Last Monday evening we began to receive comments and phone calls about the hilarious pileup that took place in Montreal on an icy street smack in the middle of the downtown area. For some reason several people “diligently working at their desks in their offices” immediately grabbed their phones in order to video, while looking out of the window, two city buses, several cars, a tow truck, a city salting truck and most comically a police car crash into each other on the slick black-ice-coated street below them. Fortunately, no one was injured and immediately the video went viral. Montreal found itself on the map, for more than its exceptional hockey team, which please note was victorious on Saturday night, beating the Colorado Avalanche 10-1. (Go Habs, go!)
If things were not bad enough, there was another major “scandal” in the city that we love so much. Apparently in competition with New York City and the tree they light each year in Rockefeller Center, Montreal has its own such tradition. However, this year the tree chosen was penned the “anorexic tree.” It is majorly skinny with few pines surrounding it, looks sort of lopsided, and we agree from the pictures truly looks pathetic.
What is happening to the reputation of the city we love so much? We all know that it does have the best snow removal system in North America.
Having just returned from a visit and being present during all of this hoopla we have to say that it is still the warm, loving and exceptional city that we have always written about. Obviously, the word warm has nothing to do with the temperature, which was, when we left there this morning, about 16 degrees Fahrenheit. However, the bakeries still significantly outshine any of our local choices. Cheskie’s, a must on any visit has rugelach that cannot be compared to anything in the neighborhood. The mix of Sefardi and Ashkenzi cultures blending so well together was clearly defined when we visited a new restaurant, Chiyoko Sushi, where a combination of outstanding presentation and superb taste has yet to be seen by us around town.
Believe it or not, we do not go to Montreal to eat, but instead, despite the freezing temperatures, we visit with our daughter Naama and enjoy the warmth of the people that were like family to us for so many years. In New Jersey, it is rare to see people meeting in the middle of a street and kissing on both cheeks. Even more so men rarely can be seen embracing each other and for sure not kissing each other on two cheeks. Something has to be said about the warmth of meeting a friend and kissing her on both cheeks as a greeting. The Sefardi men do the same to each other. The embrace and the genuine feeling of camaraderie are not easy to explain to those who have not experienced it. It is a sharing and caring that binds relationships and concerns for each other. We would hope that at some point we could all drop the awkwardness and adopt the comfort level of showing concern and adoration of each other by a physical gesture.
We return home from each of our visits across the border with feelings of nostalgia and the realization and hope that our new home will one day feel as comfortable as that which we left behind.
By Rabbi Mordechai and Nina Glick
