Opponents of ‘illegal’ Montreal Hasidic synagogue lose battle to close it down

Members of Montreal's Hasidic Jewish community have won a victory in their simmering battle with some of their neighbours in the district of Outremont.

The Quebec Superior Court has ruled a technically "illegal" synagogue in a converted duplex home can stay, despite violating municipal zoning bylaws, the National Post reports.

The Congregation Munchas Elozer Munkas house of worship has been in the red brick building for 35 years and its use as a synagogue was well known.

In a decision issued April 18, Justice Andre Prevost dismissed the city's application to end "activities of worship and religion," there. The building may not be sanctioned as a synagogue under zoning rules, but closing it down under a "strick, rigorous and blind application of the bylaw" would create an injustice, the judge concluded, according to the Post.

“It means the individual victory for this particular synagogue, which has been harassed — and that’s the only word I can use — for close to 35 years,” Alex Werzberger, head of the Coalition of Outremont Hasidic Organizations, told the Post. “And it gives the community sort of a lift, because maybe the pendulum is starting to swing a little bit upwards.”

[ Related: Tensions between Montreal Hasidic Jews and neighbours ends up in court ]

The ultra-orthodox Hasidim have been at odds with some of their neighbours for years. The Post noted it's less than two blocks from a YMCA that in 2006 was pressured to install frosted windows so boys from a nearby Hasidic school would not see women exercising in form-fitting gym clothes the sect considers immodest.

Last year, Outremont's municipal council barred the Hasidim from holding an evening street procession to honour the visit of a prominent New York rabbi.

Local blogger Pierre Lacerte is also facing a libel suit by businessman Michael Rosenberg, who alleges his blog's focus on Rosenberg and the Hasidim amounts to anti-semitism. Lacerte, who lives across the street from another neighbourhood synagogue, has countersued.

[ Related: Tensions between Montreal Hasidic Jews and neighbours ends up in court ]

The Congregation Elozer Munkas first began renting the two-storey duplex in 1976, the Post said, using it as a "house of study and prayer." The congregation bought the building four years later and began renovations to convert it into a synagogue. It was given municipal permits for the work and had at least one visit from a city building inspector, the Post noted.

Two years later, Outremont cited the congregation for a zoning violation, which resulted in a $50 fine. But the congregation had the conviction overturned on appeal.

Werzberger branded the efforts of local activists to scrutinize the Hasidim's activities and to shut down the synagogue as "anti-Semitism, pure and naked."

Outremont's bid to close the synagogue was based, it said, on "a bundle of complaints" from neighbours dating back to 2002, the Post said.

But the court found that the complainants had either come to terms with the synagogue or did not live nearby. None of the 200 people who signed a petition submitted to the court lived on the same street as the synagogue, and some didn't even live in Outremont, the Post reported.

The city has not said whether it will appeal.