A Voice Behind the Headlines: The Public Relations of the Canadian Jewish Congress During the Holocaust

Abstract

ABSTRACT The Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC), the main lobbying group for Canadian Jews during the Holocaust, advocated on behalf of both Canadian and European Jewry by employing a sophisticated public relations strategy. This article investigates three intertwined campaigns to publicize Canadian Jewish war efforts, to raise awareness of the extermination of European Jews, and to advocate that Canada accept refugees. It argues that the CJC used data-driven publicity to demonstrate Jewish loyalty to Canada, which subsequently allowed them to bring attention to Jewish extermination in the non-Jewish press and spurred sustained coverage of the topic. After Jewish extermination became clear, they worked behind the scenes with their allies and used the press to convince the Canadian government to rescue several hundred refugees. By showing the hidden efforts and unknown successes of Jewish organizations, we learn that, while still limited in power, their advocacy methods achieved more than is usually acknowledged. This article breaks with the methodological approach of asking only ‘who knew what and when?’ in press responses to the Holocaust. Instead, it asks how and why stories about the Holocaust made the news. In so doing, it de-emphasizes the decisions of journalists, editors, and publishers and demonstrates the Jewish voice behind stories in the non-Jewish press.