Moishe Lewis (born Losz, sometimes known as Morris Lewis, 1888–1950) was a Jewish labour activist in eastern Europe and Canada.

Life and work

A tanner by trade, he was born and raised in the

Svisloch Svislach or Svisloch is a town in Grodno Region, Belarus. It serves as the administrative center of Svislach District. It is connected with the town Vawkavysk by a railroad branch and with Grodno city by a highway. As of 2025, it has a populat ...

shtetl or ( ; , ; Grammatical number#Overview, pl. ''shtetelekh'') is a Yiddish term for small towns with predominantly Ashkenazi Jews, Ashkenazi Jewish populations which Eastern European Jewry, existed in Eastern Europe before the Holocaust. The t ...

in the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

(later part of

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

and now

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

). Moishe Losz was the chairman of the

Jewish Labour Bund The General Jewish Labour Bund in Lithuania, Poland and Russia (), generally called The Bund (, cognate to , ) or the Jewish Labour Bund (), was a secular Jewish socialist party initially formed in the Russian Empire and active between 1897 and 1 ...

in Svisloch.Smith, Cameron, ''Unfinished Journey: The Lewis Family''. Toronto: Summerhill Press. (1989) , page 111 The Bund was both an active political party and a Jewish, Socialist labour movement.Smith, p.127 It was preoccupied in changing the system that was at the roots of low pay and dangerous, harsh working conditions. When the

Russian Civil War The Russian Civil War () was a multi-party civil war in the former Russian Empire sparked by the 1917 overthrowing of the Russian Provisional Government in the October Revolution, as many factions vied to determine Russia's political future. I ...

and the Polish-Soviet War were at their fiercest, in the summer of 1920, Poland invaded, and the

Bolshevik The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

counter-attacked. Svisloch was on the Polish-Russian border and was occupied by the Soviets in July 1920. Moishe Losz openly opposed the Bolsheviks and would later be jailed by them for his opposition. He barely escaped with his life. When the Polish army recaptured Svisloch on August 25, 1920, they executed five Jewish citizens as "spies." This was a false charge and was more of a tactic to keep the locals scared and discourage them from participating in counter insurgency. Realising that he was not safe under either regime, and the prospects for the future of his family were bleak, he left for Canada in May 1921, to work in his brother-in law's clothing factory in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

, Quebec.Smith, p. 115 Losz anglicized the family name to "Lewis" and saved up enough money to send for his family within a few months. Lewis resumed his labour activism in Canada becoming involved with the Arbeiter Ring (Workmen's Circle). He was Secretary of the Canadian

Jewish Labour Committee The Jewish Labor Committee (JLC) is an American secular Jewish labor organization founded in 1934 to oppose the rise of Nazism in Germany. Among its central purposes is promoting labor union interests in the organized Jewish communities, especi ...

, a labour and

civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' political freedom, freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and ...

organization, for several decades. In 1947, Lewis and

Kalmen Kaplansky Kalmen Kaplansky, (January 5, 1912 – December 10, 1997) was a civil, human rights and trade union activist in Canada. Alan Borovoy described Kaplansky as "the ''zaideh''" (grandfather) of the Canadian human rights movement. Kaplansky was born ...

spearheaded "The Tailors Project" by the Workmen's Circle and Jewish Labour Committee to bring European Jewish refugees to Montreal to work in the needle trades. They were able to do this through the federal government's "bulk-labour" program that allowed labour-intensive industries to bring European

displaced person Forced displacement (also forced migration or forced relocation) is an involuntary or coerced movement of a person or people away from their home or home region. The UNHCR defines 'forced displacement' as follows: displaced "as a result of perse ...

s to Canada, in order to fill those jobs. For Lewis' work on this and other projects during this period, the Montreal branch was renamed the Moishe Lewis Branch, after he died in 1950. The Jewish Labour Committee also honored him when they established the Moishe Lewis Foundation in 1975.Smith, p. 218

Descendants

His son David Lewis would become a labour lawyer and leading figure in the

Co-operative Commonwealth Federation The Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF; , FCC) was a federal democratic socialism, democratic socialistThe following sources describe the CCF as a democratic socialist political party: * * * * * * and social democracy, social-democ ...

and then leader of the federal

New Democratic Party The New Democratic Party (NDP; , ) is a federal political party in Canada. Widely described as social democratic,The party is widely described as social democratic: * * * * * * * * * * * * * The Editors of ''Encyclopædia Britann ...

. His grandson

Stephen Lewis Stephen Henry Lewis (born November 11, 1937) is a Canadian politician, public speaker, broadcaster, and diplomat. He was the Canadian ambassador to the United Nations in the 1980s and was the leader of the social democratic Ontario New Democr ...

was leader of the

Ontario New Democratic Party The Ontario New Democratic Party (NDP; , NPD) is a social democratic political party in Ontario, Canada. The party sits on the centre-left of the political spectrum. It is Ontario’s provincial section of the federal New Democratic Party. The ...

in the 1970s and later Canada's ambassador to the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

. His great-grandson is

Avi Lewis Avram David "Avi" Lewis (born May 1967) is a Canadian activist, documentary filmmaker, former host of the Al Jazeera English show '' Fault Lines'' and former host of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) current-affairs programs '' Counter ...

, the political journalist, who has made documentaries with his wife

Naomi Klein Naomi Klein (born May 8, 1970) is a Canadian author, social activist, and filmmaker known for her political analyses; support of ecofeminism, organized labour, and criticism of corporate globalization, fascism and Criticism of capitalism, ca ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lewis, Moishe 1888 births 1950 deaths Activists from Montreal Bundists Canadian civil rights activists Canadian socialists Canadian trade unionists Jewish Canadian activists Jews from the Russian Empire Belarusian Jews Canadian Ashkenazi Jews Canadian people of Belarusian-Jewish descent Polish emigrants to Canada People from Svislach Moishe People of the Russian Civil War 19th-century Belarusian people 20th-century Belarusian Jews Canadian people of the Russian Civil War