Making it Mainstream: Montreal and the Canadian Jewish Poetic Tradition

Abstract

This essay examines the work and public careers of key Montreal Jewish poets, including A.M. Klein, Irving Layton and Leonard Cohen, with a consideration of the role of Yiddish and early Jewish neighbourhoods in the development of local culture. It considers, as well, poets such as Eli Mandel, Miriam Waddington and Kenneth Sherman in an effort to convey Montreal’s impact on poets from elsewhere in Canada, as well as to show how the city’s poetic tradition relates to the broader Canadian scene. The discussion focuses on themes of inheritance, religious life and thought, and on aspects of Jewish identity associated with language, mainstream culture and the Holocaust.