A Community in Transition: The Jews of Montréal

Abstract

Montreal Jewry is unique in many respects, not only vis-a-vis the other major Jewish communities in Canada but even in the North American sphere. This is reflected in many ways. Montreal Jews are highly concentrated residentially, their community exhibits a high degree of institutional completeness and they themselves tend to cultivate a strongly defined Jewish identity both in the cultural and religious spheres. To a large extent these features can be attributed to the fact that the Montreal 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. Montreal Jews must also come to terms with a broader Francophone community that is itself at odds with the mainstream Anglo-Canadian components and forms a distinct society. In negotiating a balance between all these factors, including Quebec nationalism and the rise of a new vibrant Francophone culture, the Montreal Jewish community has gained features which point to a separate destiny in the larger Canadian Jewish ensemble.