![]() Usually, in-house designers do up the special artistic postmarks, but Osterer wanted to make sure it would be done correctly, according to Jewish traditions. In October, Canada Post notified Osterer that the proposal had been accepted. “So I thought, if it couldn’t be Edenbridge, Disraeli sounds like a great name.” Design shows dreidels and a menorah He was close to the Rothschilds and supported a homeland for the Jewish people. He suffered from antisemitism during his long career in politics. And how more Jewish can the name be, then?”ĭisraeli was born to a Jewish family in England in 1804, and although the Victorian-era figure was converted to Christianity as a teenager, the Conservative politician remained proud of his Jewish roots. “Then I’m looking through and I remember there’s a place in Quebec named after Benjamin Disraeli. “There used to be a post office there, but it is no more,” Osterer said, explaining why he needed to come up with a Plan B. Jews from Lithuania arrived via South Africa at the turn of the 20th century to establish a farming community near Brooksby-and came up with a name that would be meaningful to them, but still accepted by the province. One of Osterer’s friends, the late Motti Feldman, had family from there. At first, he thought of Vulcan, but they had one, so he considered Edenbridge, a former Jewish farm colony in Saskatchewan. Osterer had to find a location that resonated with Canadian Jews, or had a Jewish-sounding name. Hear why Canada’s first Jewish permanent postmark is in a town with no Jews.It’s a celebration of our diversity in this country.” “The postmasters at these places love getting letters from all over the world. “When I was teaching high school, I used to involve my students with doing Christmas postmarks at Christmas Island (Nova Scotia), and the Valentine ones at Love, Saskatchewan,” Osterer said. There are about 50 communities in Canada that have their own unique year-round postmarks, including the most famous one at the post office in Vulcan, Alberta: in 2016, theirs honoured the late Star Trek actor Leonard Nimoy, the Jewish actor who played Spock. Three years ago, he approached Canada Post to do a Jewish special postmark. Osterer is a retired Ottawa school teacher. “I agreed to participate because I hadn’t known about the story of Disraeli, and I was very fortunate to do it, even though there are no Jewish people in this area,” Fortier told The CJN. Nathalie Fortier is the postmaster, and she admits she had never heard of Hanukkah before, nor about the politician, who later identified as Christian-which allowed him to pursue a career in public office.īut that’s all changed since Irv Osterer, an Ottawa stamp enthusiast, wrote to her about his project to create Canada’s first-ever Jewish “ special pictorial cancel,” as they’re called. The only post office in Disraeli, with a population of about 2,500 people, is now the home of the first-ever permanent Jewish postmark to be created for mail in Canada, showing four dreidels and a fully lit menorah.ĭisraeli is located about an hour away from Sherbrooke. (Ellin Bessner photo).Ĭanada Post has brought Hanukkah to a small Quebec town named after a former Jewish prime minister of Great Britain. Predating the Permanent Court of Arbitration by several decades is the Universal Postal Union, which also maintains cooperation between nations on postal issues.Ottawa designer Irv Osterer shows his new Jewish postmark on top of this year's Hanukkah postage stamp and a first day cover with his own design of Benjamin Disraeli, the British prime minister, for whom the Quebec town was named. Any attempt to try will be thwarted before it gets started by the tendons that connect all of the peoples of the world. Moving back toward complete independence and self-autonomy is impossible. The perception that one nation is poising itself to threaten another wastes energy and good will on countering the threat. This can only increase suspicion and distrust. Some nations have a history of acting against their commitments when it is convenient. Trustworthiness in following through in international agreements is essential. The world is becoming daily more connected and a problem in, say, Central Africa, can have substantial consequences in southeast Asia. Since 1899 many other forums for settling disputes in the world peacefully have been created. The civilized world doesn't end at the borders of the US (so to speak) and a self-centered attitude about our interaction with other peoples and nations is in no ones best interest. One BBS I belong to in Indiana wondered whether we should care about how the world views the USA. Today in 1899 the Permanent Court of Arbitration was formed.ĭespite the provincial attitude of so many citizens of the USA, international organizations to solve conflicts between nations are essential. ![]()
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