Irving Abella

Abella was born in Toronto on July 2, 1940.^[2][3] His parents were Esther (Shiff) and Louis Abella, both of Lithuanian-Jewish origins.^[3][4] He studied at the University of Toronto, obtaining a Bachelor of Arts in 1963 and a Master of Arts the following year. He commenced his doctoral studies at the University of California, Berkeley, before returning to the University of Toronto and being awarded a Doctor of Philosophy in 1969.^[2] He wrote his thesis on Canadian labour history.^[3]

Abella first taught at York University in 1968,^[2] specializing in labour and Jewish history.^[3][5] He continued teaching at that institution until 2013. During the early 1970s, he started the first university course in Canadian Jewish studies at Glendon College, which he considered his greatest achievement.^[3] He served as president of the Canadian Jewish Congress from 1992 to 1995. He was also chair of Vision TV, a religious broadcaster.^[2][6] He was president of the Canadian Historical Association for the year 1999-2000.^[7]

Abella's books include Coat of Many Colours: Two Centuries of Jewish Life in Canada (1990) and None Is Too Many: Canada and the Jews of Europe, 1933–1948 (1982).^[2] He stated that the latter – which detailed the Canadian government's immigration policy during the 1930s that led it to accept only 5,000 Jewish refugees during World War II – was not intended to be more than an academic text.^[8] However, it ultimately impacted the immigration policy of the government at the time. After Ron Atkey, the minister of immigration, read a draft copy of the manuscript, the Canadian government welcomed 50,000 Vietnamese boat people by the end of 1980 (up from the original goal of 8,000 refugees per year).^[3][8]

Abella married Rosalie Silberman Abella in 1968.^[2] They met while studying at the University of Toronto together, and remained married until his death.^[3] She was later appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada in August 2004. Together, they have two children, Jacob and Zachary.^[3][8]

Abella died on July 3, 2022, one day after his 82nd birthday. He suffered from an unspecified long illness prior to his death.^[3][8][9]

Abella was a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.^[2][8] He was conferred the National Jewish Book Award in 1983 under the Holocaust category for None Is Too Many: Canada and the Jews of Europe, 1933–1948.^[8][10] He was appointed a member of the Order of Canada in October 1993 and invested four months later in February of the following year.^[11] He was the recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal (2002) and the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal (2012).^[12][13] Abella later received the Order of Ontario in 2014 "for his contribution to documenting the story of Jewish Canadians, and his commitment to the principles of social justice and tolerance."^[14][15]

• Nationalism, Communism and Canadian Labour (1973) ISBN 9780802002334
• On Strike: Six Key Labour Struggles in Canada 1919–1949 (1974) ISBN 9780888620576
• The Canadian Worker in the Twentieth Century (co-editor, 1978) ISBN 9780195402506
• None Is Too Many: Canada and the Jews of Europe 1933–1948 (with Harold Troper, 1982) ISBN 9780919630314
• A Coat of Many Colours: Two Centuries of Jewish Life in Canada (1990) ISBN 9780886192518

• Harold Troper
• VisionTV