Abella died on Sunday, the day after his 82nd birthday, after a long illness. He was born and raised in Toronto and completed his BA, MA and PhD at the University of Toronto. His 1982 book None is too Many: Canada and the Jews of Europe 1933-1948, co-authored with Harold Troper, shed light on the largely untold history of Canada’s anti-immigration policy toward persecuted Jews and helped convince future governments to welcome immigrants fleeing war. Between the rise of the Nazi Party in 1933 and the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, Canada accepted just 5,000 Jewish refugees—a legacy that Abella and Troper called the “worst record of any nation in the world.” This was particularly evident in the case of MS St. Louis, which in 1939 was denied the right to disembark its passengers in Cuba and the United States. Some Canadians tried to persuade Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King to allow the ship to dock in Halifax, but this was rejected by Fredrick Blair, an official in charge of the government’s immigration service at the time. Abella and Troper revealed in None is too Many that Blair had a particular dislike for Jews and was the architect of highly restrictive immigration policies, with the full support of King’s Liberal government.
“Ethical Criterion”
By Abella’s own admission, None is Too Many was never meant to be more than an academic text detailing a particularly dark period in Canadian history. It has since become much more than that, not least of which is the entry of the phrase “none is too many” into the Canadian lexicon. In Abella’s own words, the book became “a moral yardstick against which modern government policies are measured.” To that end, advance copies of some of the book’s chapters were sent to former immigration minister Ron Atkey in the late 1970s, just as Canadians were debating what, if anything, the country should do about the immigration crisis. Vietnamese refugees who became known as Boat. People. After reading these chapters and learning of Canada’s deplorable treatment of Europe’s Jews, Atkey vowed not to repeat past mistakes, and Canada welcomed tens of thousands of new citizens. The book won the National Jewish Book Award in 1983 in the Holocaust category. Abella’s book None is too Many: Canada and the Jews of Europe 1933-1948, co-authored with Harold Troper, won the 1983 National Jewish Book Award in the Holocaust category. (University of Toronto Press) Abella was also strongly critical of Canada’s post-war acceptance of thousands of Nazi collaborators and war criminals, particularly members of the Waffen-SS Galicia Division, which was made up of Ukrainian nationalists and fascists. In a 1997 interview with 60 Minutes’ Mike Wallace, Abella stated that entry into Canada was relatively simple for SS members, as their trademark tattoo indicated they were reliably anti-communist. Abella was also the author of Coat of Many Colours: Two Centuries of Jewish Life in Canada, a major text documenting the history of Jews in Canada, as well as several key texts on the history of the labor movement in Canada. He spent his career teaching history at York University and held the position of Professor of Canadian Jewish History towards the end of his career. Abella was also active outside of academia, as president of the Canadian Jewish Congress from 1992 to 1995, and as president of VisionTV, a specialty religious television channel. “Irving Abella was a quintessential Canadian Jewish leader,” said Bernie Farber, former CEO of the Canadian Jewish Congress and currently president of the Canadian Network Against Hate. “He was wise, articulate, engaging, bold and visionary. His inspirational leadership became his legacy. To me, he was my mentor and teacher. May his memory always be a blessing.” Abella was married to Rosalie Silberman Abella, a former judge of the Supreme Court of Canada, who was not only the first Jewish woman but also the first refugee to sit on that court. They have two sons, Jacob and Zachary. Abella was made a Member of the Order of Canada in 1993 and a Member of the Order of Ontario in 2014. He was also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal in 2002.
