Worth Preserving

A story about my grandather's family told at last night's Passover Seder reminded me why this country is better than its political options these days.

It's 1939, the war has just begun and the Kaplan family of Memel (Klaipeda), Lithuania, has managed to escape Europe. The clan headed for Canada (though some came by way of Japan), and wound up on a small farm in a small town called Williamstown, Ontario, about an hour and a bit from Montreal.

In their first days in their new country, my grandfather's family was visited by the local Christian clergymen, which might have been a frightening prospect. It was not. The Kaplans were told plain and simple, We know you don't share the same faith as us, and we know there aren't many Jews around. Montreal is too far to go to practice your religion. Our church is open to you for your own religious use, whenever you need it.

At the end of each Seder, we sing le-shana haba-ah biyerushalayim - next year in Jeruslaem. It seems to me that Canada has always done right enough by us. As Jews around the world celebrate the enabling story of our people - the exodus from Egypt, the redemption from slavery, the birth of freedom - it bears noting that those of us north of the 49th parallel are blessed.