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New Graphic Novel Draws on Canada's 1933 Anti-Semitic Riot
(Times of Israel) Renee Ghert-Zand - On the night of August 16, 1933, a six-hour, violent street brawl took place in Toronto between swastika-brandishing Anglo Protestants and Jewish and Italian Catholic immigrants. The event became known as the Christie Pits riots. A new graphic novel, Christie Pits, written by Jamie Michaels and illustrated by Doug Fedrau, covers the four months leading up to the riot, as Depression-era resentment toward Jews and other minority immigrant groups grew among some of Toronto's then-majority Anglo Protestant population. "Swastika clubs" formed to intimidate Jews and keep them from visiting the city's public beaches on the shore of Lake Ontario. Protestant gangs tried to keep Jews and others from entering certain neighborhoods or playing sports in particular parks. At the same time, reports in the Toronto Star alerted Canadians to the discrimination and violence against Jews in Germany by the newly governing Nazi party. Yet, the Canadian government decided to implement a "none is too many" immigration policy, letting in no more than 5,000 Jewish refugees between 1933 and 1945 as many Canadian Jews were trying to bring their persecuted loved ones over from Europe. Cyril Levitt, a professor of sociology at McMaster University and co-author of the book The Riot at Christie Pits, described the rioters: "These were not Hitlerites or members of Nazi cells. They weren't pro-German fascist ideologues. In fact, they were anti-Germany after Canada fought Germany in World War I. They did, however, know that the swastika would incite the Jews and let them know, 'You are not wanted here'."