Another frightening aspect of the separatist movement that would directly impact Montreal's Jewish community was the rise of the Front de la Liberation de Quebec (FLQ), a radical activist group whose tactics often included public violence. École Maïmonide is a French-language Jewish day school in Montreal, Quebec. MONTREAL — In 1940, a Jewish student in the United Kingdom named Edgar Lion was sent to Canada against his will on a ship that carried both German and Austrian Jews and Nazi prisoners of war. The final chapters (including the expressively titled “Exodus 401”) deliver a denouement reflective of Quebec’s politically troubled times. They are mainly the products of the post-1956 immigration from North Africa. 73, American Jewish Yearbook. That, plus the tradition of Jews attending their own schools, has resulted in over half the Jewish school age children enrolled in day schools at the elementary or high school level. After decades of living in cultural isolation and facing new forms of anti-Semitism in a climate of uncertain political turmoil, many Jews finally concluded that their existence in Montreal had no foreseeable future. It was known as Outremont—Saint-Jean from 1947 to 1966. Since the decennial Canadian Census asks questions about both religion and ethnicity, it is possible to generate accurate data about the Jewish population in the Montreal Census Metropolitan Area. Shalom Montreal -- Stories and Contributions of the Jewish Community is at Montreal’s McCord Museum, across from McGill University, until Nov. 11. Ever since the Parti Québécois (PQ) became one of the two main provincial parties in 1970, the issue of secession has bedeviled the political scene. The community was founded by Sephardim from New York in 1768 but remained minuscule until the emigration from Eastern Europe began late in the 19th century. He has conducted a comprehensive series of analyses of the 2001 Census, and more recently of the 2011 National Household Survey, along various themes. Canada: CBS, March 2, 1982. The person could be a factory worker, a small businessman, a salesman, or a clerk in a store. According to Rose Jick, a professor at Northeastern University who was studying at the University of Toronto at the time, at least one out of every ten students she met were Jews who originally hailed from Montreal. By 1901 there were about 7,000 Jews. Montreal now boasts a Jewish population of 90,000. Jewish architects – Max Kalman, Max Wolfe Roth, David Fred Lebensold and Moshe Safdie, among others – and artists became prominent through their design of important city buildings. The community is quite diverse, and is composed of many different Jewish ethnic divisions that arrived in Canada at different periods of time and under differing circumstances. About 10 percent have Yiddish as their mother tongue, with about 56 percent English, 18 percent French, and three percent each for Russian and Hebrew. To a large extent these features can be attributed to the fact that the Montréal Jewish community is the oldest and most established in Canada, that it has received relatively little outside immigration in the last two or three decades and that it is somewhat sheltered from American social norms. Request Permissions. NATIONALISM, THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, AND HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS. Hampstead and Côte St. Luc have Jewish populations in the 70–75 percent range. [2] In 1931, 84% of Greater Montreal's Jews lived in Montreal. [7]. Its Quebec regional operation is now somewhat limited and is supported by the Federation. The Old Jewish Quarter doesn't really have any hotels close by. The Federation has proven to be exceptionally successful in the annual Combined Jewish Appeal, giving the Montreal community the reputation of being one of the most generous in North America on a per capita basis. While most of the attacks targeted property rather than people, some of the incidents resulted in the injuries, and even deaths, of innocent civilians. First of all, the Communauté Sépharade du Québec (CSQ) organized its own kashrut supervision operation, which amounted to a competing hekhsher. Levy-Ajzenkopf, Andy. Saint Laurent Boulevard also known as Saint Lawrence Boulevard is a major street in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The Magazine Premium Theme by bavotasan.com. The community is one of the oldest and most populous in the country, about 23% of the total population. Close to 25% of Montreal's Jewish population have French as their mother tongue. Barney's Version is a novel written by Canadian author Mordecai Richler, published by Knopf Canada in 1997. For example, in 1934, four interns at L'Hopital de Notre Dame, a Francophone hospital in Montreal, went on strike when hospital administrators hired a Jew to the staff. As a result, the community actively seeks immigrants but has found that the supply is insufficient to maintain the population size. Singer could have dreamed up. In Quebec City, a small Jewish population of 100 families successfully fought politicians for the right to erect a synagogue, only to have it burned down on the eve of its opening. It is one of the 16 large Jewish federations on the continent. Montreal's Jews were 25.1 percent of the countrywide Jewish population and had a higher median age (41.8 years) than Jews nationwide (40.2). Opportunities have been severely limited in both fields. The Montreal Jewish community definitely has it's perks. By 1921, the Jewish population had grown to 60,000 and constituted the third largest ethnic group in Montreal behind only the French and the English. After 1995 Jews became particularly prominent in leadership roles within the Anglophone community. Even among the Orthodox there is a wide range, running from the various ?asidic sects to yeshivah-oriented ultra-Orthodox to Modern Orthodox to Sephardi, each with its own type of synagogue. In 1919, the Canadian Jewish Congress was founded in Montreal – in 2009, the Quebec wing branched off as the Quebec Jewish Congress – providing support to human rights groups. Some 70 percent now use English at home. The Jews of Montreal during the 1960s could, in some ways, be compared to the residents of New Orleans two days before the arrival of Hurricane Katrina. For years, Montreal Jews had had an open attitude towards the French language, more so than their Protestant Anglophone neighbors. A comparison of Montreal's Jews with the non-Jewish population shows that there is a bulge in the over-65 category (21.6 versus 11.9 percent) and a shortfall in the 25–44 group (21.6 versus 32.0 percent). [5] :226 From 1907 to 1988 the Keneder Adler (Odler, The Canadian Eagle), a Yiddish newspaper, was published in Montreal. The Museum of Jewish Montreal specializes in Jewish history and leads an intimate food-focused tour called Beyond the Bagel that weaves through the Mile End and Plateau neighborhoods, visiting food producers and exploring the city’s hidden Jewish food history. He gives a gripping thumbnail account of the trial of the antisemites Leduc and Plamondon, who were sued after making vile accusations against the Jews and the Talmud, and whose claims were eventually demolished in the courts. The schools were also made subject to the eligibility requirements of the language law that limited admissions to schools classified as English (which included most of the main Jewish schools) to students who were officially certified as Anglophones. Gentiles recognize him as the official voice of Canadian Jewry. The Montreal Board of Rabbis and the Synagogue Council are inclusive. Medres’s prose sometimes reads like a story by Sholom Aleichem or, alternately, like something only I.B. Other major Jewish communities exist in Outremont, Park Extension, and Chomedey. While the Montreal Jewish community has slipped demographically, King’s highly impressive opus shows that the community remains vibrant and as unique as the city itself. However, the high rate of bilingualism amongst the Jewish population makes it unlikely that they were as affected by the language laws as the non-Jewish Anglophones. The exodus of Montreal's Jews, which is estimated at around 15,000 between 1971 and 1981, began with the departure of the younger, baby boomer generation, many of whom decided to spend their college years outside the province. As it approaches the modern era, the narrative touches upon multifold aspects and themes as it weaves a rich and colourful story. Among the leading synagogues, the Shaar Hashomayim in suburban Westmount, while originally Orthodox, was affiliated with the Conservative movement through most of the 20th century. Social Forces 60, no. Only about half of those who complete Jewish elementary schools remain in the Jewish system for high school. Eventually it had to turn to the federations, including Federation CJA, for support. Jews constituted 2.8 percent of the population of the metropolitan area in 2001, compared to 4.1 percent in 1971. PQ election victories and independence referenda between 1976 and 1995 sparked an exodus of thousands of Jews, mainly young adults, and left the remaining Jewish community on edge and apprehensive about its future.