Clash With Hasidim Causes Government To Ban Outdoor Religious Parades

The half-century-old Easter procession at St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Cathedral in Montreal’s Outremont district has been cancelled, caught in the crosswinds of a conflict over faith and public space. In an unusual move, the borough of Outremont has banned street parades and processions in response to an escalation of tensions involving another religious group – hasidic Jews.

 

Outremont Easter procession cancelled due to district’s conflict with Hasidic Jews
Ingrid Peritz • Gobe and Mail

The half-century-old Easter procession at St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Cathedral in Montreal’s Outremont district has been cancelled, caught in the crosswinds of a conflict over faith and public space.

In an unusual move, the borough of Outremont has banned street parades and processions in response to an escalation of tensions involving another religious group – its ultra-orthodox community of Hasidic Jews.

This marks the latest dispute between the expanding Hasidic community and its mostly secular neighbours in Outremont, a central borough in Montreal that’s home to Quebec’s intellectual and political class.

The mayor and a majority of councillors in Outremont voted Monday to put processions on ice following a nasty confrontation last month between a municipal councillor known for her dogged surveillance of the Hasidic community, and members of that community. The clash – taped and posted on YouTube – degenerated into shouting, name-calling and an intervention by police.

In response, Outremont decided that it wouldn’t allow a Hasidic sect to hold a street procession later this month to mark the visit of a grand rabbi from New York State; the procession would have taken place after 10 p.m. and involved up to 1,000 followers.

“I don’t think this is the time to do night processions,” Mayor Marie Cinq-Mars said in an interview on Thursday. “We have to be prudent for now. Tensions can’t keep rising. I have to face my responsibilities.”

The borough notes that it’s home to a high concentration of places of worship from a variety of religious denominations, and the moratorium applies to all of them. That means the freeze, which will remain in place until June 1 while the borough reviews its policies, is having a spillover effect.

The procession at St. Nicholas normally takes hundreds of parishioners outside the church after midnight between April 14 and 15, in a candlelit procession around the church that spills into the street. Members of the church say no one in the neighborhood has ever complained about the processions, which began in 1964.

Father George Lagodich, vice-rector of the church, said the conflict between Outremont and the Hasidic community “has nothing to do with us.”

“It’s insanity,” he said. “Our procession is peaceful and quiet. It’s not just a celebration, it’s an integral part of our service.”

Ms. Cinq-Mars says she’s sorry the moratorium has affected the church, but she insists that the measure can’t be applied selectively. “We have to treat everyone equally. If we have a moratorium, we can’t do it for one group and not the other.”

The Hasidic community isn’t happy about the move either. Mayer Feig, who speaks for the community, says members are weighing a legal challenge. “You can’t stop people from celebrating their holidays and holding processions,” Mr. Feig said. “We have rights and our rights are being violated.”

He said it was regrettable that the Russian Orthodox Church was being “dragged into this.”

The conflict underscores wider tensions with Outremont’s Hasidic community, an insular group that accounts for a fifth to a quarter of the population of the district. Last year, residents voted in a referendum to reject the expansion of a Hasidic synagogue at the border with Montreal.

To the mayor, however, tensions are being exacerbated by a small group of residents who scrutinize the Hasidic Jews’ behaviour in the belief they flout municipal bylaws. The perception is painstakingly documented and aired on blogs and other forums, feeding public anger, she said.

“It’s putting oil on the fire,” Ms. Cinq-Mars said. “I believe co-habitation is possible while respecting everyone. I’ve always believed in it.”

The confrontation that led to this week’s moratorium involved independent Outremont Councillor Céline Forget, who has been frequently involved in recording the movements of the Hasidic community. She says it’s to document transgressions to municipal rules over parking, noise and other nuisances; the Hasidic community describes it as harassment.

Comments

[Bassy the Haredi Slayer]

While there are many Chassidic groups in outremont I have no doubt that the trouble makers are those who follow the ungrateful dog Yoelish (AKA Satmar).

[Disgruntled in Rockland]

>She says it’s to document transgressions to >municipal rules over parking, noise and >other nuisances; the Hasidic community >describes it as harassment.

Why is it Harassment if it is in fact occurring and being documented. I guess they just don't have the politicians in their pocket up there and they are enforcing the laws, not like in Ramapo with St. Lawrence. "Wow enforcing the laws what a novel idea."

[Litvish]

What's the problem?

All we wanted was a metzitza b'peh celebratory disco dance with a Yoilesh look a like springing out of a halav yisroel cake sucking the dick of a neonate.

Is that so wrong?

It's our holy religion. Therefore, we should be able to do anything we want, right?

[David]

In response, Outremont decided that it wouldn’t allow a Hasidic sect to hold a street procession later this month to mark the visit of a grand rabbi from New York State; the procession would have taken place after 10 p.m. and involved up to 1,000 followers.

Sheeshh. Where else in the world would a municipality allow a parade after 10pm? People are trying to sleep! And you can be assured that the frumma would be poorly organised, leave mess, make a lot of noise and general disrupt the peace of the local residents.

Just because permission is not granted for this late-night parade does not mean parades at normal hours should not be permitted, including those of the frumma.

[mimi]

The Midnight Easter procession is part of Eastern Orthodox Christian rites. You go to church, get the candle lit at midnight, walk it home and then are able to break the horrific Orthodox Lenten Fast with a delicious bowl of lamb organ soup. I wonder how they will pull that one off. I don't see how this compares with a rabbi visit.

[Gevezener Chusid]

The problem with Quebec (the whole province) is that many Quebecois are both extremely antireligious and extremely antisemitic (They don't like secular Jews any more than they like the frummies; in fact, like many non-Jews, they have a certain level of grudging respect for the frummies' tenacity, whereas they look at the secular Jews (correctly) as a certain kind of "super Anglophone" -- allies of the anglophone power structure that had oppressed Quebecois French culture for so many years, particularly in Montresal and environs, controlling the economy and excluding the francophones.

Celine Forget is a nazi, pure and simple (whether or not she has a point with respect to some issues.)

There are alot of reasons for these tensions.Outremont is home to many non-Quebecois immigrants - Slavs, Greeks, etc. and until quite recently everyone coexisted fairly peacefully, if not exactly friendly (although many a chasid had his shtreiml hit with snowballs and the cry of (what sounds like) moozee zhwiff (maudit juif - accursed Jew (literal translation - the sense is more like f...ing Jew) in the Montreal dialect)

Quebecois society becoming more militantly secular. Since the 1960's the previously entrenched and powerful Roman Catholic church has lost almost all of its influence in Quebec. Consequently, the tolerance for religious expression by the orthodox is lessening as well.

[Barry]

GC, you confuse anti clericalism with antisemitism.

Prior to the 1960s, the government of Quebec was controlled by conservative Maurice Duplessis, leader of the Union Nationale party. Electoral fraud and corruption were commonplace in Quebec. Though the Catholic Church was not unanimously supportive of Duplessis, the bulk of the small-town and rural clergy supported the premier.

Following World War II, while most of the United States and Canada was enjoying a long period of prosperity and modernization, in Quebec, efforts at modernization were held back by the conservative views of politicians and the Catholic Church's position on education.
The level of formal schooling among French Canadians was quite low: 63% of French-speaking students completed Grade 7 and only 13% finished Grade 11, as opposed to 36% of English-speaking students.
The majority of Francophone Quebec workers lived below the poverty line and did not join the executive ranks of the businesses of their own province. The Grande Noirceur, Great Darkness) is the name that left-of-centre critics of Quebec premier Maurice Duplessis's regime have given to the conservative policies undertaken by the provincial government in the 1936-1939 and 1944-1959 period of Quebec history.

Quebeckers such as Celine Forget are not Nazis. One of the features of the Grande Noirceur was the politicians turning a blind out to Catholic law breaking (including child abuse). Forget is of an age to remember that and recognize the common nature of religious corruption and law breaking whether by Catholics or Jews. You may think that Hareidi law breaking of Zoning laws is pretty minor (although someone living next to an illegal stiebel may feel otherwise) but if it is allowed at a minor level it will proceed to a major levels.