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  1. Museum of Jewish Montreal
  2. Rabbinical College of Canada

Rabbinical College of Canada

collection1941-2015

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Held by
Museum of Jewish Montreal via Museum of Jewish Montreal — map of Jewish Montreal
Dates
1941-2015 (indexed as 1941–2015)
Level
collection (source: Story)
Extent
3 places
Scope & content
Lubavitch (or Chabad) Hasidism was founded in 1773 in Russia by Shneur Zalman of Liadi. Unlike other Hasidic groups that focus on an emotional experience of God, the Lubavitch emphasize a more intellectual approach to worship. They also stand out for their active outreach activities, through which they seek to lead secular Jews to Orthodox practice. In Montreal, the Lubavitch community was originally associated with Menashe Lavut, a Russian immigrant from the town of Nikolaev who came to Canada in 1905. Around 1910, Lavut founded the Anshei Chabad Lubavitch group, as well as the Beys Medresh Nusach Ha’Ari synagogue and study hall. The Lubavitch were among the first Hasidic groups in Montreal. Yet while the city is now home to a sizable Hasidic population, the major influx of Hasidic Jews dates only to the end of the Second World War. Indeed, it was not until 1941 that Montreal’s Lubavitch community saw significant growth, prompted by the arrival of nine students fleeing the Nazi regime and the war in Europe. Most were from the Tomchei Temimim yeshiva in Otwock, a suburb of Warsaw, Poland. The students managed to obtain visas to immigrate to Japan, and eventually came to Canada via Shanghai in 1941. It was an exceptional event in the wartime context, when Jewish immigration to Canada was all but shut down. Readers of the Yiddish press eagerly awaited the young Jews, and the Yiddish newspaper Der Keneder Adler gave their arrival special coverage, reporting on the various steps in their journey from Shanghai to Montreal. The nine students decided to provide their Lubavitch group with a separate yeshiva, promptly opening it in the basement of the Nusach Ha’Ari synagogue on Pine Avenue. Its launch marked the start of the more official development of the Lubavitch community. With some twenty-five students in its first year, the synagogue went on to welcome two hundred the next. In 1943, the institution moved to a new building on Park Avenue. Known today as the Rabbinical College of Canada or Yeshivas Tomchei Temimim Lubavitch , it is currently located on Westbury in the Côte-des-Neiges district of Montreal. Sources: Lapidus, Steven, The Forgotten Hassidim: Rabbis and Rebbes in Prewar Canada, Revue Canadian Jewish Studies/Études juives canadiennes 12 : 1-30, 2004. Print Shaffir, William, Life in a Religious Community: The Lubavitcher Hassidim in Montreal, Toronto, Holt, Éditions Rinehart and Winston of Canada Limited, 1974. Print. Weinfeld, Shaffir and Irwin Cotler. The Canadian Jewish Mosaic, Rexdale, Éditions John Wiley & Sons, 1981. Print. * Images courtesy of Neil Folberg, Dr. Steven Lapidus, and www.rabbikramerslegacy.com
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Subjects
Religious
Language
English
Harvested
2026-10-17T06:33:36Z · source datestamp n/a · mjm
Original metadata as harvested (mjm)