details; Esther was found to be pregnant. The next day a member of the senior class and son of a prominent city lawyer had been viciously assaulted-words of his parents-and a police investigation was underway.
Nothing was revealed from the police investigation but members of the student body had little difficulty in seeing the connection of two other developments that were probably related to the tragedy. The lawyer’s son completed his senior year at a private school just outside Saint John and both Paul and Martin completed their high school living with relatives in Montreal.
“We were absolutely heartbroken”, Jacob continued. “But Sara could never recover. Her heart was broken and would never heal; Esther was so important to her. She wanted Esther to have everything that she had missed while growing up in Russia and now all her dreams had been dashed. Sara had her first heart attack a few years later but I have always thought it was actually a broken heart.”
“And now, what about yourself Peter. We have followed your distinguished career. We were all so very proud of your war record. Jadan would always say that he knew you were very special from the time he met you with Esther. Paul and Martin, and, of course Esther always spoke very highly of you. Both Jadan and I had met your father a number of times when he was on city council. Such a loss; he was such a fine man and always so fair. We met with him in our efforts to acquire property on which to build our Synagogue. He was so angry when he encountered those restrictive covenants. Despite some resistance from other council members he persuaded them to direct the city solicitor to obtain a court order that would exclude such covenants at least for a property to be used for religious purposes.”
“Yes,” Peter replied. “My father and mother were very special and I miss them very much; and there was my brother Paul who was lost during the war, you will remember him.”
“Yes, I remember him well. He was such a great athlete and a true sportsman. Our Paul and Martin admired him greatly and trained with him. They never had the time for team sports but you will remember that they were very good at track and field events.”
“Peter, while you seem to have such a nice wife and family I have a feeling that you are troubled about something. When a man, a really good man, drinks alone something is bothering him.”
If only he knew, thought Peter, but Jacob carried on. “My father died just after I left Russia the second time but I always had Jadan to take my troubles to. He was so wise. He was totally involved with life and all aspects of life. He came to love Canada very much but despaired for the country’s future under such intense pressure from the vibrant-but often misguided-culture across the border. He would often speak of his admiration for the American love of freedom but regretted that such a demand for freedom would only lead to excesses until they realized that freedom and rights can only be fully enjoyed if the concurrent duties and responsibilities are recognized. Jadan would quote from Greek history on the true meaning of such words as “citizen” and “virtue”, and lament that virtue had merely become synonymous with chastity. One of his favorite targets was the advertising industry which he felt did nothing but create frustration by raising expectations to levels achievable only by the very fortunate few. Most of all he was infuriated by the industry’s fixation with sex. Their advertising had succeeded in transforming the act of procreation into a principal form of recreation.”
Peter listened as Jacob continued to speak about Jadan, Paul and Martin, an occasional word about the joys and sorrow that Esther had brought the family, and, of course, Sara who was now so important to him. A fifty-year love affair, Jacob called it. But nearly everything he had he attributed to Jadan. Jadan had instilled in all of them a love for their religion, their language and their culture. He showed them that these attributes were the very instruments of their survival because they represented the strong bonds that held them together. Their group offered everything they needed for a happy, contented life. Those who looked for more than the community offered often never found what they thought they were looking for. Jadan never mentioned it but Jacob knew he thought of Esther whenever he said this. Esther had longed for something more, and they had lost her.
Jacob was now quiet and he might even have dozed off to sleep. Peter recovered the bottle from behind the seat and took a long drink. He appreciated everything Jacob had said and realized just how wise Jadan had been. But Peter felt utterly lost. His heart had been torn apart by Marie-Louise’s angry revelation, and he was further saddened by the realization of the ultimate act of disloyalty to Sharkey. He was wearing a medal that Sharkey had earned and had died performing the very act for which Peter had been decorated. He knew that he had done everything in good faith but that was small solace faced by the crushing realization of the ultimate act of disloyalty. There were tears in his eyes as he took another long drink from the bottle.
He must have slept for a while and when he awoke he was aware that the rear turn signal of the Cadillac could be seen flashing through the blowing snow. Peter made his way to the Cadillac bracing himself against the fierce wind. Robbie pressed a button and the frosted window lowered. Marie-Louise was nearly hysterical and Sandy was crying. “She’s dead! She’s dead!” MarieLouise screamed. “And she didn’t even murmur or cry out!” Peter could see the form of the old lady slumped against the dashboard. He climbed over the hood of the car and Robbie lowered the other window. Peter checked Sara’s pulse and found none. Her hand was already cold. He checked the pulse on her throat and found none. Sara was dead. He spoke sharply to the hysterical MarieLouise. “For God’s sake, Marie, control yourself. Sandy, how is Wee Willie?”
“I think he’s all right,” replied Sandy, “He has been asleep since I
fed him several hours ago but he seems to be waking up now.”
Peter made his way back to the Station Wagon and Jacob awakened immediately at the light touch to his shoulder. “It’s serious, Jacob, “Peter told him, “You’d better come with me.” They made their way to the Cadillac through the heavily blowing snow. He helped the old man over the hood of the car and, with his arm around Jacob’s shoulder, told him, “I’m afraid she’s dead Jacob.”
Jacob was devastated as he looked into Peter’s face and the meaning of the words sank in. “No! No! Not my Sara! It cannot be…..Sara! Sara! Please don’t leave me…..please! Oh, Peter its all my fault. I should never have left her. I should have taken care of her.”
“Jacob, Jacob,”Peter attempted to comfort the distraught old man. “There was nothing you could do. She took her medicine, Sandy gave it to her. Her heart just gave out.” He had started to help Jacob over the hood of the car to take him back to the station wagon when Marie-Louise screamed at him. “Please, Peter, don’t leave us, Don’t leave us with her!”
“For God’s sake, Marie, get control of yourself. Just give me a few minutes to see what we have to do. I’ll be right back.”
Back in the station wagon Jacob was inconsolable. “Sara, Sara, Sara, what am I going to do without you? Peter, what will we do?”
“Jacob, I’m so sorry but there’s really nothing we can do. We’re just stuck here until someone finds us. Jacob, we’ll have to do something about Sara. I can move my family back in the wagon and you can move over there with Sara. It may sound heartless, but young people are always very uncomfortable with the dead. My wife over there is hysterical, but I won’t do anything unless you agree.”
Jacob sobbed, “It just doesn’t make any difference now. My Sara is dead. You’re a good man Peter, just do what you must.”