‘‘The Problem of the Modern Orthodox Rabbinate’’: Montreal’s Vaad Harabbonim at Mid-Century

Abstract

The postwar years brought demographic expansion to Montreal’s Jewish community, including residential mobility into new neighbourhoods. These growing suburban Jewish communities engaged young, English-speaking and mostly American rabbis for their congregations. Not surprisingly, the arrival of several of these Modern Orthodox rabbis at mid-century was not unnoticed by the established, mostly eastern European, members of Montreal’s Rabbinical Council. Typically at this period, many European rabbis were sceptical of their American-trained colleagues’ authenticity, knowledge and capability. Montreal was no exception. Using archival documents, this article examines the tensions in mid-century Montreal between the rabbis of the Yiddish-speaking Vaad Harabbonim and the freshly-minted Modern Orthodox rabbis of the next generation.