Our Roots
The United Jewish People’s Order is a national Canadian organization with sections in Vancouver, Winnipeg, and Toronto which evolved from the Workmen’s Circle or Arbeter Ring, a socialist umbrella organization that included Bundists, socialists, free thinkers, secularists and Yiddishists.
In 1926 the Workmen’s Circle disenfranchised and/or expelled those members it considered radicals (supporters of the 1917 Russian revolution). These ‘radical’ individuals formed the Labour League Mutual Benefit Society (LLMBS) in Toronto, and the Canadian Workers’ Circle (in Montreal and in Winnipeg), and other names in various Canadian cities. These organizations met the needs for a progressive social community and schooling for children, providing benefits for its members such as medical (decades before universal healthcare was instituted), unemployment and mortuary coverage, and a credit union, all quite revolutionary at the time.
The cultural and educational activities were mainly conducted in Yiddish, catering to the influx of Eastern European Jewish immigrants. Each centre maintained its cultural activities under the name of the Yiddisher Arbeter Kultur Tsenter (Jewish Workers’ Cultural Centre). The vast majority of members were poor and working class people labouring in sweatshops and often living in substandard conditions. Many were in the forefront of the movement to create workers’ unions. They were socialists who were committed to equality and bringing about a “nayer, frayer velt” – a newer, freer world.
The major emphasis of these organizations’ programming was to preserve the rich history and values of Yiddish culture or Yiddishkayt, (Jewishness), through the creation of choirs, orchestras, children’s schools (Folk Shules), activity clubs, camps, dance and theatre groups.
In Toronto the Frayhayt Gesangs Fareyn (Freedom Singing Society) which subsequently became the Toronto Jewish Folk Choir (TFJC) was part of the similarly-named left-wing choral movement in North America, and was autonomously formed in 1925. The same was true with Camp Kindervelt (Children’s World), which evolved into Camp Naivelt. Within a few years both groups requested to become institutions of the Labour League. With the purchase of a house at 414 Markham Street, Toronto’s Morris Winchevsky School (MWS) was founded in 1928 by the LLMBS. Subsequently other school locations were opened to meet growing demands. In 1959 MWS became an autonomous charitable organization as UJPO-Toronto withdrew its financial support, and in 1978 the TJFC also acquired autonomy and charitable status for similar reasons.
The founders were committed to perpetuating the Yiddish language including an understanding of the traditions of social justice and humanism and to making secular Jewish life relevant and accessible through a wide variety of cultural, social, and educational programs. By the 1960’s the language of teaching was English. Subsequently, other school locations were opened to meet demands.
In the summer of 1944, the leaders of Toronto’s Labour League and the Canadian Workers’ Circles met in Toronto to consider the feasibility of merging into a single national association and in August 1945, the United Jewish People’s Order (UJPO) was born, following a national conference in 1944 of similar autonomous secular left-wing Jewish-Canadian organizations. As a national organization it was and is the public voice for and representative of its constituent members. True to its origins, over the years the UJPO became and remains notable for its prominent cultural institutions to preserve progressive Yiddish culture, its steadfast support of unions and workers’ rights, its activism against anti-Semitism and all forms of racism, its campaigning for world peace, and its opposition to all manifestations of oppression and exploitation, sexism and homophobia.
The UJPO’s predecessors originally operated out of people’s homes, being run solely by dedicated members volunteering countless hours of time. Branches and lodges were established to service various groupings of members, each programming its own social and cultural events. At its heyday in the 1940’s and 1950’s, the UJPO boasted more than 2,500 members nation-wide; additional branches were established in Hamilton and Niagara Falls Ontario, and Calgary, Alberta and Vancouver, British Columbia, among others.
As the organization continued to grow, it purchased a building to better meet the needs of the members. Its first Toronto home was at 83 Christie Street. In Montreal UJPO‘s home was in the Morris Winchevsky School’s edifice and in Winnipeg, in the Sholem Aleichem School building. In 1960 the Toronto UJPO moved into the Morris Winchevsky School’s newly built Winchevsky Centre which also houses UJPO Canada’s office.
Today, UJPO, MWS and Naivelt are thriving….
