EDAFOLOGÍA

Camp David, a well-utilized American presiden-tial retreat in Maryland, was the site of two major peace negotiations between Israel and Arab pow-ers, in 1978 and 2000.

On September 10, 1978, Anwar SADAT, presi-dent of EGYPT, and Menachem BEGIN, prime min-ister of Israel, met with President Jimmy Carter and agreed on a framework for peace in the Mid-dle East, inviting the other Arab nations to adhere to the agreement. The preamble of the Camp David accords declared that after “four wars dur-ing thirty years, despite intensive human efforts, the Middle East, which is the cradle of civilization and the birthplace of three great religions, does not yet enjoy the blessings of peace. The people of the Middle East yearn for peace so that the vast human and natural resources of the region can be turned to the pursuits of peace and so that this

area can become a model for coexistence and cooperation among nations.”

These Camp David accords resulted from the historic visits of President Sadat to JERUSALEMand Prime Minister Begin to Ismailia. Egypt and Israel signed a treaty, still honored today, in which they agreed “not to resort to the threat or use of force or military blockade against each other.”

Over the next several decades only Jordan among the Arab nations has followed the example of Egypt. However, in July 2000, President Clinton invited Israeli prime minister Ehud BARAK and Palestinian Authority chairman Yasser Arafat (see PALESTINELIBERATION ORGANIZATION), to return to Camp David and continue negotiations for a com-prehensive agreement for peace in the Middle East.

With significant concessions being offered by Israel, there was great optimism for a final resolu-tion, but ultimately this Camp David experience resulted in the Palestinian rejection of an agree-ment, and a new war has been waged against Israel.

Further reading: 21st Century Complete Guide to the Carter Presidential Archives: President Jimmy Carter, Carter Administration, Iran Hostage Crisis, Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel, Speeches, Daily Diary, Documents, Presidential Library Material (CD-ROM) (Washington, D.C.: Progressive Management, 2003);

Ziva Flamhaft, Israel on the Road to Peace: Accepting the Unacceptable (Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1996);

Clyde Prestowitz, Rogue Nation: American Unilateralism and the Failure of Good Intentions (New York: Basic Books, 2003); Richard C. Thornton, The Carter Years:

Toward a New Global Order (New York: Paragon House, 1991); Web site, Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, URL:

http://www.mfa.gov.il/, accessed June 26, 2004.

Canaan

Canaan is the term applied to the land, flanked by the Mediterranean Sea and the Arabian Desert, occupied by the ISRAELITESafter the EXODUSfrom EGYPT. This land was extremely fertile, and its location in the Fertile Crescent made it an impor-tant political and commercial region. When the

Israelites began to occupy Canaan, it was popu-lated by several tribal communities. Over several hundred years, the Israelite military leaders and kings established, to varying degrees, political cohesion and a sense of Israelite and then Jewish national identity in the country. At the same time, Canaan’s abundant natural resources and strategic political and commercial location continued to make it a prime target for other empires, leading to successive invasions over the centuries.

Further reading: Meir Ben-Dov, Historical Atlas of Jerusalem (New York: Continuum, 2002); Suzanne Boorer, “The Earth/Lan (’RS) in the Priestly Manual:

The Preservation of the ‘Good’ Earth and the Promised Land of Canaan Throughout the Generations,” in Aus-tralian Biblical Review 49 (2001): 19–33; Martin Gilbert, The Atlas of Jewish History (New York: William Morrow and Company, 1993).

Canada

The story of the Jews in Canada does not drasti-cally differ from that of the Jews in the UNITED

STATES, although it has a somewhat different start:

SEPHARDIM did not put down lasting roots in the early years in Canada, and a sizable Jewish com-munity of any kind did not emerge until some-what later than in the neighbor to the south.

Although there is a record of Jews living in Halifax in 1750 under British rule, the first per-manent community in Canada did not emerge until 1759. The early Jews lived mostly in Mon-treal, where the first synagogue was established in 1768. Interestingly, Shearith Israel was a congre-gation of ASHKENAZIMfrom ENGLAND, the NETHER

-LANDS, and GERMANYwho adopted the Sephardic liturgy. Montreal Jews built a second synagogue called Sha’ar Hashomayim in 1846. Its members hailed from England, Germany and POLAND.

In 1807 a Jew by the name of Ezekiel Hart was elected to the Legislative Assembly for Lower Canada (now Quebec), but he was unable to take office after he refused to be sworn in as a Christ-ian. Canada granted full civil rights to its Jews in

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1832, considerably earlier than many European countries where EMANCIPATIONwas still in progress.

Thus, Jews had full rights to take part in Canada’s parliamentary government, including the ability to sit in Parliament and hold public office, by the time the assassination of Czar Alexander II, which provoked POGROMSthat sent large numbers of Jew-ish refugees to Canadian shores. Many synagogues sprung up in the eastern cities of Canada, and Toronto’s rich Jewish history commenced. In 1883 the Goel Tzedec Congregation was established in Toronto and Beth Hamidrash Hagadol Chevrah, mostly composed of Russian members, opened its doors in 1887. The majority of 19th-century Jew-ish synagogues in Canada eventually affiliated with CONSERVATIVEJUDAISM.

The Jewish population at first grew slowly. In 1891 there were only around 6,400 Jews in Canada, but the number swelled to 125,000 between 1900 and 1920. Jewish immigration in the 1930s was severely limited by the government, because of both anti-immigrant and anti-Jewish sentiment. In addition, Canadian policy only encouraged the immigration of farmers. Canadian Jewish communal organizations such as the ish Immigrant Aid Society and the Canadian Jew-ish Congress (CJC) worked to open Canada to war refugees, but with little success. It was not until 1947, after the end of World War II, that immigration laws changed in Canada. Initially, the CJC focused on bringing refugees from European displaced persons camps to Canada. Between 1945 and 1960, 40,000 Jews immigrated to Canada, including groups from HUNGARY, Morocco, North Africa, and the Middle East, fur-ther diversifying Canada’s Jewish community.

As in ARGENTINA and BRAZIL, Jewish philan-thropists helped to settle Jewish immigrants in farming colonies in the western province of Saskatchewan. They thought that the cold winters in Saskatchewan would be not unlike those in RUSSIA, making it a viable location for new Jewish communities. Herman Landau, an English Jew who had made his fortune in the London Stock Exchange, advocated for the idea; his support,

with some modest help from the Jewish Coloniza-tion AssociaColoniza-tion, funded by Baron de HIRSCH, resulted in the establishment of a series of Jewish farming communities in the region from 1886 to 1921, when the movement reached its peak of approximately 2,500 Jewish farmers. The experi-ment did not survive the drought and depression of the 1930s. Most of the Jews who had owned farms moved to urban areas.

Canada has a somewhat unique history of

ANTISEMITISM. No organized antisemitism existed until the rise of Nazism in the 1930s, when Adrien Arcand attempted to exploit the xenophobic nature of French Canadians in that direction. In the late 20th century, several men were tried and convicted of teaching or disseminating antisemitic ideas and literature, including HOLOCAUST denial and conspiracy theories. James Keegstra, Ernst Zundel, and Malcolm Ross, in three separate cases, were convicted with the help of Canadian authorities and Jewish communal organizations such as B’NAI B’RITH and the CJC. The effort to expel Nazi war criminals living in Canada has had mixed success; some were extradited while others have been acquitted.

The Canadian Jewish community supports Jewish social service agencies, synagogues, news-papers, and a Jewish education system. Synagogue schools (seeSUPPLEMENTARY SCHOOL) are popular in Canada, but the JEWISH DAY SCHOOL MOVEMENThas been widespread too, even in the smaller cities of Ottawa, Windsor, Hamilton, Calgary, and Edmon-ton. The Canadian Jewish Congress, established in 1919, represents the Canadian Jewish commu-nity. B’nai B’rith has lodges in Canada, although those in western Canada are affiliated with their closest geographical district in the United States.

Many Zionist organizations are active in the coun-try as well, including HADASSAH and the Zionist Organization of Canada (ZOC). Canadian Jewry has consistently held a positive and supportive attitude toward Zionism and the State of ISRAEL.

At present the Canadian Jewish community stands as the sixth-largest DIASPORAcommunity in the world. Almost 30 percent of Canada’s 356,000

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Jews live in the province of Quebec; Toronto is also a thriving center of Jewish life.

Further reading: Irving M. Abella, A Coat of Many Colours: Two Centuries of Jewish Life in Canada (Toronto:

Lester & Orpen Dennys, 1990); Michael Greenstein, et al., Contemporary Jewish Writing in Canada; An Anthol-ogy (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2004); Ger-ald J. J. Tulchinsky, Taking Root: The Origins of the Canadian Jewish Community (Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England, 1993).

candles

Candles have played a significant role in Jewish ritual life from earliest times. Lighting candles dates back to the TEMPLE when the priests would light a seven-candle candelabra called the MENO

-RAHevery day. It is said that this menorah symbol-ized the mission of ISRAEL to be a light unto the nations (Is 42:6). In modern times, Jews light can-dles for a variety of reasons: to celebrate holidays, to mark the difference between holy times and secular times, to remember those who have died, and to preserve the Jewish way of worship.

The ritual lighting of SHABBAT and holiday candles, traditionally the domain of women, is often practiced by men as well today, in a nod to

EGALITARIANISM. The Shabbat candles are lit before sunset on Friday to mark the beginning of the Sabbath with all its joys and restrictions. A

MIDRASHteaches that when the first human being, Adam, opened his eyes on the eve of Shabbat and found himself in the dark shadows of the GARDEN OFEDEN, he was very afraid. However, he stum-bled upon two stones, picked them up and struck them, starting a fire. He felt that the light and the warmth created by the fire was a gift from God, and he then pronounced the very first blessing: “Praised are You, God, Sovereign of the Universe, who creates the light of the fire.”

At the conclusion of Shabbat, Jews ritually mark the end of the day by lighting the HAVDALAH

candle. Havdalah means “separation,” and this is the ceremony that marks the line between the

Sabbath and the working week. The havdalah can-dle is specially braided with at least two wicks.

The blessing over the candle is to remind oneself of God’s first creation of light.

Lighting CHANUKAH candles is a well-known Jewish ritual practice. The TALMUDteaches that to commemorate Chanukah, a candle should be lit for each day observed. There was a debate as to proce-dure. The school of SHAMMAI taught: “On the first day eight lights are lit and thereafter they are gradu-ally reduced”; but the school of HILLELsays: “On the first day one is lit and thereafter they are progres-sively increased.” The views of the school of Hillel were accepted as common practice because one should desire increase in matters of sanctity and not decrease. The Chanukah lights are intended to be a reminder of the miracle of oil. When the MACCABEES

rededicated the TEMPLE they found only enough sanctified oil for one day, but miraculously the oil lasted eight days. Light from the Chanukah candles is a metaphor for God’s divine light in the world.

Candles in the Jewish tradition are not reserved only for times of celebration; they are also used to commemorate the life of one who has passed away.

Each year on the date that a person died, his or her immediate family members light a YAHRZEIT

(anniversary) candle, which is specially designed in a glass to burn safely for 24 hours. Often yahrzeit candles are also used in remembrance ceremonies for the 6 million Jews who died in the HOLOCAUST. Further reading: Isadore Epstein, ed., Soncino Hebrew/English Babylonian Talmud (Brooklyn, N.Y.: Son-cino Press, 1990); Irving Greenberg, The Jewish Way: Liv-ing the Holidays (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1988);

Ronald H. Isaacs and Kerry M. Olitzky, A Jewish Holiday Handbook (Hoboken, N.J.: Ktav Publishing House, 1994).