The Journal de Montréal and the Hasidim
Re: “Why the Journal took a look at the Hasidim” (Opinion, April 27).
In defending his newspaper’s three-day spread on Quebec’s Hasidim, Le Journal de Montréal’s directeur de l’information reflects an astounding blindness to the content, tone and potentially destructive effects of his paper’s coverage. George Kalogerakis insists that the reportage by Émilie Dubreuil did nothing more than provide a benign “space” for four men who had chosen to leave the Hasidic community to express their “thoughts, actions and feelings.” If only that were true!
Unfortunately, the Journal’s coverage uncritically embraced the perspectives of these disaffected deserters, not only accepting their many distortions as factual, but buttressing them with questionable statistics and misinformation. The end product was a distorted and entirely negative image of Hasidic life and faith.
Mr. Kalogerakis’s protestations notwithstanding, the Journal did portray the Hasidim as a threat to Quebec culture, particularly in the segment on Hasidic education, which portrayed the Hasidim as “illiterate” in all matters French and – alone in Quebec – in violation of the province’s educational laws and standards. While her intentions may have benign, Mme. Dubreuil painted a relentlessly disapproving picture of a small minority group at a particularly sensitive time, as it finds itself besieged by hostility from Outremont to Val Morin. Allan Nadler
Montreal
My curiosity was piqued by George Kalogerakis’s response to Allan Nadler’s opinion piece, to the extent that I looked up both the latter and the series of articles in the Journal de Montréal.
I will state my position at the outset. I am extremely sympathetic to Lubavitch Hasidism and I did not find the articles “explosive” or “salacious.” I did not see them as an assault on Hasidism, but rather as a sociological portrayal of rebels who choose to leave their particular fold.
Just because there is a strong secularist, anti-religious, even militant trend in Quebec society does not mean that everything written in French by a Quebecer is anti-semitic. Janet Sanders
Côte St. Luc
How can interviews with four men who left their communities be considered in any way a “look” at the whole community?
If the intention was to have a realistic look at the Hasidim, some proportionality would have been essential. To look at four people out of 20,000 is at best unfair and at worst biased. One would hope that balance would be an essential element in any reporting of an issue, with opinions on both sides being brought to the reader for consideration.
One would hope that the Journal will try to present a fuller and more balanced story on this community in future reports.
There is no shortage of representatives of the Hasidim who would be more than happy to meet with the reporter.
By the way, many in that community speak French fluently, and are active in many professional fields.
At a time when Quebec must find a way to have peaceful coexistence among many ethnic and linguistic groups, we must all work to educate everyone about the common humanity of all of us. Bernie Shuster
Montreal