‘Jewish Toronto’: street naming policies and practices in the north of Metropolitan Toronto

Abstract

This article deals with street naming policies and practices with regard to the Jewish urban community in the north of Metropolitan Toronto, Canada. It highlights the linguistic landscape as a cultural and symbolic expression of a Jewish-Israeli minority group in Vaughan, a city in North Toronto. The Jewish nomenclature is also examined viewing Toronto’s multicultural- cum-pragmatic street naming policies. While such a display of Jewish toponymy is almost non-existent in Toronto itself, the creation of ‘Jewish Toronto’ in the north of the metropole is the product of both ‘Jewish’ and ‘Canadian-Torontonian’ factors. This article analyzes these two factors and their related characteristics in terms of demography, sociopolitical approach, religiocultural identity, economy, and municipal by-laws. It concludes that the development of a Jewish toponymic culture as an ethnic-minority culture in the public domain of northern Metropolitan Toronto is a result of a bipartite process. This process has been enabled by the aspirations of the minority group, on the one hand, and the flexibility and tolerance inherent in the multicultural policies of the majority group/ government, on the other.