I’m proud - Kiddush hashem!

amother

Sun, May 10 2020, 3:37 am

Hi all,
Ive got Some nice news to share with you. I live in Outremont Montreal -in a primarily chassidish area.
The Rest of the neighborhood is very secular, with some working -class French Canadians as well as French Canadian students .
As you can imagine the situation is always a delicate one, and we try to make a kiddish hashem as often as possible. Still I sometimes feel that they just about tolerate us.

I know this is highly controversial-but here its been approved by the (very very careful) police dept, and we’ve been doing porch minyanim since the quarantine began.
Remember , unlike boro park, the Jews are a minority here, and I was tentative about it-3 minyanim a day- with Friday night singing...
I was heartened to see my neighbours chilled about it (or so I hoped) and was appreciative that they didnt call the police on us-(I heard that this has happened elsewhere)
just this week my neighbor called me -our street is collecting 5 dollars for a neighbourly cause. one of our neighbours wrote a nice letter thanking our non Jewish neighbours for graciously allowing us to pray on our porches undisturbed. she said that the letter will be written in English as well as french, and will be accompanied by some baked goods from the highly popular (Jews and non jew alike)local Chezkie;s bakery .(hence the five dollars)

I guess its been delivered, because while the men were davening shacharis this shabbos-I peeked out of my window-and lo and behold - taped onto a neighbors door straight across the street was a large white oaktag -and it said WE LOVE YOUR PRAYERS with a large heart drawn on the bottom.
I was blown. This is coming from an apartment that hosts a motley collection of young men and women (students perhaps/?) who I thought were always leery of us. I was wrong. and Im so grateful that we are doing this the right way. I think this can be done in any neighborhood where Yidden are davening on porches-they ARE doing us a favor by tolerating our thrice-daily tefillah-even a non-Jew hater can get annoyed by loud prayers each day. Im grateful that we were part of a huge kiddush hashem. kindess, understanding ,and some cake can go a long way.

CiCi

Sun, May 10 2020, 3:40 am

Well, here it's the frum Jews who hate the porch minyanim claiming that it kills people and calling the police.

amother

Sun, May 10 2020, 3:47 am

CiCi wrote:

Well, here it's the frum Jews who hate the porch minyanim claiming that it kills people and calling the police.

Ummm how??

LovesHashem

Sun, May 10 2020, 4:48 am

CiCi wrote:

Well, here it's the frum Jews who hate the porch minyanim claiming that it kills people and calling the police.

Can we keep ONE thread positive?
Please?!
Please keep your comments to other threads.

I've barely posted on corona but I felt like I just had to say this.

OP that was a beautiful thing to read! Thanks for sharing!

amother

Aqua

Sun, May 10 2020, 4:53 am

[quote="amother [ OP ]"]Ummm how??[/quote

Cici is right. People's minds got twisted, they cant even think logical.
Perhaps the quarantine is getting to them.

Really nice to hear, OP!

amother

Seafoam

Sun, May 10 2020, 5:16 am

Coming from another angle, I Unfortunately don't see the kiddush Hashem in this aspect.
Though I really enjoy hearing the sweet singing of my husband daven at home, There are several minyanim around in our neighborhood. My husband had approached each one, asking if he can join their minyan. The answer was always a resounding NO! We already have 10 people.

amother

Ruby

Sun, May 10 2020, 5:17 am

https://www.theyeshivaworld.co......html

amother

Rose

Sun, May 10 2020, 6:15 am

amother [ Seafoam ] wrote:

I'm sorry but you can't take this personally. Them's the rules!

PinkFridge

Sun, May 10 2020, 8:42 am

Not all porches are created equal.
Not all locations are as hot-spotty as others.
OP, tizku l'mitzvos.

amother

Orange

Sun, May 10 2020, 9:05 am

amother [ Rose ] wrote:

I'm sorry but you can't take this personally. Them's the rules!

Are they not outdoors on porches? Why can he not join if you are right next door? Please clarify?

We have a porches minyan, whoever comes out on their porch to daven is part if the minyan

amother

Slategray

Sun, May 10 2020, 9:16 am

Hi neighbour! This initiative started a few weeks ago on one street and has spread across the neigbourhood. Some streets are sending Chezky's rugelach, others blintzes from District Bagel or chocolates from Excellence. On one stretch of Champagneur, a family baked rainbow cupcakes for all of their neighbours. It has created so much goodwill. This article captures the sentiment beautifully. It was published in La Presse, a notoriously intolerant and divisive newspaper. It is in French, but Google translate can help non-French speakers get the gist of it.
https://plus.lapresse.ca/scree.....creen

There have also been other amazing initiatives that have developed from this increase of communication. One of the producers at POP Montreal (a production company that showcases local talent) has invited her 2 Hassidic neighbours to sing from the balcony of POP Montreal for this weeks installment of "Chanter sur les Balcons". It will be live streamed on May 12th at 7:30 and will be watched by tens of thousands across the city https://www.facebook.com/event.....090/.

What we are seeing are the fruits of the initial outreach by the amazing people in both communities who started breaking down barriers years ago by establishing the Friends of Hutchison neighbourhood committee. Shout out to you, Mindy Pollak!
https://www.facebook.com/Frien.....ison/

amother

Seafoam

Sun, May 10 2020, 1:07 pm

Some of those minyanim are in people's backyards or outside of shuls.
There's anough room for another one with SD. There's no rule 10 pple only.
They just need more room in their hearts.

amother

Ruby

Sun, May 10 2020, 1:28 pm

amother [ Seafoam ] wrote:

Some of those minyanim are in people's backyards or outside of shuls.
There's anough room for another one with SD. There's no rule 10 pple only.
They just need more room in their hearts.

and another one, another one, another one? Then it wont be sd. And ppl. will yell that there are huge minyanim. I'm glad they're being strict about it.
And if its out on the street and theres enough room, why cant he just join? They don't own the streets.

amother

Teal

Sun, May 10 2020, 1:32 pm

amother [ Seafoam ] wrote:

Some of those minyanim are in people's backyards or outside of shuls.
There's anough room for another one with SD. There's no rule 10 pple only.
They just need more room in their hearts.

Do you reside in Outremont?

amother

Seafoam

Sun, May 10 2020, 1:36 pm

No. I live in upstate NY.

amother

Slategray

Sun, May 10 2020, 1:37 pm

amother [ Teal ] wrote:

Do you reside in Outremont?

There are no backyard minyanim in Outremont. The streets are lined with duplex and triplex homes, with a separate front balcony for each apartment. Such balcony minyanim are held on every street that has at least a minyan of frum families.

FranticFrummie

Sun, May 10 2020, 1:43 pm

OP, I hugged your post, because I can't hug you in person. What a wonderful thing to happen!

Not only that, but you're helping the economy by supporting a frum bakery.

In my neighborhood, I see very large minyanim, but the men are careful to stand at least 6 feet apart, usually more like 10 feet or so. The chazzan has a beautiful voice that carries very nicely. The fact that there's no traffic to drown him out helps immensely.

I also took a bus past a yeshiva today, and the boys were sitting outside, with their desks spread at least 6 feet apart, all of them studying very seriously. It was a glorious day to be outside.

amother

Teal

Sun, May 10 2020, 9:13 pm

amother [ Seafoam ] wrote:

No. I live in upstate NY.

Okay. Doesn't sound like your DH is asking to join the minyanim in Outremount.

amother

Slategray

Mon, May 11 2020, 11:25 am

Another sign! Spreading the love...

amother

Goldenrod

Mon, May 11 2020, 11:27 am

amother [ Seafoam ] wrote:

No. I live in upstate NY.

In lakewood the rule is only 10 people per minyan