The Lessons of Outremont

I hope every Mishpacha reader read and absorbed last week’s cover story about the public relations efforts of Chassidic residents ofMontreal’sOutremont district which had implications for Torah Jews far fromMontreal.

Outremont’s Chassidic residents — a full quarter of the neighborhood — discovered that their neighbors particularly a local city councilor were not all enthusiastic about their presence. The traditional response would have been to do nothing other than mutter about the anti-Semites and pray that matters did not degenerate further.

Nor would such a response have been entirely unjustified. Xenophobia has long been a prominent characteristic ofQuebec’s francophone population and it would be hard to think of a group more likely to arouse suspicions of outsiders faster than strangely garbed generally non-French-speaking chassidim.

Blaming the anti-Semites also benefits one’s psychic health. For one thing it means that one never has to examine one’s own actions to determine whether they could have in anyway contributed to the animosity displayed. And second it means that one need not worry about doing anything to change the situation which is just part of the natural order of things.