United Talmud Torahs of Montreal
United Talmud Torahs of Montreal – Herzliah High School בתי תלמוד תורה / הרצליה | |
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Address | |
4840 St. Kevin Ave. / 5475 Mountain Sights Ave. , Canada | |
Coordinates | 45°29′23″N 73°37′54″W / 45.4898°N 73.6317°W 45°29′15″N 73°38′02″W / 45.4875°N 73.6340°W |
Information | |
Type | Private Jewish day school |
Motto | תלמוד תורה כנגד כולם |
Religious affiliation(s) | Judaism |
Established | 1896 |
President | Alexandra Obadia Ciocilteu / Steeve Azoulay |
Principal (UTT) | Arielle Medalsy / Osnat Bitton |
Principal (Herzliah) | Lorne Grintuch |
Principal (Herzliah) | Claudine Habre |
Head of school | Michelle Toledano |
Grades | K–11 |
Language | English, French, Hebrew |
Affiliation | CAIS, QAIS, AJDS, FEEP |
Website | azrieli-tth |
United Talmud Torahs of Montreal (Hebrew: הַמְאוּחָדִים בְּמוֹנְטְרִיאָל בָּתֵי תַלְמוּד תוֹרָה, French: Talmud Torahs Unis de Montréal) (also known as The Azrieli Schools, in French: Les écoles Azrieli) is a private co-educational Jewish day school system that includes an elementary school, United Talmud Torah, and a high school, Herzliah High School (Hebrew: בֵּית סֵפֶר הַתִיכוֹן הֶרְצְלִיָה). Both are located in the Snowdon neighbourhood of the Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce borough in Montreal, Quebec.
Herzliah and United Talmud Torah's campus in the
History
Canada's first
The first class had but twenty students, all of them boys (girls were first admitted in 1911), and one teacher. The original Talmud Torah School, under the directorship of Rabbi Hirsch Cohen, moved again to larger quarters on Saint Urbain Street in 1903. Between 1905 and 1916 five additional Talmud Torahs emerged throughout the city. These institutions operated as supplementary Jewish schools that met for several hours a week, in the afternoons, evenings, or on Sundays.[4]
In 1917, through the initiative of local philanthropist Sir Mortimer B. Davis, the six individual Talmud Torah schools amalgamated as the United Talmud Torahs of Montreal.[5] Ground was broken in 1930 for the first new building of the school, financed by a fundraising initiative with major community support; the building was erected on the corner of Saint Joseph Boulevard and Jeanne-Mance Street in the Mile End neighbourhood with over 1,300 pupils enrolled.[6] The United Talmud Torah Schools successfully initiated full day schools in the 1930s, and the high school was opened in 1946.[1] Herzliah's first classes were held with Melech Magid, who had been a teacher and principal with the United Talmud Torah schools since the early 1920s, as the full-time Educational Director.[7]
In 1959, a new campus on Saint Kevin Avenue in the Snowdon district was opened, with the Saint Joseph Boulevard building closing shortly afterwards. In 1962, an elementary school opened in the town of Saint-Laurent, and a high school shortly thereafter.[8] The Beutel campus in St. Laurent (both high school and elementary) was closed and merged with the Snowdon campus in 2011, because of increasing financial problems and decreasing enrolment.[9][10] A merger of the United Talmud Torah–Herzliah schools with JPPS–Bialik, another Jewish school system and long the primary competitor with UTT–Herzliah, was announced in February 2011, but was soon rejected.[11][12]
In 2016, Herzliah and the Talmud Torah elementary school were renamed The Azrieli Schools in recognition of the
Arson in the elementary school library
On April 5, 2004, a few hours before the beginning of
Sleiman El-Merhebi and Simon Zogheib were later charged with
Response
Prime Minister Paul Martin responded to the attack, saying "we must utterly condemn this cowardly and racist act and draw together to fight such an abomination."[20] Jean Charest, the Premier of Quebec, called the arson intolerable. "Burning a school is in itself a vile act, because it touches the future of our society, but when it is done in the name of racism and intolerance, every Quebecer must stand up and denounce it to ensure this never happens again," he said in a statement.[21] Irwin Cotler, who is a graduate of United Talmud Torahs, also responded to the incident, saying "anti-Semitism is not something new to me. But this kind of racist hate, this kind of violence, an attack of this nature, that was never something that we could have contemplated at that time as students."[22] The Canadian Library Association published a special issue of School Libraries in Canada devoted to the tragedy.[23] HarperCollins, Random House and other leading publishers have donated books to rebuild the UTT library.
Donations from across Canada, the United States and Israel helped to rebuild the library which reopened in December 2004, named the Azrieli Library in honour of Stephanie Azrieli, UTT’s school librarian from 1975 to 1985. Further funds went into improving the safety and security of the school, with the installation of exterior lights, a new fire alarm and a security camera system. In accordance with Jewish law, on November 30, the remnants and ashes of some 250 library books burned in the fire were buried in a Jewish cemetery in Dollard-des-Ormeaux.
Academics
In the 2007 Fraser Institute Quebec secondary school rankings, Herzliah Snowdon's English section was tied with Collège Jean-Eudes and Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf for top high school in the province.[24] In 2008, the Ministry of Education of Quebec announced that Herzliah High School ranked first among English private high schools with a 100% graduation rate.[citation needed] In 2018, Herzliah was ranked 77th in the province (out of 452) by the Fraser Institute.[25]
Notable people
- Bernard Avishai (1949– ), writer[26]
- Danna Azrieli (1967- ), a real-estate developer, and philanthropist.
- Stephanie Azrieli, former librarian of the St. Laurent elementary school[27]
- Montreal Impact[28]
- Irwin Cotler OC (1940– ), human rights lawyer and former Justice Minister[29]
- Leonard Cohen CC (1934–2016), poet, singer, and novelist[30]
- Jacques Distler (1961– ), psychic
- Tooker Gomberg (1955-2004), activist for environmental causes.
- Ariel Helwani (1982– ), MMA journalist[31]
- Goldie Hershon (1941– ), activist[32]
- Anthony Housefather (1971– ), Liberal MP and Former Mayor of Côte Saint-Luc[33]
- Charles Krauthammer (1950–2018), columnist and physician[34]
- Jonah Keri (1974– ), baseball writer[35]
- Irving Layton CC (1912–2006), poet[29]
- Robert Libman (1960– ), politician and architect[36]
- Lazarus Phillips OBE (1895–1986), lawyer and senator
- Norman Spector (1949– ), Chief of Staff to Brian Mulroney[citation needed]
- Hugh Segal OC (1950–2023), politician[37]
- Dov Yosef (1899–1980), Israeli politician and statesman
- Moses Znaimer (1942– ), Canadian broadcasting pioneer[29]
References
- ^ ProQuest 276241202.
- ISBN 978-1-936235-71-1.
- ^ "A Finding Aid to the United Talmud Torahs Fonds" (PDF). Jewish Public Library Archives. Montreal: Jewish Public Library. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 November 2018. Retrieved 12 November 2018.
- ISBN 978-0-7735-3812-2.
- S2CID 148843756.
- ^ Nadler, Allan (28 June 2011). "Montreal, a Love Story". Jewish Ideas Daily. Retrieved 19 November 2018.
- ISBN 9782894480786.
- The Canadian Jewish News. Retrieved 2013-10-08.
- The Canadian Jewish News. Retrieved 2013-10-08.
- Montreal Gazette. Archived from the originalon 14 October 2010. Retrieved 23 April 2016.
- The Montreal Gazette. Montreal. p. A4. Retrieved 12 November 2018.[permanent dead link]
- The Montreal Gazette. Montreal. Retrieved 11 November 2018.
- ^ The Canadian Jewish News. Retrieved 25 August 2018.
- ^ Nersessian, Mary (14 May 2004). "Police arrest five in Jewish school bombing". The Globe and Mail.
- ^ "Notable Library Burnings In Our Times: United Talmud Torah School Library". Centennial College Libraries. Centennial College. Archived from the original on 25 November 2018. Retrieved 25 November 2018.
- LCCN 2017045599.
- ^ Peritz, Ingrid (18 December 2004). "Put library bomber in jail, Crown says". The Globe and Mail.
- ^ Peritz, Ingrid (19 September 2008). "Mother accessory to bombing, court rules". The Globe and Mail. Montreal.
- ^ "Charges dropped against one suspect in firebombing of Montreal school". CBC News. 19 October 2004.
- ^ Hamilton, Graeme (6 April 2004). "Anti-Israel letters found at site". National Post. Associated Press.[permanent dead link]
- ^ "Prime minister condemns attack on Montreal Jewish school". CBC News. Montreal. 6 April 2004. Archived from the original on 7 April 2004.
- ^ Galloway, Gloria (6 April 2004). "This is not our Canada". The Globe and Mail. Burlington.
- ISSN 1710-8535.
- ^ Boyer, Marcel; Cowley, Peter (2007). "Bulletin des écoles secondaires du Québec 2007" (PDF) (in French). Fraser Institute.
- ^ Cowley, Peter; Labrie, Yanick (2018). "Bulletin des écoles secondaires du Québec 2018" (PDF) (in French). Fraser Institute.
- The Canadian Jewish News. Montreal.
- ^ "Leading-edge facility will be linked to Montreal's Jewish Community Campus". Newswire. Montreal. 16 June 2016.
- The Canadian Jewish News(in French).
- ^ a b c Sherman, Kenneth (9 March 2012). "Irving Layton at 100". National Post.
- ^ Hale, James; Stanley, Laura (4 October 2018). "Leonard Cohen". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Canada. Retrieved 4 November 2018.
- The Canadian Jewish News.
- The Canadian Jewish News. Montreal. p. 23.
- ^ Lungen, Paul (20 November 2015). "Six Jewish MPs part of Parliament". Jewish Independent.
- ^ "Charles Krauthammer". Conversations with Bill Kristol. Retrieved June 21, 2018.
- ^ Keri, Jonah [@jonahkeri] (September 7, 2012). "@slp1313 Herzliah, in Montreal. Jewish school obvs" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
- ^ Block, Irwin (10 September 2014). "Former CSL mayor Robert Libman back in action in Mount Royal for Tories". The Senior Times.
- ISBN 978-1-554-68948-4.