École Maïmonide

1969 - 1972
5010 Coolbrook

(Traduction à venir)

In 1969, École Maïmonide, the brainchild of Moroccan Jewish parents, became the first Jewish day school in Canada with French-language instruction. Named after the twelfth-century Jewish philosopher and theologian, Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon or Maimonides, the school’s curriculum combines secular and Jewish studies, with an emphasis on maintaining a distinct Sephardic Jewish identity. École Maïmonide’s early struggle for acceptance within the predominantly Anglophone Jewish community is representative of the past challenges in Ashkenazic–Sephardic relations in Montreal.

The creation of Israel and the independence attained by many North African countries in the 1950s and 1960s led to a mass exodus of Sephardic Jews, many of whom arrived in Montreal in search of the “American Dream” . . . in French! Sephardic parents were therefore dismayed to learn that Quebec’s confessional school system reserved French schools for Catholics, compelling them to enroll their children in the more religiously open Anglophone Protestant school system. With Protestant schools unwilling to accommodate requests for French-language instruction, parents appealed to the Association Sépharade Francophone (ASF) to set up an independent school. Dr. Jean-Claude Lasry, chair of the ASF and president of la Commission sur l’éducation des Juifs francophones, met with Yves Martin of la Commission des écoles catholiques de Montreal in 1968 to discuss the bind faced by Francophone Jews: the loss of their religion if they attended French Catholic schools, or the loss of their cultural identity under the Anglophone Protestant system.

The autonomous École Maïmonide was subsequently created, with costs shared by the Catholic School Commission of Montreal, Allied Jewish Community Services, and the United Jewish Relief Agencies of Canada. Its first class occupied a wing in the Catholic St. Antonin School on Coolbrook Avenue and Queen Mary Road from 1969 to 1972 under director Judah Castiel before moving to 7450 Côte-St-Luc Road. École Maïmonide now has two campuses: Campus Parkhaven in Côte-St-Luc, and Campus Jacob Safra in Ville St- Laurent.

Innovation and dedication buoyed École Maïmonide during its difficult first years. Its tenuous status was exacerbated by the Quiet Revolution and government insistence on increasing French instruction in English Jewish day schools - much to the latter’s resentment. Jewish schools directed their frustration against École Maïmonide, and accused the school’s emphasis on French as indicating nationalist aspirations. During its first decade, École Maïmonide was excluded from the Association of Jewish Day Schools under the claim of “not being fully Jewish.” Relations improved once Anglophone Jews became more accustomed to the changing power structure of Quebec society and the need to integrate Sephardim into the Jewish community.

Compiled by Marian Pinsky.

Links

Liens

École Maïmonide

Sources

Berdugo-Cohen, Marie, Yolande Cohen and Joseph Levy. 1987. Juifs marocains à Montréal: Témoinages d’une immigration modern. Montréal: VLB Éditeur.

Castiel, Judah. 2009.“École Maïmonide: Le plus grand des défis, la plus belle réalisation de notre communauté ». In 50 Ans Ensemble: Le Livre Sépharade 1959-2009. Ed. David Bensoussan. Montréal : Communauté Sépharade Unifiée du Québec. 2010: 232-235.

École Maïmonide - Page D'accueil. Web. 01 Oct. 2010.
http://www.maimonide.ca/.

Filion, Fernand G. La communauté sépharade de Montréal : Une analyse ethno-historique de structures communautaires.Québec: Masters Thesis, Université Laval, 1978.

Kenedy, Robert, and Diana Cohen-Reis. “The Jewish Diaspora from France to Montréal”. Modernité et religion au Québec : où en sommes-nous? Robert Mager and Serge Cantin, eds. Québec: Presses de l'Université Laval, 2010. 195-208. Also available at http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/kenedy-reis-jewish-diaspora-presentation-paper.pdf.

King, Joe. "Les Sépharades: The Other Children of Abraham in the Ashkenazi Domain." From the Ghetto to the Main: the Story of the Jews of Montreal. Montréal: Montreal Jewish Publication Society, 2000. 255-62.

Lasry, Jean-Claude. "A Francophone Diaspora in Quebec." The Canadian Jewish Mosaic. Eds. M. Weinfeld, W. Shaffir, I. Cotler ed. Toronto: J. Wiley & Sons Canada, 1981. 221-40.

Lasry, Jean-Claude. "Sephardim and Ashkenazim in Montreal." Contemporary Jewry 6.2 (1983): 26-33. http://www.springerlink.com/content/t3634256v8q74284/.

Lévy, Joseph J., and Léon Ouaknine. "Les Institutions communautaires des Juifs marocains à Montréal." Les Juifs du Maghreb: diasporas contemporaines. Eds. Jean-Claude Lasry and Claude Tapia ed. Paris: L’Harmattan and Montréal: L’Université De Montréal, 1989. 55-78.

Lévy, Joseph J., and Yolande Cohen. "Moroccan Jews and Their Adaptation to Montreal Life." Renewing Our Days: Montreal Jews in the Twentieth Century. Eds. Ira Robinson and Mervin Butovsky ed. Montreal: Véhicule, 1995. 95-118.

Rosenberg, Michael. Ethnicity, Community, and the State: the Organizational Structures, Practices and Strategies of the Montreal Jewish Community's Day School System and Its Relations with the Quebec State. Ottawa: PhD Dissertation, Carlton University, 1995.

 

*Images courtesy of the Canadian Jewish Congress Charities Committee National Archives.

Media

Media