24 | OCTOBER 24 • 2024 J
N

OUR COMMUNITY

T

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.

