ACJS executive director Joshua Tapper says the project was inspired by a Polish writing contest from the 1930s that collected more than 600 autobiographical stories<\/a> from Polish Jewish youth. Members of YIVO, an organization that has preserved Jewish cultural heritage since 1925, created what Tapper calls \u201can incredibly rich resource for scholars today\u201d by \u201cgoing to the people\u201d for their stories.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are tapping into this same impulse,\u201d Tapper says. \u201cWe have the tools to create these kinds of sources in a way that didn\u2019t exist a hundred years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n Tapper says stories about Canadian Jews exist in various memoirs, but \u201cthere has never been a sustained effort, at least in the past 75 years, to record narratives of everyday Canadian Jewish life in an organized and systematic way.\u201d<\/p>\n For the project\u2019s inaugural year, ACJS wants professional and hobbyist writers alike to submit essays about growing up as Jewish children or young adults in Canada. Tapper says they chose this theme to let people write about many different experiences: summer camp, teenage romance, holidays with family, work for jobs or school, or anything else the writer finds relevant.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the things that\u2019s important for us with this project is that the parameters remain as wide as possible,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n The project is part of an \u201cexistential pivot to broaden (the) reach\u201d of ACJS beyond academia and into engaging initiatives for the public. Tapper says events in the United States and Israel are causing Canadian Jews to ask themselves questions about what it means to be Zionists in Canada, or how to create a national Canadian identity.<\/p>\n \u201cYou put those two things together, then that\u2019s the sweet spot where our organization as a whole and this particular project lives,\u201d he says, adding that the project will help Jews reflect on their questions in new ways.<\/p>\n The project\u2019s advisory board includes seven archivists, academics, and leaders in the field of Canadian Jewish studies. These advisors will choose three submissions to feature on ACJS\u2019s website in April 2027. Tapper says publishing the essays online will help give the writers and material in the archives \u201ca bit more of a platform.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAccessing an archive, whether it\u2019s in person or online, can be a scary endeavour for some people, or at least an unfamiliar one,\u201d he says. \u201cWe feel like it\u2019s a service to the reading public.\u201d<\/p>\n Advisory board member Janice Rosen is the archives director at the Alex Dworkin Canadian Jewish Archives in Montreal, where all submissions will be stored starting next April. She says many historical documents in the archive\u2019s collections are from institutions rather than individuals. The first-person accounts that do exist often tell fragments of the writers\u2019 stories.<\/p>\n Because of this, Rosen says the stories submitted to the project could eventually help Canadian Jews uncover more about their family history, or serve as an historian\u2019s primary document during future research.<\/p>\n \u201cIf the only perspective you have is the institutional one, like the organizations who run the show and deal with people on a group basis, then you don\u2019t get the perspective of the individuals and how that experience felt to them,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019ve always been interested in personal biographies and diaries, and the individual\u2019s perspective on history. It makes it more real to me.\u201d<\/p>\n Rosen says many of the archive\u2019s personal stories talk about growing up in other countries before immigrating to Canada. This includes narratives about the Holocaust and fleeing Europe in the 20th century.<\/p>\n Researchers looking into how Jews adapt to Canadian life often find that information in the last few pages of documents. The project could help expand that repertoire according to Rosen.<\/p>\n Getting permission to use archived documents that have revealing personal information can also be tough for researchers, Rosen adds.<\/p>\n \u201cSometimes you get things in an archive where you\u2019re not really sure the person meant anybody else to see it. That could be awkward. You have to make sure that they\u2019ve died a long time ago, that their children aren\u2019t going to be upset that this is going to be shown to a researcher,\u201d Rosen says.<\/p>\n When someone cites a Canadian Jewish Life Writing Project submission in the future, \u201cthe lines will be drawn clearly\u201d around copyright and other legal rights, Rosen says, since writers have to sign release forms.<\/p>\n Advisory board members are also promoting the project through their networks. Karen Kollins is the executive director of the Shalom Hartman Institute of Canada, a centre for Jewish research and education. She\u2019s reached out to everyone from summer camp directors and leaders of rabbinic organizations to community Facebook groups and Jews she knows in Saskatchewan through her husband.<\/p>\n Kollins believes that people who discuss \u201cNorth American Jewry\u201d are usually referring to Jews in the U.S. rather than those in Canada. By accepting a diverse range of stories, the project could help increase worldwide awareness of what makes Canadian Jews distinct.<\/p>\n To do this, Kollins says the project \u201cwould have to get into the hands and minds of Jews outside of Canada. But if we start with Jews in Canada, I think that\u2019s great.\u201d<\/p>\n She adds that many of her educator colleagues at the Shalom Hartman Institute have American or Israeli backgrounds, so they\u2019re always looking for texts that will help them teach Judaism in Canada.<\/p>\n \u201cI actually think this project could be very helpful for my work moving forward in that way, because we do use contemporary sources,\u201d Kollins says.<\/p>\n Tylor Bergman is a doctoral candidate at York University who has taught political science courses in Canada and Eastern Europe. Bergman is considering writing an essay about how Holocaust survivor Julia Frankel saved his life as a teenager and helped him understand his \u201cJewishness,\u201d and how he helped her learn about modern life in turn.<\/p>\n He hopes his essay will help bridge the gaps between older and younger generations.<\/p>\n \u201cShe taught me the old ways, and I feel like a lot of young people today could really benefit from a dialogue, a relationship, or a connection with somebody who went through that,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Bergman says it\u2019s \u201cbrilliant\u201d that ACJS is storing the essays because \u201cthe dissemination of knowledge is easy\u2014it\u2019s storing it and having access to it that\u2019s really important.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI think that\u2019s one of the reasons for a lot of Holocaust denialism, is that we have all of this knowledge, but young people aren\u2019t actually exposed to it,\u201d he says. \u201cBecause my story is so entwined with that of a Holocaust survivor\u2026 being in the archive grants recognition to the relevance that her Jewish story had (to) mine.\u201d<\/p>\n He\u2019s also happy some of the essays will be published online rather than staying buried in an archive.<\/p>\n \u201cOne can\u2019t go without the other,\u201d he says. \u201cWhat\u2019s the point of disseminating it and then deleting it? Which is why it\u2019s going in the archives. But then what\u2019s the point of just storing it to be digitally dusty in the archives?\u201d<\/p>\n Tapper suggests that writers aim for 4,000 to 6,000 words, because that range is \u201cachievable\u201d before the deadline. He says ACJS won\u2019t turn away longer or shorter essays.<\/p>\n Submissions must have not been published previously. Writers can submit their essays through a Google Form<\/a> until Oct. 30, 2026.<\/p>\n Zenith Wolfe is an Ottawa-based reporter who specializes in arts reporting and compassionate, person-first storytelling. He’s also written for the Globe and Mail, CBC, Cottage Life magazine, and La Converse.\u00a0His website is zenithwolfe.com.<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Zenith-Wolfe-Square-Profile-Photo-2.jpg\")
<\/p>\n