Montreal Yiddish Daily Holds Readers’ Referendum on Plan for Separate Jewish Schools

Negotiations between the newly-created Jewish School Board of Montreal and the Protestants of this city on the school question have been adjourned until August owing to the absence from the city of the chairman of the Protestant Board of School Commissioners.

The local Yiddish daily, “Keneder Adler,” has in the meantime, been conducting a sort of referendum among its readers on the subject, by having its readers participate in a letter contest for or against separate Jewish schools, and so far a majority of the readers have declared themselves in favor of a separate Jewish school system.

The arguments of the opponents, who are mostly women, are that separation will tend to strengthen anti-Semitism in Montreal; that Jewish children will have no respect for Jewish teachers and that Jews, as a rule, are incapable of managing their own schools. Talmud Torahs are pointed out as examples of the mismanagement of Jewish educational institutions. The “separatists” on the contrary, deny the truth of these arguments and stress the value of a healthy Jewish education in Jewish schools authorized by government legislation and financed by taxes instead of voluntary contributions.

Prizes will be given by the “Keneder Adler” for the best letters on the subject. The members of the Provincial Parliament, Joseph Cohen, K. C., and Peter Bercovitch, K. C., and Rabbi J. L. Zlotnik, executive director of the Zionist Organization of Canada, will act as judges in this contest.