“The Rejuvenation of Montreal Jewry in the Age of Canadian Multiculturalism”

• In Event: Crossing the Great Divide. Looking at the US from the North of the Border

Abstract

The official policies of the Canadian federal administration have changed radically in the last fifty years with regard to language use, cultural planning and citizenship laws. These major transformations have been most visible in the 1969 official language law that has put English and French on an equal footing in the country and in the 1971 multicultural declaration promoting diversity. These long-term sweeping changes have affected all Canadian Jewish communities, but particularly the Montreal Jewish population that has also had to adapt to an intense political reorientation brought about in Québec by the rise of francophone nationalism. Confronted with the unique challenge of sovereignty-association in the province and a deep modification of the linguistic climate, Montreal Jews have sought innovative ways of maintaining their vitality both at the community level and more broadly in Québécois society. At the same time, they have also found their position considerably reinforced by the multicultural ideology of the federal State and by the intercultural approach of the Québec government.

This paper will examine how issues of official language policy, a heightened sense of provincial autonomy and a globally changing Canadian cultural environment have influenced the Montreal Jewish community in otherwise unpredictable ways, creating a renewed sense of identity and community purpose. Internal factors have also played an important role in transforming the face of Jewry in Montreal, notably the arrival in the sixties of French speaking Sephardim from Morocco and the rapid growth of the Haredi populations. All these elements have contributed to widening the gap between Canadian and American Jewries, more specifically in the case of the Montreal Jewish community, which now possesses original features not found elsewhere in North America. This uniqueness is notably visible in the case of Québécois Jews who have collectively a much higher degree of religious involvement and a denser network of communal institutions than their American counterparts, while living in a thoroughly bilingual society.

Author

• Pierre Anctil, University of Ottawa