# Canadian Jewish infantry company WW 1



## gordjenkins (16 Nov 2006)

Check out
http://www.medalsofwar.com/badge_html/cww1/cef6.html
-on that site 
for sale is a cap badge 
for "C.E.F. 6-2, 1st Jewish Infantry company cap badge 

Price: $575.00 Canadian "

Has anyone heard of this Jewish WW 1 Infantry Company ???


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## Michael OLeary (16 Nov 2006)

The badge is listed in Babin's, the principal reference for CEF badge collectors.  And Eugene Ursual is one of the (if not The) most reputable dealers in Canada.


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## gordjenkins (16 Nov 2006)

I am not so much interested in the badge
as
an account of the Unit
- what it did/where it served /what battles etc


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## gordjenkins (18 Nov 2006)

on Page 97 of  " Canada at War 1914- 1918 " 
by J Castell Hopkins
published by George H Doran publishers 1919 
448 is the following entry
under "On the Way to War - Raising an Army " Chapter 
and the list of Units leaving Canada - 258 Battalions/plus University Inf Companies /the Yukon Inf Company and the No 1 Infantry Company
is the following:

- "No 1 Jewish Inf. Co.
- Original Commanding Officer: Captain I.Friedman
- Date of Sailing ... 28 Mar 1917 
- Strength on Sailing  Officers 3 /Other Ranks 83   
- Headquarters on Mobilization   Montreal PQ

Then the drop off the face of the earth !

I am still waiting for a reply from a few of my research contacts

Regards
Gord
Gordon Jenkins 
35 Biscayne Cr.
Ottawa ON CANADA
K2E5R9

gordjenkins@sympatico.ca


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## gordjenkins (24 Nov 2006)

I think I found the answer to my own question
-odd 
last time I asked a question I had answers from as far away as Australia !
digger - you are slipping:>)
---------------------------------------------------------------

from  "The Jew in Canada", page 506.  "... \

_Almost every unit had its Jewish members, and in 1916, at the request of the 
then Minister of Militia, General Sir Sam Hughes, a Jewish Reinforcement 
Company was raised in Montreal.  This task was entrusted to Isidore 
Freedman, who had taken the necessary courses of instruction and had granted 
a commission. 

 Captain Freedman was assisted in the organisazation of the 
unit by Leiuts. Alex Solomon (who was killed in action), Herbert Vineberg 
(who later joined the Air Force and was awarded the Distinguished Flying 
Cross), Albert Freedman, Charles Lesser who served on the western Front for 
a long time), and others.

  The financial assistance required for this 
undertaking was supplied by the leading Jews of Montreal.  Over four hundred 
men enlisted and after a course of training the company went overseas in 
1917.  From England they were sent to various Montreal units as 
reinforcements, and the members acquitted themselves in the same manner as 
the rest of their coreligionists who were on service. ..."_

gordjenkins@gmail.com


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## AJFitzpatrick (24 Nov 2006)

So it followed the normal fate of most of the "special" units raised in WWI

My personal favourite was the 253rd "Queen's University Highlanders" Bn which according to Macphail had virtually no one from Queen's in it,  :


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## Shec (24 Nov 2006)

The unit left a lasting socio-cultural and political legacy that is perpetuated today.  The Canadian Jewish Congress was formally established by the coalition of  separate ad hoc committees in cities across the country to centrally coordinate the activities of the Jewish Reinforcement Draft Company in feeding replacements into the CEF and parallel initiatives to enlist Jewish Canadian recruits for the 39th Royal Fusiliers, the North American raised battalion of the British Army's  Jewish Legion (38, 39, 40th Royal Fusiliers). 

There is a photo of the company on page 157 of Irving Abella's A Coat of Many Colours.  The archives of  both the Canadian Jewish Congress and the Jewish Canadian Military Museum would be sources of further information.

Cheers

Jeff


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## gordjenkins (25 Nov 2006)

Thanks Jeff

I am a volunter researcher for CJC Arhives in Montreal 

Gord aka Gershon


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## Shec (25 Nov 2006)

Kol Hakavod Gershon. Among other things you folks do great work in supplementing DVA's on-line Virtual War Memorial with photos and bios of those Jewish Canadian servicemen lost during WW2.    Do you know of any sources of reproductions of the badge?  $575 is a bit rich for my blood.


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## vonGarvin (25 Nov 2006)

Slightly OT, but I had the honour of assisting the family of a Pte Sid Ofner of Montreal who served with the RCR in Italy.  He was killed in action in December of 1943 or early 1944.  The family needed one last tidbit of information in order to complete their book they were writing about him.  A few phone calls later, I was able to get in touch with the late Pte Ofner's trenchmate who was next to him when he was killed.  I still remember the phone call to the RCR Museum back some 11 years ago:

"Excuse me, is this "Joe Bloggins", service number "x" who joined The Regiment in December 1943 with carrier platoon?"
"Yes it is"
"My name is MCpl David G..... of The RCR museum.  You wouldn't happen to have known a Private Sidney Ofner, would you?"
"Sid?  He was that Jewish fellow from Montreal.  He practically died in my arms."  Pause.  Big pause.  I could hear the memories racing through his mind during that pause.

Conversations like that always seem to put things into perspective...


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## gordjenkins (1 Dec 2006)

Shec

Sorry - dont know any sources of reproductions of badge
- -agree on high price
 but only less than a 100 members in No 1 Canadian Jewish Inf. Co.

We would love to have one at entrance to CJC Archives in a glass case
but
alas 
not in the budget

Gershon


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