Photograph exhibition of Hasidic Jewish communities brings hope in Outremont

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Might an exhibition of moody, intimate, stunning and sometimes joyful images documenting the day by day lives of Hasidic Jewish communities, images taken by an outsider – a Polish Catholic photographer named Agnieska Traczewska – contribute to a rapprochement between Outremont’s Hasidic neighborhood and its francophone neighbours?

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Possibly. Simply perhaps.

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Greater than 100 individuals, members of the Hasidic neighborhood and others, attended the opening this week of A World Rekindled, an exhibition of Traczewska’s work introduced collectively by the borough of Outremont and the Consulate Basic of the Republic of Poland in Montreal, with important monetary help from the Polish Ministry of Overseas Affairs.

“Internet hosting this distinctive exhibition in Outremont demonstrates our want to construct bridges between the totally different communities,” stated Outremont borough Mayor Laurent Desbois. “It is without doubt one of the first occasions non-Hasidim can have an intimate have a look at the neighborhood.”

The neighbourhood straddling Outremont and Mile Finish is dwelling to a number of thousand members of Montreal’s Hasidic neighborhood. In Outremont, these ultra-Orthodox Jews make up one-quarter of the inhabitants. They’ve giant households to fulfil the biblical command to be fruitful and multiply, converse Yiddish amongst themselves and gown in distinctive ways in which have modified little since Hasidic Judaism started in 18th-century Ukraine. The Hasidic males in attendance Tuesday wore lengthy black jackets and black hats and had sidelocks, or peyot. Their wives dressed modestly, with lengthy sleeves and lengthy skirts. Married Hasidic girls cowl their heads with wigs and typically additionally hats.

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Eric Scott, a Montreal documentary filmmaker who had seen Traczewska’s images, and Dariusz Wisniewski, Consul Basic of the Republic of Poland in Montreal, approached Outremont about holding the exhibition, which is on till Could 28 on the Galerie Outremont of the borough’s Robert Bourassa Library, and inspired it. Wisniewski stated he’s delighted the images are being exhibited “so that everybody will be impressed to raised perceive and develop larger concord amongst neighbours.”

Though relations appear to have improved, tensions between the Hasidic neighborhood and non-Jews in Outremont have simmered for some years and sometimes heated up.

A World Rekindled opened on Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. Yom HaShoah is marked on the Hebrew calendar; this yr it started the night of April 17 and ended the next night.

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All however one Outremont borough councillor attended — and she or he was at a gathering at which she represents the borough

“I’m thrilled that the exhibition is occurring,” stated Outremont borough councillor Mindy Pollak, the primary Hasidic girl to carry public workplace in Quebec; she attended the opening and addressed friends. “It’s a concrete illustration of my work to construct bridges in Outremont.”

Earlier Tuesday, she was at Metropolis Corridor for a Yom HaShoah observance, she stated, “and the distinction between commemorating 6 million murdered souls and seeing joyful, vivid images of the up to date revival of Hasidic life was very significant.”

Traczewska’s images have fun that revival.

“They are saying an image is value 1,000 phrases and this exhibition proves it,” stated Mayer Feig, a member of the Quebec Council of Hasidic Jews. “It supplies a window many haven’t seen into how our neighborhood lives.”

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The pictures additionally depict the neighborhood’s resilience, he stated.

At first of the twentieth century, about 80 per cent of world Jewry lived in Poland. A lot of the Holocaust, during which 6 million individuals had been murdered, came about on the territory of Poland occupied by Nazi Germany.

Till the election of a democratic authorities in Poland in 1989, governments didn’t deal with this. However that has modified, Wisniewski stated, “and we try, as state, as a society, to provide the precise place to all facets of our historical past, together with probably the most troublesome ones.”

Traczewska was a profitable Krakow-based producer, making movies and documentaries, she instructed friends on the opening, and for her Krakow “has a particular place in Jewish historical past.

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“For 700 years, Jews and non-Jews lived facet by facet. The most important religious leaders left a robust legacy of thought.”

The Holocaust modified that.

“Once I was a baby, this chapter of Jewish historical past was erased,” she stated.

“It gave me the urge to rebuild this historical past. I made a decision to journey round Poland, trying to find traces of Jewish historical past. I began as an outsider, who didn’t have a clue about this world. Everyone instructed me it will be not possible.”

However Traczewska was affected person. She understood that she had homework to do to fill the gaps in her information.

She realized that the roots of many Hasidic dynasties lie in southeastern Poland and western Ukraine, that lots of their revered religious leaders had been buried in jap Europe, and that praying at their graves, particularly on the anniversary of their dying, attracts giant teams of Hasidim from around the globe.

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Traczewska gained the boldness of Hasidim on these pilgrimages and so they had been the topic of her first e-book, revealed in 2018 and sponsored by the Polish overseas ministry. She constructed on the contacts she made throughout these journeys for her second e-book, A Rekindled World, revealed in 2020. For it, she travelled to Brooklyn, N.Y.; Israel; Sao Paulo, Brazil; and Antwerp, Belgium, and visited and photographed Hasidim of their synagogues and at dwelling, at weddings and different celebrations.

The exhibition of her images is aligned with the actions beneficial in Outremont’s cultural improvement plan for 2021-2026, the borough stated in an announcement. The plan calls tradition “a software of inclusion” and says it “has the facility to deliver collectively generations and communities.”

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AT A GLANCE

A World Rekindled, an exhibition of images by Agnieska Traczewska, is on till Could 28, with cross-cultural actions together with guided excursions on weekends, in English and French, faculty visits on weekdays, conferences, roundtable discussions and casual conferences. Traczewska will drop by the gallery till she leaves city on Sunday. Galerie d’Outremont is within the Robert Bourassa Library, 41 St-Simply Ave. in Outremont.

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