The Jews of Windsor, 1790-1990 - Jonathan V. Plaut

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in Windsor. The evidence about this early period is sketchy — much information has been lost, and unfortunately, primary sources are scarce — but after careful research, a pattern of Jewish settlement does emerge from the scattered records.

      Following the death of Moses David in 1814, we can safely assume that no other Jew settled in the Windsor area until the 1870s, since neither local newspaper accounts nor census figures show any signs of Jewish activities during that period.2 The first viable Jewish presence in Windsor was established about 1878, when the first group of Eastern European immigrants arrived there. They were mostly from Suwalk and Shtabin, and other small Russian-Polish towns in Bialystok Province, close to the Lithuanian border, and the typical pattern of these immigrants was for a few key family members to secure a base in Canada before asking their relatives to join them there. Determined to succeed in the country that had given them the chance to make a fresh start, they and others who came after 1881 to escape the Russian pogroms were a courageous, industrious, and hard-working lot, well conditioned to withstand hardships in difficult times. They were eager to perpetuate the familiar lifestyle they had left behind, so that Jewish nucleus soon transformed Windsor into their own kind of shtetl, making it their fortress amid an initially hostile environment in which differences in language, customs, manners, and dress set them apart from the rest of the population. Most of them readily embraced the free-enterprise system, at first peddling for their livelihood before saving up enough money to bring over family members and friends. They, in turn, assisted expansion into more established businesses. Gradually gaining confidence and status, they ultimately took their proper places in Canadian society and, specifically, in Windsor’s big little Jewish community.3

       William Englander

      Although the picture of Essex County’s early Jewish settlement is incomplete, the records indicate that the first Jew to make Windsor his permanent home around 1876 was William Englander. Born in 1850,4 he had left his native Hungary as a young man and, after living in China, Japan, and Australia, had made his way to the United States.5 He landed in New York City in 1876, boarded a train for Cleveland, Ohio, where he had a first cousin and, after staying there for a while, moved on to Detroit.6 We do not know what motivated him to cross the Detroit River to the Canadian side, but by 1891, he was listed in Windsor’s City Directory as a peddler living at 122 Windsor Avenue. Three years later, he opened a store on the same street and even though the sign above the shop read, “W. Englander Groceries and Meat, Butter, Eggs, and Poultry,” he was likely a shochet, a Jewish butcher specializing in the ritualistic slaughter of animals.7

      Since William Englander spoke several languages, including German, Russian, Bulgarian, Polish, Yiddish, and Bohemian, starting about 1895 he also acted as a court interpreter whenever his services were required.8 Then, in December 1898, it was rumoured that he was planning to run in the upcoming municipal election as an alderman. On January 3, 1899, the Evening Record reported that, “In ward three, Mr. Englander, a new man, surprised his friends by heading the poll with a very substantial majority.”9

      Photo courtesy of Shaar Hashomayim Synagogue

      William Englander.

      Having become the first Jew to be elected to public office in Windsor, he celebrated his victory by attending a dinner that same night and, a few days later, a party at the home of Mayor John Davis.10 Thanks to his earlier stint as a court interpreter, Englander was well prepared for his new job. In February 1899 he was appointed to the market and property committee, as well as to the light committee11 and, likely in recognition of his newly attained position, he was also granted a Certificate of Naturalization.12

      Englander’s interest in city politics had probably been sparked long before he actually became an alderman. In the early years, when Windsor was a pioneering community, hawkers and peddlers had been able to walk the streets and roam the countryside undisturbed. Gradually, however, shop owners must have perceived these “outsiders” as a threat to their more established enterprises. A by-law passed three years earlier that required the “licensing and regulation of Hawkers and Petty Chapman and others,”13 would have had a profound effect on William Englander’s own business. Amended on May 3, 1886, it stipulated:

      That no person not a resident of the town of Windsor, and in the case of tea, dry goods, and jewelry, not having a shop, store or place of business within the said town in which to pursue his trade or calling, shall exercise the calling or occupation of a peddler, hawker or petty chapman within the units of the said town, nor go on foot or otherwise offering for sale (etc.). . . without first having obtained a license so to do in the manner hereinafter provided.14

      Englander the businessman should have welcomed the law regulating street vendors’ activities. As an alderman, however, his objectivity on the subject was, at times, questionable. While insisting on strict observance by others, he himself appeared to sidestep any restrictions that interfered with the pursuit of his personal aims and objectives. For example, on June 26, 1899, the market and property committee received a complaint that “William Englander had been buying poultry during prohibited hours.”15

      Despite his reprehensible behaviour, coupled with his seemingly less than regular attendance of Council meetings, he was re-elected in 1900 and, during his second term in office, was again censured for contravening the by-law designed to keep “hucksters off the market until 10 a.m.”16 In that connection, the Evening Record of January 29, 1900, reported that,

      Mr. Englander was suppressed twice or thrice before but he does not stay suppressed. His latest scheme to evade the law is to make his bargains before 10 a.m. and have the goods delivered after that hour, hoping by this thin device to escape the penalty.

      Mr. Englander on a former occasion justified his action on the ground that the farmers were opposed to the 10 o’clock clause. Mr. Englander’s error seems to lie in forgetting that the by-law is framed in the interest of the people who maintain the market.”17

      Fortunately, that particular complaint did not reach Council and, despite a motion passed on March 19, 1900, requesting the police commissioners to advise the chief constable and policemen to enforce the hawkers and peddlers regulations, William Englander remained undaunted. In fact, his prominence seemed to reach its peak on April 17, 1900, when the Evening Record reported that he had built “a handsome residence on the corner of Windsor Avenue and Wyandotte Street.”18 Still unable to accept “that clause of the market by-law which seeks to retain the market for the people until 9 o’clock by keeping hucksters off the grass up to that hour,”19 William Englander again was taken to task on August 1, 1900, when the following item appeared in the Evening Record:

      On a recent market day he approached a youth with a wagon during prohibited hours and offered to buy all the chicks he had. He had seven pairs. The youth demurred, saying it was against the law. “Oh,” replied the alderman, “I make the laws for this town; anyway if there is any trouble you just say I contracted for those chickens last Thursday.”

      The fears of the farmer were allayed by the alderman into carrying away the fowls. Word of the transaction was carried to Market Clerk Lidell, who warned him to keep the law, but many such warnings do not seem to restrain the alderman.”20

      Although Englander himself was never punished for violating any of these laws, he not only joined Alderman B. G. Davis in September 1900 in laying a charge against Wolfgang Feller, a well-known hotel owner, for buying chickens during prohibited market hours but, a month later, even proposed the following resolution:

      Moved by Mr. Englander, seconded by Mr. Blackburn, that whereas the Hawkers & Peddlers By-law has been enforced in this city since the 1st day of June last and no conviction for an infraction thereof has yet been made in the police court, although it is a notorious fact that said by-laws continuously are openly violated by a large number of persons, the Council is of the opinion that the police constables whose salaries are paid by the City are severely remiss in their duty and

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