Irving Abella

Irving Martin Abella (July 2, 1940 – July 3, 2022) was a Canadian historian who served as a professor at York University from 1968 to 2013. He specialized in the history of the Jews in Canada and the Canadian labour movement.

Early life Abella was born in Toronto on July 2, 1940. His parents were Esther (Shiff) and Louis Abella, both of Lithuanian-Jewish origins. 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. 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. He was president of the Canadian Historical Association for the year 1999-2000.

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). 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).

Awards and honours Abella was a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. He was appointed a member of the Order of Canada in October 1993 and invested four months later in February of the following year. He was the recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal (2002) and the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal (2012). 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."

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