For members that are used to attending synagogue to pray three times a day, the closures are affecting the whole community.

The lawyer for a Quebec couple who left their ultra-Orthodox Hasidic community north of Montreal is telling a courtroom that Jewish schools operating there are illegal and leave no time for secular education.

The head of a Jewish home-schooling association is telling a Montreal courtroom that the rigorous Talmudic education offered by the Hasidic community prepares a child for any possible career.

Clara Wasserstein, a former member of the ultra-Orthodox Tash community north of Montreal, says the focus of girls' education in the community was to prepare them to be wives and to raise Jewish children.

A witness has testified at a civil trial that the Quebec government knew for decades Hasidic Jewish children were not receiving a legal secular education.

The couple are not seeking damages but want a declaratory judgment against the province and the Boisbriand Hasidic schools declaring they have violated the Quebec Education Act.

The town sought the ruling in Quebec Superior Court because the group is using the residence as a place of worship in violation of local bylaws.

Outremont's strong Hasidic community is up in arms after a group of about a half-dozen protesters wore badges some Montreal Jews say evokes the Holocaust.

"Last night was a bit of a fiasco," borough councillor Mindy Pollak said. "We're restarting the process after getting to a point where citizens had already been called upon to express themselves."