Pastries and prayer from the porch

Certainly Jennifer Dorner appreciated the gift of rugelach, little cinnamon and chocolate pastries left at her door by Hasidic Jewish neighbours in the Montreal neighbourhood of Outremont one late April day — and the accompanying letter, in English and in French, explaining that they were “a small token of appreciation” for the understanding of non-Jewish neighbours who might be inconvenienced by their outdoor prayer services.

“But the singing and prayers have already been such a gift,” she observed in a tweet.

With synagogues closed by the COVID-19 pandemic, Hasidic Jews have moved to their porches to pray. As they stand on neighbouring porches to achieve the quorum of 10 men needed to fulfil the religious obligation of public prayer and respect social distancing, the words and song of prayer waft through the streets where much of Outremont’s Hasidic community lives.

Two days earlier Dorner, executive producer of the POP Montreal International Music Festival, had taken to Twitter with a 30-second snippet of Saturday morning services and annotated it: “Shabbos morning enjoying the neighbourhood voices from my sunny living-room window ...”

By Monday evening, Dorner’s post had garnered nearly 17,000 views.

“Refreshing to see neighbours appreciate and respect each other. The silver lining behind the COVID-19 cloud,” one follower wrote.

The pastry initiative started with Outremont Hasidic community member Chesky Spira, who represents Brooklyn-based Klein’s Kosher Ice Cream in Canada. The company had sent a notice encouraging Jews praying on their balconies to remember non-Jewish neighbours with “a token of recognition.”

Immediately after he’d posted the notice for his followers on social media, “my wife baked rugelach and cookies,” Spira said.

Other residents prepared their own gift packages of sweet treats and their own letters of appreciation. On Friday, two of Spira’s five children, wearing gloves, delivered a second round of packaged sweets — this time rugelach from Cheskie’s, a kosher bakery — and letters to 27 neighbours.

“The response was magnificent,” he said. One family hung a poster from the front balcony railing: “We love to hear you pray. Stay strong.”

Initially, not everyone was as tolerant. There were some complaints when the balcony prayers began. Locals met with public health and police officials and learned it was legal for them to pray outdoors as long as they stayed on their balconies, said Max Lieberman, a member of the Council of Hasidic Jews of Quebec. Sending the prayer schedule to their non-Jewish neighbours helped, as did explaining why they were praying outside. And the pastries.

“Sometimes out of a crisis,” Lieberman said, “good things happen.”