Samuel Godinsky and the PSBGM - Protestant School Board of Greater Montreal

1964 - 1973
6000 Fielding

Samuel Godinsky (1906-2007) was a Jewish Montreal lawyer who fought for Jewish representation on the Protestant School Board of Great Montreal (PSBGM) in the 1960s. He also raised the Board’s awareness of the specific educational needs arising from increased French Jewish immigration to Montreal.

Under the British North America Act of 1867, the Quebec public school system was divided between Catholic and Protestant school boards. As no provisions were made for other religions, Jews had no legal rights in regard to education. Following the Hebrew Free School controversy in the 1890s, Jewish students found themselves under the jurisdiction of the PSBGM. This situation was made official by a provincial act of 1903: Jews were designated “Protestants” for the purposes of education, though they were not granted the same legal rights as Protestants and Catholics. During the subsequent period of massive Jewish immigration from Eastern Europe, the impoverished new arrivals were admitted into the Protestant system. Despite considerable tensions between the Jewish community and the PSBGM—which reached a peak in the 1920s—Jews continued to be affiliated with and pay their school taxes to the Protestant board. They were not, however, entitled to representation on the PSBGM.

In 1960, during a time of far-reaching school reform in Quebec, the provincial government signed an agreement with the Association of Jewish Day Schools to officially secure the partial funding of certain full-time Jewish schools, though they continued to be considered “private” institutions. Many Jews, however, were either unable to send their children to these schools or preferred to enrol them in the public system. In 1964, the Canadian Jewish Congress asked the lawyer and community leader Samuel Godinsky to negotiate with the PSBGM’s T. Palmer Howard in order to propose a bill that would achieve greater equity for Montreal Jews through their participation in the governance of the PSBGM. In 1965, a bill aimed at ensuring Board access for Jews was enacted and five high-profile members of the Jewish community were appointed to the PSBGM, namely Joseph Caplan, Samuel Godinsky, Harvey Golden, Leon Kronitz and Harold Lande. In addition, Godinsky made the English-language PSBGM aware of the needs of French-speaking Jewish immigrants from North Africa and the Middle East. Lacking the necessary linguistic infrastructure to adequately serve these students, the PSBGM responded to recommendations from Godinsky by sending a delegation to Casablanca to recruit qualified French-speaking Jewish teachers for its schools.

In 1972, Godinsky resigned from his position on the Board following the election of Muriel Kaplan to represent Westmount: the 5-member quota for Jewish members had been thereby exceeded, and Godinsky felt that elected members should take precedence over their appointed colleagues. This episode raised public awareness of the Jewish quota at the PSBGM and prompted several individuals to pressure the government to correct the situation. It was not until 2000 that public schools were finally deconfessionalized. Godinsky also served as Chairman of the Young Men’s-Young Women’s Hebrew Association from 1965 to 1967.

Compiled by Valérie Beauchemin, translated by Helge Dascher.

Links

Liens

Sources

Bensoussan, David.“Les Juifs Sépharades au Canada.” 50 ans ensemble : Le livre Sépharade : 1959-2009. Ed. David Bensoussan. Montreal: Communauté Sépharade Unifiée du Québec, 2010. 40-42.

Corcos, Arlette. Montréal, les Juifs et l’école. Sillery: Éditions du Septentrion. 1997

Kaplansky, Yedida “Eddy.” “The Landmark Case of Harvey Grotsky et al., Versus the Protestant School Board of St. Martin, et al. (A Memoir).” Canadian Jewish Studies/ Études juives canadiennes 6 (1998): 65-80.

MacLeod, Roderick et Mary Anne Poutanen. A Meeting of the People: School Boards and Protestant Communities in Quebec, 1801-1998. Montréal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2004.

Rome, David. The Heroes of Montreal Jewish Education. Montreal: National Archives, Canadian Jewish Congress, 1992.

Rosenberg, Michael M. Ethnicity, Community, and the State: the Organizational Structures, Practices and Strategies of the Montreal Jewish community’s Day Schools System and its Relations with the Quebec State. PhD dissertation, Carlton University, 1995.

*Images courtesy of the Jewish Public Library Archives and the Canadian Jewish Congress Charities Committee National Archives (CJCCCNA).

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