About Us

The Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada (JHCWC) was created in 1999 as an amalgamation of the Jewish Historical Society of Western Canada, the Jewish Museum of Western Canada, and the Freeman Family Foundation Holocaust Education Centre. The organization took root and grew from an exhibition prepared by the Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC) in 1967 called Ninety Years of Jewish Life in Western Canada. The exhibit, which was part of Canada’s centennial celebrations, inspired the CJC committee members who developed it to dig more deeply into the rich history of Jewish life in Canada and form the Jewish Historical Society of Western Canada in 1968. The archives held by the JHCWC today were begun as part of the aforementioned exhibit, however, following the exhibit’s close, individuals and families from across western Canada continued to donate photographs, documents, publications, artefacts, and personal records.

Over the following decades, the collection expanded to include further archival documents, photographs, manuscripts, newspapers, oral histories, audio and video recordings, artifacts, genealogical materials, books, and other community records. The JHCWC’s collections encompass the experiences of Jewish communities across Manitoba and the prairie provinces and include material relating to immigration and settlement, synagogues and religious life, education, organizations, community services, businesses, professions, cultural activities, political and social engagement, and family history. The JHCWC also maintains extensive Holocaust-related resources, including survivor testimonies and educational materials. Today, the collections are comprised of over 1700 boxes of textual records, 70,000 photographs, 4000 artefacts, 1300 sound and video recordings, 23,697 burial records, and over 200 bound volumes of three western Canadian Jewish newspapers (in both Yiddish and English) dating back to 1913. Two of the JHCWC’s most notable collections include the Jewish Immigrant Aid Services Fonds, the Canadian Jewish Congress – Western Division Fonds, but there are dozens of other collections in the archives which are just as worth while for researchers, students, genealogists, and members of the public to delve into. 

The JHCWC facilities consist of an archive, a corridor museum, a reference library, and a permanent holocaust museum that doubles as an educational resource centre for Holocaust studies. The organization’s collections are made accessible through exhibitions, educational programs, lectures, public events, research services, genealogical assistance, and community outreach. The Holocaust Education Centre provides programming for schools and community groups, including Holocaust and antisemitism education. The JHCWC also develops public lectures, thematic rotating exhibits, commemorative programs, publications, and special events that connect historical topics to the contemporary community.