Les Juifs de Montréal

Montreal long hosted the largest Jewish community in Canada, formed mainly by the massive immigration of Ashkenazim from Eastern Europe beginning in the late nineteenth century, to whom were later added survivors of the Shoah and, in the second half of the twentieth century, French-speaking Jews from North Africa. Concentrated notably around Boulevard Saint-Laurent, the community was a great center of North American Yiddish culture, with its press, theater, schools, and institutions, as well as an active Zionist and labor movement. Active in garment-making, commerce, and the professions, it developed a dense communal, educational, and social network. The dual Anglophone and Francophone character—the latter reinforced by Sephardic immigration—makes it a singular community in Canada.

Sources & resources

• Encyclopaedia Judaica — 2e éd., Keter/Macmillan
• Jewish Virtual Library ↗