Montreal - Fight to Close Munkatch Synagogue Has City Accused of Persecution

MONTREAL — The City of Montreal was in court this week to shut a 30-year-old Hasidic synagogue in the central-Montreal borough of Outremont because it's operating in a residential zone — a move that is fomenting divisions between Jews and non-Jews in the area.

Members of Congregation Munchas Elozer Munkas say they have never had problems with their neighbours until recently and wonder why the city is suddenly taking legal action to shut them down.

"I've been praying there for 18 years and no one's ever complained," said Meyer Pollak, a father of five, originally from New York.

He said the small congregation, comprised of about 35 families, has several elderly and handicapped members who appreciate the synagogue's ground-level entrance.

The first of three days of hearings in Quebec Superior Court no sooner got under way Monday than the case was postponed to next spring after the lawyer representing the congregation raised the question of freedom of religion.

"The application of the bylaw prevents someone from practising his religion," said Marvin Segal. "It affects certain people, a certain group."

But the city says it has nothing to do with rights and freedoms, but boils down rather to a simple case of applying a bylaw that doesn't allow a commercial or religious building at that address.

Lawyers representing the city said they were ready to proceed but were taken aback by the portion of Segal's defence that raised Charter of Rights and Freedoms issues.

"That was never considered or discussed prior to the start of the judicial process that resurfaced in 2009," city spokesman Gonzalo Nunez said in a statement.

The legal action began with a resolution passed by Outremont borough council in October 2008 to have the synagogue shut down.

The congregation says a few residents — not all of whom live in Outremont — are stirring the pot.

It's not the first time there have been tensions between Jews and non-Jews in the Mile End and Outremont.

In June, some residents from those neighbourhoods rejected in a referendum the planned expansion of Gate David, a small Hasidic synagogue.

In this most recent squabble, Pinchos Freund was fined in 1982 for having transformed his building from residential, to a place of prayer, according to the motion filed in court in 2009 by the city. Freund won on appeal in 1983.

The following year, Congregation Munchas Elozer Munkas acquired the building from Freund.

The next date mentioned in the city's motion is 2002 — almost 30 years later — when an inspector noticed that a sign had been erected on the front of the building, and a study and prayer room had been built in the basement.

In 2008 and again in 2009, city officials concluded the building was being used for religious activities.

The motion says the city has received numerous complaints since 2002 about the congregation's activities.

Canada - Montreal Beth Din Says Go To Rabbis To Report Child Abuse Case

MONTREAL — A rabbinical court has brought the long-hidden issue of sexual abuse in Montreal's Orthodox Jewish community out into the open.

In an advisory issued at the start of the summer-camp season, the Beit Din, a religious court, told parents to teach children about inappropriate touching, whether it's by another child, a relative or an authority figure.

The written notice said parents should explain to children it's an obligation — not a sin — to tell a parent or rabbi if an incident occurs.

The move is a departure for a community that's been accused in the past of sweeping the sensitive topic of sexual abuse under the carpet.

That already is a huge step for the Orthodox community," said Diane Sasson, executive director of Auberge Shalom, a centre for women and children affected by conjugal violence.

That the Jewish court is acknowledging the existence of sexual abuse is a sign of progress, Sasson said.

But an expert on sexual abuse in the Orthodox community criticized the religious court for not telling parents to report incidents to police or youth-protection authorities.

The Beit Din hijacks the criminal justice system because it supplants it and usurps the authority," charged Amy Neustein, editor of Tempest in the Temple: Jewish Communities and Child Sex Scandals.

Neustein lost custody of her six-year-old daughter in 1986 after she alleged her ex-husband molested the child. The sociologist also accused rabbinical courts of hushing up abuse.

The Beit Din have become very proficient at obstructing justice," Neustein said in a telephone interview from Fort Lee, New Jersey.

But Rabbi Saul Emanuel, executive director of the rabbinical court, bristled at the suggestion the Beit Din should have told people to contact authorities.

The notice doesn't discuss an incident. The notice talks about education," he said.

"There have sometimes been incidents that perhaps may have been inappropriate, so people are told to be on guard, to make sure they protect their kids," he said.

Emanuel said it's up to people to decide for themselves whom to call if an incident arises. "That's not our purview to discuss what people should do," he said.

The rabbinical court is a branch of the Jewish Community Council of Montreal, which is also responsible for certifying kosher food and Jewish conversion.

Howard Nadler, a liaison manager at Batshaw Youth and Family Centres, welcomed the advisory — but said it should have told people to contact the proper authorities.

I'm impressed they're informing their community in this way," Nadler said. "But they should be reporting it to Youth Protection."

Michael Whitman, senior rabbi of Adath Israel Poale Zedek Congregation in Hampstead, Que., agreed.

"Although these incidents are rare, they happen and we should not ignore that they happen," he said.

Rabbis lack training to deal with the sensitive issue of abuse, Sasson said.

"They need to have the right professional working with them," she said.

The debate unfolded as New York was rocked last week by the horrific killing of eight-year-old Leiby Kletzky in Brooklyn, abducted as he walked home from a Jewish day camp.

Media reports have suggested that members of the close-knit Hasidic community kept a list of alleged child molesters that it had not turned over to police.

On Tuesday, the Rabbinical Council of America stated that those with reasonable suspicion or first-hand knowledge of abuse or endangerment have a religious obligation to report that abuse to the secular legal authorities without delay.

"False accusations are harmful to those falsely accused — but unreported abuse or endangerment can be life-threatening, as we have recently been tragically reminded," the council said in a statement.