On October 9, 1905, a Yom Kippur Ball was held at St. Joseph Hall on St. Catherine Street in Montreal. An association of young Jewish anarchists calling themselves the Group of Worker’s Friends organized the anti-religious event as “a protest against superstition.” On the occasion of the holiest day of the Jewish year—a day of fasting, prayer and introspection—the Yom Kippur Ball was a direct attack on traditional Judaism. Practicing Jews on their way to synagogue took offense, and the ensuing confrontation resulted in police intervention and legal proceedings.
The Yom Kippur Ball occurred at a time of mass immigration from Eastern Europe. A number of the organizers were garment workers with ties to radical anarchist and socialist movements opposed to religion. This rejection of religion and tradition on the part of young Jews prompted divisive debate and stoked tensions between the community’s religious and secular Jews. Montreal’s Jewish establishment was especially scandalized by the attitude of the young protestors, as reflected in an editorial in the <a href="https://museemontrealjuif.ca/exhibit/lyon-cohen-and-the-jewish-times-2/"Jewish Times entitled “Yom Kippur Outrage.”
Yom Kippur Balls were held in major cities such as New York and London from the 1880s onward. Montreal’s 1905 ball, however, would remain the city’s only event of its kind, with no association of note subsequently attempting to organize another.
Compiled by Valérie Beauchemin, translated by Helge Dascher.
Sources
Margolis, Rebecca. “Tempest in Three Teapots: Yom Kippur Balls in London, New York and Montreal.” Canadian Jewish Studies Journal/Revue d’etudes juives canadiennes 9. (2001): 38-84.
Portnoy, Eddy. ”The Festive Meal: When Yom Kippur was a time to eat, drink, and be merry.” Tablet 24 Sept. 2009.
Sack, Benjamin G. Canadian Jews - Early in This Century. Montreal: Canadian Jewish Congress, New Series #4.
*Image courtesy of the Jewish Public Library Archives.
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