A community builds a mikva, intended for monthly use by women and for conversions from all Jewish streams including Reconstructionist, Reform and Conservative. The funds come from the general Jewish community and from the Orthodox community as well. A local Chabad rabbi is put in charge of the day-to-day operation.
Flash forward 25 years. The Orthodox community begins to to its conversions at other, privately owned mikvas. The Chabad rabbi, still in charge of the community mikva, decides to ban all conversion immersions, meaning the non-Orthodox converts have nowhere to go to immerse.
The community, including Modern Orthodox rabbis, is fighting this unilateral move by Chabad. The Canadian Jewish News reports on the Montreal mikva controversy:
…“This is a Chabad-based cabal,” Rabbi Lionel Moses of the Conservative Shaare Zion Congregation charged. “This is a community mikvah built with community money, which has been a symbol of co-operation and pluralism across the religious spectrum.
“This co-operation still exists between modern Orthodox and non-Orthodox rabbis, and they have gone to bat for us. This is clearly a move by Chabad to interfere with community harmony.”
Rabbi Mordecai Zeitz of Congregation Beth Tikvah in Dollard des Ormeaux believes Mikveh Israel changed its policy because, for over a year, those undergoing Orthodox conversions under the Rabbinical Council of Montreal’s beit din had been using another mikvah located at the Sephardi Hechal Shalom Congregation in St. Laurent.
That meant, he said, that most conversion immersions taking place at Mikveh Israel during that period were non-Orthodox.
“That’s why we think he did it,” Rabbi Zeitz said. “It’s created a tremendous obstacle because it should be a community mikvah.”
Rabbi Michael Whitman, spiritual leader of Adath Israel-Poale Zedek Congregation, who is president of the Rabbinical Council of Montreal representing the city’s Orthodox synagogue rabbis, also was critical of the mikvah’s new policy.
“Non-Orthodox converts now have nowhere to go,” he said. “It is not a private mikvah. It was built by funds raised by the community.”
Rabbi Whitman pointed to a 20-year-old ruling by Rabbi Moshe Feinstein in New York that allowed non-Orthodox converts to use a mikvah built by the community, in the interest of harmony.
“It is a question of continuing the precedent,” Rabbi Whitman said. “Many other communities operate in the same way.”
[Chabad's] Rabbi [Itche Meir] Gurary, however, dismissed these concerns and rejected any notion of a hidden agenda.
“They overstayed their welcome,” he said of the increased use by converts. “If I let them in, I would have to compromise on cleanliness.”…
Montreal's haredi-dominated Vaad Ha'ir had no comment on the issue, claiming not to be involved in any way.
What is happening here is clear. 25 years ago, Modern Orthodxy was the dominant force in Montreal's Orthodox community. That is no longer true. MO Jews left Montreal in droves during Quebec's various attempts at secession while, at the same time haredim have flocked to the city, unconcerned about a possible Francophone takeover because haredim operate outside of the larger communities they live in. Yiddish is their lingua franca and the surrounding society is always kept distant. Most MO Jews in Montreal were and are native English speakers and worked outside the Jewish community, interacting regularly with non-Jews.
In every community where haredim have become dominant, these types of thuggish issues surface. It was how haredim behaved in Brooklyn after reaching domiance there in the late 1970s, and the same story is repeated from Manchester to Minneapolis to Jerusalem.
And this is the future, at least as far as the Jewish community is concerned. Before long, your JCCs and community institutions will fall under haredi control or influence. The Judaism you belive in will be trampled underfoot, and your children – if you remain in the Jewish community – will be indoctrinated by haredim.
Fight now or leave now, but for God's sake do not remain passive. The time is running very short.