Reports Slight Decline in Census of Jewish Students Attending Montreal Area Schools

The number of Jewish children attending Protestant elementary and high schools in the Greater Montreal area and suburban Chomedey reached a peak in 1962-63 and declined slightly in 1968, according to a report released here by Louis Rosenberg, director emeritus of the Canadian Jewish Congress research bureau. The number rose steadily from 77 in 1877 to a peak of 16,835 in 1968, the report said. The number of Jewish youngsters in Protestant high schools stood at 6,678 in 1968, down from 7,653 a year earlier and 7,133 in 1962. The Jewish elementary school population was 9,279 last year compared to 11,819 in 1963.

The distribution of Jewish school children indicated the shift in the Jewish population from central Montreal to the suburbs, the report showed. In 1924, Jewish children formed a majority in 11 out of 66 Protestant schools in Greater Montreal, all of them located in the old area of Jewish settlement. In 1968, Jewish youngsters were a majority in 19 schools, all of them located in suburban neighborhoods. Jews attend Protestant schools because there are no public schools.