24 | OCTOBER 24 • 2024 J
N
OUR COMMUNITY
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his past August, I had the
privilege of being part of a
delegation of 21 Jewish young
adults in their 20s and 30s from across
the U.S. spending five days exploring
Jewish Montreal.
The trip was a program of the
American Jewish Joint Distribution
Committee (JDC), the leading global
Jewish humanitarian organization,
through its JDC Entwine program,
which engages young Jews to develop
their leadership skills and sense of
global Jewish responsibility.
Throughout the trip, we engaged
with JDC’s values of kavannah (inten-
tion), kehillah (community), arevut
(mutual responsibility) and assiyah
(action). This trip was JDC Entwine’s
first to Montreal and to a diverse
Jewish community that dates to the
18th century.
Over our five days in Montreal, we
visited several Jewish organizations and
met with many community leaders.
Zev Moses, the executive director of
the Musee du Montreal Juif (Museum
of Jewish Montreal), showed us the
museum and shared his experiences
growing up in the city and engaging
young Jews.
At the Federation CJA campus, Abba
Brodt, director of impact partnerships
and allocations, and Oxana Pasternak,
senior philanthropic officer, explained
the organizational landscape and
community demographics of Jewish
Montreal.
While there, Montreal-based vol-
unteers who spent time in Ukraine as
part of a combined JDC and Jewish
Federations of North America mission
in 2023 shared their experiences. We
also visited Friendship Circle Montreal,
which supports people with disabilities
and provides an opportunity for them
to be fully accepted into their wider
community, and after learning more
about the organization, we helped to
make cookies for campers attending an
upcoming camp program.
SAMPLING THE FOOD
In addition to gaining a better under-
standing of the local Jewish communi-
ty, we explored Montreal and partook
in a number of gastronomic experi-
ences. The trip began with a walking
tour of Old Montreal, on which we
visited historic sights and ate at local
restaurants. We later embarked on a
Jewish food tour led by the Musee du
Montreal Juif featuring pastries from
traditional and modern bakeries,
bagels from two competing bagel shops
and sandwiches featuring smoked
meat.
We also attended a cooking work-
shop led by Ksenia Prints, a local
food blogger, photographer, chef and
Entwine alumna who taught us how to
make an array of salads from around
the world as well as a local specialty,
beaver tails, consisting of yeasted
dough shaped like a beaver’s tail, deep-
fried and tossed in cinnamon sugar.
While these experiences alone
would have made for a packed and
meaningful trip, our Shabbat activities
were especially significant. For Friday
night services and dinner, we attended
Shaare Zion Beth-El Congregation,
a Conservative synagogue, where we
met with Rabbi Adam Rubin. It was
a special Shabbat in partnership with
the organization Israeli Victims of War
(IVOW), which brings Israeli children
who have been impacted by war to
Canada for a month to experience
Canadian Jewish summer camp and
JDC Entwine trip participants learn much
from our neighbors to the north.
JOELLE ABRAMOWITZ CONTRIBUTING WRITER
TOP TO BOTTOM: Visit to the
Federation CJA campus. A walking
tour of Old Montreal. Cooking
workshop led by Ksenia Prints.