Montreal’s Jewish General Hospital says it plans to defy Quebec’s controversial Charter of Secular Values. The proposed law, known as Bill 60, is “patently discriminatory,” the hospital said in a statement Nov. 13. The bill, proposed by the governing Parti Quebecois to establish what it has called religious neutrality and gender equality, would ban all…
As many of you have heard, Tania Longpre, the [Parti Quebecois] candidate in the riding of Viau, stated that the word “Jewish” should be removed from the “Jewish General Hospital” and that circumcision should be outlawed. In a hastily typed response, here is a letter that I sent directly to Mme. Longpre. I think the…
Worry among Quebec Jews over a proposed bill to ban public sector workers from wearing religious attire at work increased over comments made by a ruling party candidate in the province. In a Facebook exchange made public this week, Parti Quebecois candidate Tania Longpré called for an end to circumcision and for “Jewish” to be…
A 24-year-old beautician, Mindy Pollak, became the first Hasidic woman to hold public office in Montreal. Pollak, a member of the Vishnitzer sect, defeated four candidates to win her race for the municipal council on Sunday in the Outremont borough. She garnered about 35 percent of the vote in a district that is home to…
A Montreal Jewish learning festival has canceled two sessions that would have been led by a pro-Palestinian activist who calls for Birthright Israel’s abolition. Le Mood, a Limmud conference to be held this Sunday and funded by the local Jewish federation, pulled the panel titled “Where are all the radical Jews?” and another on the…
Not every column sees a mystery cleared up so quickly. Two weeks ago I appealed to you for help regarding the origin of the expression “to bagel” in the sense of subtly letting someone know you are Jewish or ascertaining whether he or she is. One of several responses received comes from Montreal-born human rights…
The Toronto Transit Commission rejected four anti-Israel advertisements for being “inaccurate and misleading.” Brad Ross, a spokesman for the transit commission, told JTA on Monday that the ads were turned down because they were “inaccurate and misleading.” The ads were intended to run on buses and subways, as well as the commission’s shelters. Proposed by…
(JTA) — Battered and bruised by decades of separatist governments, restrictive language laws and a modern-day exodus, the Jewish community of Quebec may finally have something to celebrate. A new analysis of figures culled from the 2011 Canadian census, known as the National Household Survey, found that Quebec’s Jewish population had not dipped below the…
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