80 Years: The Deep Roots of Chabad of Montreal

By Dovid Zaklikowski for COLlive and Hasidic Archives.
Photos: Lubavitch Archives

As the nine Lubavitch students stepped off the train in Montreal in the fall of 1941, the harrowing journey of over two years—which had taken them from Otwock, Poland, to Shanghai, China, as they fled both Nazis and Communists—finally came to an end.

There to greet them was a message from their Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Schneersohn (“the Rayatz”), who had also escaped Poland and was living in New York: establish a yeshivah in Montreal as it was back in Poland.

The day before, the Rebbe had written two letters, one to the students and one to the Montreal Jewish community. It is unknown exactly when they arrived, but their message of love and encouragement is still poignant: “May your arrival be blessed. At this time, organize yourself to delve into your Torah study and your service of G-d, as you had always done when you were in the Yeshivah Tomchei Tmimim Lubavitch [in Poland]. May G-d assist you and give you success in Torah and the service of the heart [prayer]. We should meet in much material and spiritual gratification.”

In the letter to the community, the Rebbe congratulated them on having merited to have such outstanding students make their home in Montreal and asked that they find them places to live and to study. The Nusach Ari Chabad shul, which numbered several descendants of Lubavitch followers among its congregants, offered to host their studies.

After their first Shabbos in Montreal, a Melaveh Malkah was organized in honor of the students, which drew hundreds of people eager to hear from the new arrivals. The students’ announcement took them by surprise, however. Not only were they going to continue their own studies, but these young men who had endured so much were, without taking time to rest, planning to establish a yeshivah where they would teach others.

Montreal’s mostly assimilated Jews were moved to tears. “Anyone who saw them had a thought of repenting,” one Yiddish reporter wrote. “They [Montreal Jews] looked at them and they murmured, ‘The Jewish nation is not orphaned.’”

People described feeling awakened by the young men’s arrival; “the city is on wheels.” Some were skeptical, assuming that the strictly observant students, who ate only food they had cooked themselves, would be aloof and unfriendly. But the reality was quite different. “The students are swift as soldiers and are not philistines,” the Yiddish reporter continued. “They are joyous young men, a well-disposed bunch.”

Not everyone was pleased by their arrival, however. A philanthropist offered the students $5,000—an enormous sum at the time—to move on to Toronto. When they refused, some say, he offered to double it. Either way, he was unsuccessful; the students were there to stay.

Later that week, Rabbi Shmuel Levitin, the venerable Chabad Chassid who had been tortured by the Communists for promoting Jewish observance in the Soviet Union, arrived with another letter from the Rebbe, encouraging them to reach out to Jews who were not observant: “There is a general rule, my beloved, who are close to my heart, that [wherever you are by divine providence,] G-d wanted to bring you there for a reason, to bring the light of Torah and service of G-d, through love of your fellow. . . . Do not look at the vessel—the lack of a beard, or those who are not wearing tzitzis—only look at the good in them. Judge them with merit.”

The Jews in Montreal had strayed from observance, the Rebbe added, in an effort to earn their livelihood in a new land. “Encourage them with love, and bring them closer pleasantly. When you embrace them and forge a deep connection, you could awaken the ember that is deep in their hearts.”

The next day, there were seven new students in the yeshivah. Rabbi Levitin suggested that the Polish students make a raffle to determine who would be the teacher. They did, and the winner immediately began the first class of what would one day become the Rabbinical College of Canada.

This Shabbos, after eighty years, Montreal, outside of Crown Heights, is the most robust Chabad community in North America, with dozens of educational institutions and Chabad Houses. Their roots are grounded in that first directive of the Rebbe Rayatz and through the tireless efforts of those nine students.

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