Alex Werzberger has lived in the Montreal borough of Outremont since 1955, and his family came from central Europe. When he learned that a group of about a half-dozen people wore yellow squares to a recent borough council meeting, shock ensued. According to Werzberger:
“The first thing that came to my mind: Germany, 1940.”
Like many Jews in Montreal, for Werzberger, the squares evoked the badges Jews were forced to wear during the Holocaust. It’s something that is deeply disturbing to many Jews who feel like they are a constant target by some in a borough with a strong Hasidic minority.
“They were certainly informed during the encounter,” said Rabbi Reuben Poupko, of the Centre on Israel and Jewish Affairs. “They did not take any steps to apologize, express regret — they didn’t show any understanding at all.”
The group wearing the squares was demanding changes that would prohibit buses from going door-to-door to drop off children, most of which serve the Jewish schools in the area. The group’s members argue the heavy traffic isn’t safe and interrupts their quality of life.
This isn’t the first time tensions have flared in Outremont. In 2015, a dispute spilled into court after the borough’s security service ticketed a bunch of buses being used to shuttle children during the Jewish holiday, Purim. And in 2016, a referendum upheld a ban on new places of worship in the borough.
“We have two communities, at least two communities, that are living together in the same neighbourhood with very different ideas on how to live,” Poupko said.
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