questioned the minister of transport, C. D. Howe, as to why a message on “the exclusive mediatorship of Jesus Christ between man and God” was not allowed on the air. The minister was pressed to explain “what possible justification there could be for censorship on a sermon of that nature.”3 Another message that Morris prepared on birth control was censored only hours before he was to go on air. Government regulations put limits on Fr. Lanphier as well, and at one point both broadcasters were banned by the federal government.
A few local churches actively supported Morris’s radio ministry, but the local presbytery was noticeably uncomfortable. The raucous tone of the presbytery meeting on February 1st, 1937, was evident in the report of the Toronto Telegram, which opened, “‘God knows we have enough strife in Canada as it is without adding religious squabbles,’ declared Rev. Stuart C. Parker, D.D. of St. Andrew’s Church, yesterday afternoon as he moved to have the question of censorship by the Canadian Radio Commission of radio broadcasts by Rev. Morris Zeidman referred to a special committee of Toronto Presbytery…His motion carried unanimously.”4
A month later, Rev. Parker, as head of the investigating committee, presented its report. The committee refused to censure Morris, and some of the comments were positive. They noted that “Mr. Zeidman alone was responsible for the broadcasts and that no newspaper or organization was behind them.” The committee did not correct or criticize the text of his messages. “Those of doctrinal character set forth aspects of the Reformed faith and were orthodox in respect to their substance. Those dealing with current affairs expressed views which might legitimately be held by anyone. Both types, however, were controversial and had in view, first and foremost, the repudiation of Romanist doctrines and attitudes. In style and language, the Committee found Mr. Zeidman ‘did not overstep the bounds regarded as legitimate in such controversy.’” It was neither an endorsement nor a vindication. After all his bluster of the previous meeting, Rev. Parker could give no reasons for a reprimand: “your committee is unable to see any ground for disciplinary action in respect to Mr. Zeidman.”5 Although the broadcasts continued, Morris’s regular travel to radio stations around southern Ontario—including Hamilton and St. Catharines—were simply too great a strain on his health to sustain for many more years.
***
While the Depression lingered on, Morris made a pointed and very public stand against Canadians’ refusal to respond to Europe’s growing number of Jewish refugees. The government’s deliberate inaction, so fully evident in the debacle of the St. Louis (a boatload of more than 900 Jewish refugees from Germany who were refused entry to Cuba, numerous South American countries, the U.S. and Canada), was abetted by the silence of Canadian churches and their apathetic response to the spread of anti-Semitism.6
“During the last few years,” wrote Morris, “we have had to engage, not only in preaching the Gospel to the Jews, but also in combatting anti-Semitism among Christians.”7 As one of the few mainstream Canadian voices boldly supporting the cause of Jewry, he was pointedly confrontational in his writings and speeches, insisting that Christians must show moral leadership and genuine biblical values in their attitudes toward the Jewish people.8
The rise of anti-Semitism in a period of international economic turmoil was no coincidence. Extensive propaganda, a lot of it originating with the Nazis, blamed the world’s financial crisis on “an international cabal of Jewish bankers.” Emboldened by the laws against Jews in Germany, groups of Nazi sympathizers became a common sight in some Toronto neighbourhoods.
Mounting tension on the streets led to one of the city’s worst riots, during the summer of 1933. A mid-August series of softball games at the city’s Christie Pits parklands included a team with a large contingent of Jewish players. At one of their games, a blanket with a swastika was openly displayed in the stands. Nothing happened, though the police were warned that any more provocations could be dangerous. The caution was ignored, and the next day, August 16, the offending swastika was unfurled a second time. The team on the field and their supporters rushed the stands. Hours of brutal combat went on late into the evening, described by the Globe and Mail as a “Christian-Jewish pitched battle” along Bloor Street.9 The next day’s Toronto Star described the incident:
While groups of Jewish and Gentile youths wielded fists and clubs in a series of violent scraps for possession of a white flag bearing a swastika symbol at Willowvale Park last night, a crowd of more than 10,000 citizens, excited by cries of “Heil Hitler,” became suddenly a disorderly mob and surged wildly about the park and surrounding streets, trying to gain a view of the actual combatants, which soon developed in violence and intensity of racial feeling into one of the worst free-for-alls ever seen in the city. Scores were injured, many requiring medical and hospital attention.10
Morris’s repeated public statements were confronting the anti-Semitism entrenched in Canada’s leading institutions. Well-known social clubs and hotels were “restricted”—Jews were not allowed. Ottawa’s elite institutions, including the Rideau Club, a renowned haven for its leading politicians and highest ranking civil servants, had a “Christians Only” policy.11 Universities had well-known quotas for the number of Jewish students allowed entry to law and medical schools. Canadians could legally refuse to sell real estate to Jewish people, based on the premise that their property values would be reduced. Those statutes were not struck down by the Supreme Court until 1955, a full decade after thousands of Canadians had died to defeat Nazi Germany.
One of North America’s best-known promoters of anti-Semitism was Rev. Gerald B. Winrod of Wichita, Kansas. When he was invited to speak at a missionary conference at People’s Church in Toronto held in April 1935, Morris organized a peaceful picket line and protest in which many Jews also took part. Morris vocally urged ministry colleagues to see the full consequences of Rev. Winrod’s “Gospel of Hate.”
The time for keeping quiet has passed. They are not only slandering the modern Jew but are besmirching the names of the patriarchs. They are sapping the life of the Church like a canker. If we do not cut that canker out of our Church in America it will be Nazified, like the Church in Germany. No, we cannot remain quiet. If we should, the very stones would cry out.12
Despite the widely known terrors of Germany’s persecution of Jews, Canadian church leaders vacillated on taking in Jewish refugees, even when they openly condemned the Nazis. Many Canadians had little understanding or sympathy for Jewry—Europeans or local—while anti-Semites vocally warned that a flood of Jewish immigrants would come and take their jobs. An official rejection of Hitler’s treatment of Jews and other minorities only came with the onset of World War II. By then, the worst years of the Depression were fading into memory. Decades would pass before Canadians recognized their culpability for closing their borders to all but a very few Jewish refugees prior to the Holocaust.13
After more than a year of war, the Canadian economy had stabilized. By 1941, there was no lack of jobs or opportunity. Despite uncertainty over the future of Europe, the difficult years of privation had passed. The Zeidmans could look back over a decade of exceptional, if controversial, ministry. Morris was confident that his superiors at the home missions board would finally recognize his achievements. At last, he’d be compensated for his remarkable success, both with the “soup kitchen” ministry and the outreach to Toronto’s Jewish community. Unfortunately, the board did not see things that way.
Seeking Thee at Christmas, Lord (1937)
By Annie A. Zeidman
Seeking Thee at Christmas, Lord,
We cannot cross the sea,
The deserts or the mountains
To bring our gifts to Thee.
We cannot see the angels
Or
