Canadian census statistics indicate that very large percentages of Jews living in this city, as well as in the entire Province of Quebec, speak both French and English–the two official languages in this Province–according to preliminary analyses of bilingualism made by the research department of the Canadian Jewish Congress. Detailed breakdowns of bilingualism among Jews in this country are expected to be published by the Congress next year.
In metropolitan Montreal, 35.8 per cent of the Jews speak both English and French, while in the Province as a whole the ratio of bilingualism among Jews rises to 36.2 per cent. Those percentages are second only to the percentages among persons of French ethnic origin. For the Dominion as a whole, the percentage of bilingual Jews is 18.4, again second only to the percentage noted among those of French ethnic origin.
There are 2,178 Jews in Canada who claim French as their mother tongue; of that total 1,515 live in Metropolitan Montreal. The preliminary breakdowns–all based on the 194 Dominion-wide census statistics–show that 98.3 per cent of all Jews in the country speak English.
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