OTTAWA Magazine, November 2008
IN 1900, fewer than 400 Jews lived in Ottawa. By the 1930s, that number had risen to 2,800 as Jews fled the pogroms taking place across the Russian Empire. Many arrived in poverty and were immediately drawn to the Byward Market, where they began as peddlers before opening up fruit stores, butcher shops, bakeries and dairies. SHAWNA WAGMAN looks back at families who formed a community around food–and planted roots in the heart of the capital
Update: this story was nominated for a 2008 National Magazine Award
Shawna Wagman 