Canadian Jews, Dual/Divided Loyalties, and the Tebbit "Cricket" Test

This article explores the issue of dual or divided loyalties for Canadian Jews, with reference to ties to Canada on the one hand, and Israel and the Jewish community on the other. The article contextualizes this issue within two academic literatures, which in recent years have had very little interconnection. The first is the general literature dealing with diasporic studies and transnationalism. The second is the literature dealing with modern Jewish studies. This second literature comprises the social scientific study of contemporary Jewry, and intellectual debates on Zionism and Jewish peoplehood. It is claimed these debates have relevance for many Canadian diasporic groups today, and more so in the post-9/11 period. A concluding section looks at how Jewish communal leaders in Canada wrestle with a version of the "cricket" test, coined by British parliamentarian Norman Tebbit, when asked which team they would support in a soccer final match, Israel or Canada. The pattern of responses confirms an ongoing discomfort and indeed ambivalence in making such choices linking identity and loyalty, for Jews and likely for other groups as well.