It is Sunday August 19th and we are in the sky flying Air Canada from Toronto to Moncton, NB. New Brunswick is one of Canada’s 10 provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces that make up The Maritimes (meaning “of the sea”) on the east coast of Canada. The other three are Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia. On this trip we will be in three of the four; hopefully at some time in the future we will be able to visit Newfoundland.
From both a population and area standpoint, the Maritimes are small. There are not a lot of people living here. The total population of the four provinces is under 2.5 million (just over 7% of Canada’s total of 35 million) and the total area represents just 5% of Canada’s vast geographical footprint. But with Newfoundland being the largest by far of the four provinces, if we back out Newfoundland’s area, it turns out that the three provinces that we are visiting represent just over 1% of the total area of Canada.
Nova Scotia has the most people (949,000), followed by New Brunswick (756,000), Newfoundland (530,000) and Prince Edward Island (148,000). The largest major city in the region that we will visit is Halifax (metro population of just over 400,000) and the smallest is Charlottetown (36,000). We are beginning in Moncton (70,000).
I always like to compare the area and population of the places we visit to that of Israel. The three provinces that we are visiting are more than six times the size of Israel with less than one third of the population.
The Atlantic Canadian landscape is one of Canada’s most recognizable, with pine forests, hills and dangerous rocky cliffs overlooking the ocean. As a result there are many lighthouses that dot the region. Since the region is surrounded by water, coastal areas can be particularly cool, wet and foggy with cold, stormy winters (raincoats are another proud Maritime icon) and mild, pleasant summers. Interior, or inland regions, by contrast, tend to be considerably drier, and in winter months receive some of the largest snowfalls in Canada.
Based on the latest reports that we have received from our faithful weathergirl, Siri, we should have good moderate weather while we are visiting this area of Canada.
Like much of eastern Canada, the Maritimes originally belonged to the French. Established in 1604, the royal French colony of Acadia encompassed all the modern-day Atlantic provinces, and was one of the French Empire’s most strategically useful outposts as the gateway to North America. British settlers were extremely jealous, and the two powers fought back-and-forth wars over the colonies for most of the 17th century, with the Brits finally securing control of most of the area in 1714.
Having acquired the region, Britain proceeded to deport all French colonists — also known as Acadians — in what is still remembered as one of the most shameful episodes of Canadian history. Though some Acadians would later migrate back, a lot of the deported wound up in Louisiana, and helped form that state’s unique culture. The lovable term “Cajun” is descended from “Acadian,” in fact.
Nova Scotia and New Brunswick formed two of Canada’s first four provinces in 1867. PEI joined in 1871, but Newfoundland refused, and remained an independent, self-governing British colony until 1949.
Throughout the 20th Century all of the Atlantic provinces struggled with serious economic problems and remain the poorest regions of Canada to this day. The “root cause” of Maritime poverty is obviously quite a controversial and much-debated topic, but an undeniable factor has been the decline of many of their traditional industries, such as fishing, forestry and shipbuilding.
We begin our adventure in New Brunswick. Our reason for beginning here in Moncton is its proximity to Hopewell Rocks and The Bay Of Fundy (see below).
Some interesting facts about New Brunswick:
1. It has the highest, wildest tides in the world, where you can walk the Ocean Floor and then a few hours later be kayaking in the ocean 50 feet (think 5 stories of a building) above where you walked. More on that tomorrow when we actually do it at Hopewell Rocks in the Bay Of Fundy.
2. It has the warmest saltwater beaches north of Virginia.
3. Legendary salmon angling on the world-famous Miramichi River and while we are not fishermen, we love salmon and Atlantic Salmon is rated among the best in the world. And since we travel with a fry pan and will have a BBQ, we are certainly ready to enjoy our salmon meals while on this trip.
4. More kinds of whales more often than anywhere else in the world.
5. Annual snowfalls from 200 to 400 centimeters (7 to 14 feet) which makes us very happy that we are actually visiting in the summer.
6. Kings County is the Covered bridge capital of Canada. In fact, the Heartland Covered Bridge, built in 1899, is the longest covered bridge in the world, measuring 1,282 feet in length. It is known as a “kissing bridge”—a bridge where a young couple could privately share a few kisses while traveling by horse and buggy”, though today it carries cars, trucks, animals, and even Olympic torches across the Saint John River. It is one of 62 covered bridges in the province.
7. After you cross the bridge, you can visit the Covered Bridge Potato Chips company to grab a great treat inspired by the region, kosher and supervised by the OU.
8. In 1907, musicians in the Nickel Theatre in Saint John made history as the first to accompany silent films. For our younger readers, movies did not always have a sound track and were not always in color, believe it or not! Another movie fact, Jewish Louis B. Mayer, the “M” in MGM Movies, was born in Saint John, NB.
9. French fries are a Maritime favourite, so it makes sense that the French Fry Capital of the World would be in the region. Florenceville-Bristol is home to McCain Foods, who are the world’s largest producer of French fries. There is even a “Potato World” Museum where you can learn about the connection the province of New Brunswick has to the potato, its history and impact on the economy, and discover what life is like as a potato farmer.
10. The inventor of the ice cream cone was born in Sussex Corner, mid-way along the Fundy Coastal Drive. Locals tell the story of baker Walter Donelly who made a bad batch of dough and not knowing what to do with it, he ran next door to the ice cream parlour….and the rest, as they say, is ice cream cone history.
The Jewish community in the Maritimes is small and getting smaller all the time. As we move from Province to Province on our journey, we will give a bit of the local Jewish history, as well as info on Shuls (not many), minyanim (not every shul can get a minyan any more), and availability of kosher food.
Although there is documentation of the first Jewish resident of Saint John, NB, David Gabel, arriving with his wife and children in 1783 and establishing a butcher shop and bakery on Kings Square, Jews did not arrive in Moncton until the late 1890s and as such, its history is newer than those of both Saint John and Fredericton.
Although the first Jewish man, Jake Baig, arrived in Moncton in 1898, it was the arrival of twenty-two families from Lithuania that actually established Moncton’s Jewish community. The men arrived first and established themselves, and then sent for their wives and children in Europe (a fairly common practice among Jews and other immigrant settlers in the region). These families formed a very cohesive community and all settled on the same street.
By 1910 the community was large enough to hire its first Rabbi, Jacob Hans. With about 15 families in 1914, the congregation began to collect 10 cents from each member each week until there was enough money in 1924 to purchase a plot of land. Jake Marks and Sam Borenstein purchased the present lot on Steadman Street at an auction for $650. The cornerstone for Congregation Tiferes Israel, now designated as a “local Historic Site”, was laid in 1926 and the building was completed by the following year.
The location of the synagogue is also significant. Most of Moncton’s Jewish families such as as Attis, Hans, Mark, Schelew, Selick, Gorber and Coleman resided in close proximity to the Steadman Street area because of restrictions on driving on Shabbat. Incidentally, a member of the same Schelew family, Don a”h, was an active member of our shul Bnai Torah in Toronto, for many years, after he moved to Toronto from Halifax.
A cemetery for the Jewish community was purchased in 1930, prior to which Moncton Jews were buried in Saint John.
And while we are mentioning Saint John, for all you hockey fans out there, the founding of the Saint John Jewish Community began in 1858 with the arrival of Solomon Hart and his family. The Harts sailed from England to New York City, and then came to Saint John and made it their permanent home where Mr. Hart established a tobacco business. This is the same Hart family that was instrumental in the founding of Montreal’s Jewish community and its connection to hockey is that a member of the family, Cecil Hart, coached the Montreal Canadians for 9 years and his father, Dr. David Hart, donated the Hart Trophy to be presented annually to the Most Valuable Player in the National Hockey League.
Today’s Moncton community is centred around the Tiferes Israel Synagogue at the corner of Steadman Street and Rabbi Lippa Medjuck Street in downtown Moncton. Rabbi Medjuck was Rabbi at the shul for 31 years.
Today, the shul has a part time traveling Rabbi, Yitzchak Yagod, who also serves as the Rabbi of communities in Bethlehem-Easton, Pa., and Bangor Maine. He comes to Moncton of the fourth Shabbat every month for a long weekend.
From his bio, when asked, "How do you attend to three shuls at once?", Rabbi Yagod stresses that "there is no such thing a a part-time rabbi! With today's technology, my communities and I are constantly in touch. People call and email six days a week with questions and issues. To tie it all together, I maintain a complex master schedule. In many ways, it resembles a rav who gives a kashruth hasgachah to several far-flung establishments."
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