ish News.

The upsurge in separatist po-
litical power has given many

Prejudice
compounded by the
fractious language
issue has led some
French Quebecers
to question
Jews' loyalty.

Montreal Jews more cause for
concern over French Quebecers'
xenophobic nationalism — a
movement that traditionally
also translated into anti-Semi-
tism.
In the recent Canadian na-
tional election, Lucien Bouchard
and his pro-independence Bloc
Quebecois scored an impressive
victory, bagging 54 of Quebec's
75 seats in Parliament. Ironi-
cally the Bloc now sits as Her
Majesty's loyal opposition to
Prime Minister Jean Chretien
and the liberal Party.
The Bloc Quebecois is not
without its Jewish supporters.
The few that do support the
movement, however, are
French-speaking Sephardim.
Mr. Bouchard's press at-
tache, Evelyn Abitbol, is a 41-
year-old, Morocco-born fran-
cophone, who says "the BQ's
nationalism is not ethnic-based.
It is territorial, so I am com-
fortable with that."
The specter of Quebec seced-
ing from Canada's 10-province
federal system is looming in the
not-so-distant future. A provin-
cial election must be called no
later than September 1994, and
separatists are again cam-
paigning for a referendum on
independence.
Despite the political tension
and uncertainty, Montreal's
tightknit Jewish community
still thrives, exhibiting an eth-
nic and religious vibrancy, de-
spite some losses.
"The population is much
more stable than we expected.
Our whole psychology has
changed," says Charles Shahar
of the planning department of
Montreal's Jewish federation.
Of Canada's 318,000 Jews,
96,710 live in Montreal, with

1,000 more scattered across the
rest of Quebec province, ac-
cording to 1991 census figures.
That's 10,000 more than was
believed, but it still represents
a net decline of about 23,000
since 1976, when the Quebec in-
dependence movement came to
power in the province.
Mr. Shahar cites immigra-
tion from the former Soviet
Union and the high birth rate
of Chasidim — nine children
per family on average — for
partly offsetting the number of
Jews who left Montreal since
1976.
His relatively upbeat statis-
tics are reflected by people in
the street.
Janice Rosen, a 34-year-old
Montreal-born, bilingual single
woman, comments: "There's
still a very vibrant community
here. The people who have
stayed are hanging on tena-
ciously. Probably the greatest
part of the exodus has levelled
off."
While the population has
shrunk and aged and 20 per-
cent live below the poverty line,
its core institutions like the
Montreal Jewish General Hos-
pital and the Jewish Public Li-
brary remain vital. The Golden
Age Association is an interna-
tional model for its response to
the needs of senior citizens.
And despite the recession,
there has been no decline in
communal fund raising. The
Montreal federation raised $30
million Canadian, the equiva-
lent of $23 million American, in
its 1992 campaign.
The great majority of Mon-
treal Jews are functionally bilin-
gual, attests Michael Crelin-
sten, executive director of the
Canadian Jewish Congress,
Quebec region. All of the 6,000
students in the city's Jewish day
school system study French and
English, as well as Hebrew and
in some cases Yiddish.
Where does all this leave
Montreal Jews? A 1990 study
by Goldfarb Consultants com-
missioned by Montreal's CRB
Foundation [funded by Charles
R. Bronfman, the son of Sea-
grams whisky baron Sam
Bronfman] indicated that were
Quebec to separate, as many as
40 percent of Montreal's Jews
might leave en masse.
Today that worst case sce-
nario seems unlikely and
alarmist. The sense of doom has
lifted.
"If Quebec were to separate,
the Jewish community would
be very upset," explains Mr.
Crelinsten. "There is a strong
federalist feeling.
But he does not foresee mas-
sive flight.
"Speaking for myself, were
Quebec to separate I do not be-
lieve the Jewish community
would be at any risk," he
says. ❑

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NO VE M BER

Mr. Richler was attacked for
not speaking French, for not be-
ing a French Catholic, and, ul-
timately, for being a Jew.
But perhaps more worrying
than this war of words are the
occasional acts of anti-Semitic
vandalism and deeds of fringe
white supremacists that get
prominent play in the Jewish
community's newspapers —
The Suburban and the rival
Toronto-based Canadian Jew-

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