Christie Pits riot was a turning point for Toronto
It was August 1933. Eight months earlier, Adolf Hitler had taken over as chancellor of Germany. Hitler had already made known his vicious hatred of Jews to a world that seemed largely indifferent.
Toronto, like much of the rest of the world, was knee-deep in the Depression. Money was scarce, jobs were at a minimum, tempers were frayed and antiSemitism was a boorish and normal part of Toronto life.
In Toronto, the fledgling Jewish community was mostly garment workers, vegetable merchants or, like many others, simply unemployed. Discrimination was rampant. Many summer resorts banned Jews even if they could afford to go, so Toronto’s beaches were the only escape from the heat. But even there Jews found it tough going.
Many Torontonians wanted little to do with Jews. Attempts to keep them off public beaches failed but had the resultant effect of the establishment of antiJewish gangs, including the notorious Swastika Club.
Many Swastika Club members prowled the beaches and parks of downtown Toronto boldly displaying the Hitlerite symbol to intimidate Jewish patrons. Thankfully, meetings between the Canadian Jewish Congress and city officials forced the Swastika Club members to abandon their intimidation tactics, but did little to quell the hostility.
Monday evening, Aug. 14, 1933, at the Christie Pits Park in west-end Toronto saw the first of two baseball games with the predominantly Jewish Harbord Playground team facing St. Peter’s, sponsored by the Bath- urst-Bloor Church. In a bold and disquieting move, a gang of punks, despite earlier agreements not to do so, waved a white T-shirt with a black swastika sewn onto it.
That night, though tense, ended with some catcalling, a bit of pushing and shoving, but little else. Many understood that this was but a precursor of things to come. Two evenings later, on Aug. 16, all hell broke loose.
Today’s anti-Semitism seems to find expression more from the likes of Islamic terrorists and Israel-haters, which politicians, faith leaders and ordinary folk totally disavow
It was the second game of the semifinals between the same two teams. A St. Peter’s outfielder had caught the ball for the final out when a gang of anti-Semitic thugs known as the Pit Gang unfurled a large white bedsheet with a black swastika painted across it. Young Jewish men who had heard of the incident two nights earlier were ready. They rushed the Pit Gang. Not to be outdone, the Pit Gang brought along a host of its own supporters and the fight was on.
Interestingly, young Italian boys from the neighbourhood joined their Jewish friends for what turned out to be Toronto’s first and largest ethnically based riot. At this point legend mixes uneasily with fact. Seems as though anyone I have spoken with from Toronto’s Jewish community who was over the age of 70 was there that fateful evening, even if they weren’t yet born. We are told that the fights were barefisted; some had bats, iron bars and pokers.
It was a night of unprecedented violence triggered by Toronto’s long-simmering anti-Semitism. Newspapers reported that shrieks of “Heil Hitler” wafted through the humid air, fuelling tensions even more. The Toronto Daily Star reported upwards of 10,000 people rioting that fateful night. The Toronto Jewish newspaper Der Yiddisher Zhurnal described the riot in words evoking the pogroms of Eastern Europe. Thankfully no lives were lost, though there were injuries, some serious.
The Christie Pits riot was a singular milestone in Toronto Jewish history. It stood as the first time Jews took a stand. It also hearkens back to a day when hatred of “the other” tended to define a closed Protestant white Toronto.
Today’s anti-Semitism seems to find expression more from the likes of Islamic terrorists and Israel-haters, which pol- iticians, faith leaders and ordinary folk totally disavow. Today our city is replete with a mixture of old and new from all parts of the world, making it one of the world’s most vibrant multicultural hubs.
Yes, racism still hovers around the fringes of Toronto. Over the last few days we have once again seen how vile anti-Semitism can affect our city. Eighty years after the Christie Pits riot, swastikas were scrawled at a predominantly Jewish golf club, a local rabbi threatened. Yet we know these malevolent acts are the hateful residue, the remains of always festering bigotry that Torontonians as a whole simply reject.
Hopefully, events such as that hot August night at Christie Pits can have meaning. They should serve more as a cautionary tale, reminding us how 80 years ago hatred and bigotry led to intimidation, racist bullying and even violence.