What You Will Find Here
The Jews and Ukrainians category on usctoronto.ca is dedicated to one of the most emotionally charged and historically rich relationships in the Canadian mosaic. Ukrainian Canadians and Jewish Canadians have lived side by side for more than a century, their ancestors often leaving the same villages of Galicia, Volhynia, Bukovina and Podolia under very different circumstances. The articles in this section explore the origins of that coexistence, the traumas that marked it, the postwar silence that followed, and the slow work of reconciliation that has been carried out in Toronto, Montreal, Winnipeg and Ottawa since the 1980s. Our aim is not to minimise painful chapters but to give Canadian readers the factual and cultural tools to understand a relationship that continues to shape public debate, especially since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
At the moment, the category features our long-form essay Uneasy Relationship Between Ukrainians and Jews in Canada, which explains why Canadian multiculturalism has produced a mosaic rather than a melting pot, and how that policy choice affects the way memory, identity and cooperation function among Ukrainian and Jewish communities. Upcoming articles will cover Holocaust education initiatives in Ukrainian-Canadian schools, the Ukrainian Jewish Encounter program, joint humanitarian responses to the war, Babyn Yar commemorations in Toronto, and interviews with community leaders from both sides.
Ukrainian-Jewish Context in Canada
Ukrainian-Jewish coexistence in Canada began with the great transatlantic migrations of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Between 1880 and 1914, hundreds of thousands of Jews fled pogroms and structural poverty in the Russian Empire, while a parallel stream of Ukrainian peasant families left Austro-Hungarian Galicia for the Canadian prairies. Both groups were denigrated by Anglo-Canadian elites of the era, both settled in dense urban neighbourhoods — Kensington and the Plateau in Montreal, the Junction and Kensington Market in Toronto, the North End in Winnipeg — and both built a dense network of synagogues, churches, fraternal orders, credit unions, newspapers and schools. These parallel worlds interacted commercially and linguistically far more than is often remembered; Yiddish and Ukrainian could be heard on the same streets, and many Jewish shopkeepers spoke Ukrainian with their customers.
The Second World War was the defining rupture. The Shoah in occupied Ukraine cost the lives of approximately 1.5 million Jews, and the fraught question of local collaboration — alongside the heroism of the many Ukrainians recognised by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations — left a contested memory that travelled to Canada with the postwar refugee waves. From 1945 to 1952, roughly 34,000 displaced Ukrainians arrived in Canada, many of whom had survived forced labour or Soviet deportations; in the same years Canada admitted thousands of Holocaust survivors, a significant share of them from Ukrainian lands. For several decades the two communities rarely spoke to each other in public about these experiences. That began to change in the 1980s with academic conferences, the work of historians such as John-Paul Himka and Paul Robert Magocsi, and institutional initiatives like the Ukrainian Jewish Encounter, which has sponsored dozens of dialogue projects across North America.
Today, both communities remain influential in Canadian public life. Ukrainian Canadians number about 1.36 million and Jewish Canadians about 335,000, concentrated in the same metropolitan areas. Since 2022 they have cooperated closely on humanitarian relief for Ukraine, refugee resettlement, and commemoration of Babyn Yar. Tensions still surface occasionally around monuments, street names and historical framing, and those debates are handled by organisations such as the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs and the Canadian Friends of Ukraine. For the Canadian picture of this relationship, see our central analysis Uneasy Relationship Between Ukrainians and Jews in Canada.
Key Facts in 2026
- Approximately 1.36 million Canadians report Ukrainian origin and 335,000 report Jewish identity in the 2021 census.
- Toronto and Montreal each host both a major Ukrainian community and one of Canada's largest Jewish populations, making them the primary hubs of intercommunity dialogue.
- The Canadian Multiculturalism Act was adopted in 1988, entrenching the mosaic model that allowed both communities to preserve distinct identities while fully participating in national life.
- The Ukrainian Jewish Encounter, active since 2008, has funded research, documentaries, scholarships and dozens of joint events across North America.
- Since February 2022, Canadian Jewish organisations have raised tens of millions of dollars for humanitarian aid to Ukraine and sponsored thousands of refugee families.
- Holocaust education is mandatory in Ontario's high-school curriculum as of 2025, with joint Ukrainian-Jewish teaching resources developed by Canadian universities.
Related Topics on usctoronto.ca
The Jewish-Ukrainian story is woven into the broader Canadian immigrant experience. If you want to understand the Ukrainian half of the picture in depth, visit our Ukrainians in Canada section for community profiles and our Ukrainian Diaspora archive for the four historical waves of migration. The Canada Immigration hub explains the policies that welcomed both communities, from the pre-1914 prairie settlement schemes to the Displaced Persons Act of 1947, the 1976 Immigration Act and the modern Express Entry system. For readers interested in contemporary Ukraine — the homeland of one of these two communities — our Ukraine category offers context on the economy, history and society of 2026.
- Ukrainians in Canada — community, institutions, culture
- Ukrainian Diaspora — four waves of migration to Canada
- Canada Immigration — policy and pathways
- Ukrainian Women — family life and community roles
- Ukraine — the contemporary country and its history
- Ukrainian IT — professional emigration to Canada
Frequently Asked Questions
How many Ukrainians and Jews live in Canada?
Canada is home to roughly 1.36 million people of Ukrainian origin, one of the largest Ukrainian populations outside Ukraine, and about 335,000 Jewish Canadians according to the 2021 census. Both communities are concentrated in Toronto, Montreal, Winnipeg, Vancouver and Edmonton, which makes day-to-day contact frequent and intercommunity dialogue a recurring feature of municipal and cultural life.
What historical events shape Ukrainian-Jewish memory?
The shared memory spans centuries of coexistence in Galicia, Volhynia and Podolia, the pogroms of the late imperial period, the Shoah in occupied Ukraine, the Holodomor, Soviet repression and the postwar refugee waves that brought both communities to Canada. Different families carry different stories, which explains why memory politics remain sensitive even among neighbours who share a street in Toronto or Montreal.
Do the two communities cooperate in Canada today?
Yes. The Ukrainian Jewish Encounter, the Canadian Jewish community leadership, the Ukrainian Canadian Congress and many university programs run joint initiatives on Holocaust education, support for Ukraine, archival research and interfaith dialogue. Since 2022 cooperation has intensified around humanitarian relief, refugee sponsorship and commemorations of Babyn Yar and other shared sites of memory.
Why did the melting pot model not take root in Canada?
Canada adopted multiculturalism as official policy in 1971 and entrenched it in the 1988 Canadian Multiculturalism Act. Unlike the American melting pot, the Canadian mosaic encourages ethnic and religious groups to preserve distinct identities within a shared civic framework. That policy environment allowed both Ukrainian and Jewish communities to maintain strong institutions, schools, media and places of worship, while still participating fully in national life.
Latest Insights
The dialogue between Ukrainian and Jewish Canadians is a living conversation. Every year brings new commemorations, new academic publications, new humanitarian partnerships and occasional flashpoints around monuments or public speech. Our editorial team follows the work of the Ukrainian Jewish Encounter, the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, the Azrieli Foundation and the community newspapers of Toronto and Montreal, and we translate and summarise key developments for a general Canadian audience. Bookmark this category or subscribe to our newsletter to receive curated updates on events, book releases and joint initiatives, and to explore the full picture of Ukrainian-Jewish life in Canada.