6 — THE BULLETIN — Thursday. October 11, 1979
MONTREAL — One of three Chassidic groups in the Montreal area is seeking approval of a plan to establish its own municipality, a goal which requires approval of their neighbors and by the Quebec provincial government.
The 400 Tashaver Chassidic Jews
own 106 acres in Boisbriand, a suburban municipality, where they now live. Mayor Nolan Filiatrault of Boisbriand has indicated he is sympathetic to the idea. The local member of the Quebec Assembly will shortly submit the proposal in a private member's bill.
If the community becomes a municipality, it will be the first Chassidic municipality in Canada, government officials said.
Rabbi Robert Monheit said it was difficult for the Chassidim not to be influenced by the secular world, adding "you can*t constantly be in an
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^Keit with a
environment that has different values and not be influenced."
By acquiring municipal status, the Chassidim would be able to have their own laws to ensure that Friday evening and Saturday is observed as the Sabbath.
The Chassidim feel that such an arrangement would protect them against assimilation, which they consider a hollow existence, the kind of limbo in which they see non-Chassidic Jews living.
Rabbi Monheit said "being Chassidic means being a good Jew in every respect — in eating, praying, studying and friendship."
The average Chassidic boy attends school for about 10 hours a day during the week and five hours on Sunday. He enters a private, government-funded school soon after 7 a.m. to participate in a mandatory prayer session at 7:30 a.m. He already has prayed before and after breakfast.
Religious studies begin at 8 a.m. He studies the First Five Books of Moses, Jewish Religious Law, the Talmud, and Hebrew and Yiddish.
After lunch there are three hours of secular studies, the minimum required by the Quebec education department to qualify for a government subsidy.
The Chassidic community controls the secular courses. Teachers are asked not to teach Darwin*s theory of evolution, sex or any other subject in conflict with Chassidic beliefs.
Books are censored. Rabbi Monheit said, "We don't want a mix of ideas. We want a pure education.**
Rabbi Monheit said the goal of Chassidic education is to turn all males into rabbis or as close as possible to rabbiis.
Girls get less education than boys and are segregated in a separate school building. Girls are taught how to direct a proper Jewish household — to keep the Sabbath, to prepare kosher food and to observe the holy days of Judaism.
Men reign in the synagogue, women in the home, but they do not mingle unless they are married.
Sexual contact is restricted to certain times of the month and. contraceptives are not used.
Rabbi Hersh Feigelstock, principal of the Rabbinical College of Canada, a Chassidic school, said he recommends that his graduates not attend secular universities because this may cause them to question their 'religious beliefs.
The Chassidim are estimated to constitute about 5,000 of the 100,000 Jews living in the Montreal area.
Canada, Israel to build Dominican Republic farms
OTTAWA ~ Canada and Israel have agreed to co-operate as donor countries to help the Dominican Republic build a major dairy farm settlement during the next five years. ,
This agreement will be the first J trilateral arrangement undertaken by CIDA.
Canada expects to spend up to $3 million on the project, mostly on dairy equipment and Holstein cattle while Israel, which has years of agricultural experience in arid zones, will provide most of the know-how.
The dairy farm project will be an extension of a successful Israeli settlement program, a blend of private and co-operative activities, begun nine years ago in an arid area of the Dominican Republic.
The Israelis helped settle about 500 Dominican families in the area
and taught them how to irrigate their land and make use of appropriate farming techniques for this type of desert agriculture.
The objective of the project is to estdblish~,170 additionai fainilies. in the Aziia Valley who would become involved in milk production and processing for themselves and other farmers in the region.
The project will create employment opportunities, optimize the use of arable irrigated land by developing fodder production, establish a marketing system and help integrate the people of the Azua Valley into the social and economic development of the Dominican Republic.
The Dominican Republic has agreed to provide infrastructure and housing as its contribution to the project.
OBVERSE AND REVERSE of the new medal struck by Mexico and Israel.
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JERUSALEM — Israel and Mexico have struck a joint medal in the first known numismatic issue by two countries. The medal marks the exchange of numismatic exhibitions between Mexico and Israel.
The Mexican coin exhibition was held recently in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. Israel*s exhibition will open in Mexico City*s National Anthropological Museum in November.
The medal is issued by the Banco de Mexico and the Israel Government Coins and Medals Corporation, and has been struck in four versions, two gold, one steriing silver and one bronze.
The Mexican side, depicting the Aztec mythological diety Quetzal-coatl, was designed by a Mexican artist, and the Israeli side, featuring a
. representation of the seven- branched Menorah, was designed by an Israeli artist.
The large gold medal and the silver medal were minted at the Mexican Government Mint, the oldest in the American continent, and the small gold medal and the bronze medal were minted in Israel.
(Jerusalem Post)
Flafto-Sharon sentenseel
PARIS — Jewish financier Samuel Flatto-^Sharon, a membier of the Israeli Knesset, was sentenced in absentia by a Paris court to a five-year prison term ahd a 30,000 franc (about $7,000) fine, for illicit financial operations. About 25 accomplices received suspended sentences.