MONTREAL — The English Montreal School Board (EMSB) has reconsidered the cancellation of an extracurricular Jewish club for students at Royal West Academy, a high school in Montreal West.

On Oct. 1, the EMSB said it has decided that the club, which last year met weekly at lunchtime with Rabbi Dovid Pearlstein, might be able to resume in a manner that conforms with a law prohibiting religious instruction in schools.

The announcement followed the adoption of a resolution by the EMSB’s commissioners requesting that the administration withdraw a directive that effectively spelled the end of the Jewish club at Royal West, as well as similar ones at Royal Vale and Westmount High Schools, and find a legal way for them to continue.

The clubs could be resurrected under “Life 101,” an extracurricular program already in place at some schools. It may consist of classroom or lunchtime workshops where issues such as world religions, religion and science, and tests of faith, or broader issues such as the Holocaust and genocide, are discussed in a non-sectarian manner.

The EMSB’s reversal came after a Sept. 25 report in The CJN in which the rabbi and the teacher who oversaw the Royal West club expressed surprise and disappointment that the clubs were no longer being permitted.

Rabbi Pearlstein, who is associated with Chabad’s Chai Centre, said he had suddenly been told that the clubs could not go on, after several years of existence. The Royal West club received a grant from Federation CJA’s Gen J program last year.

He said the clubs were open to everyone and he provided no overt religious instruction, such as prayer, concentrating instead on ethical dilemmas that all students could participate in.

The EMSB had cited Bill 118, the Quebec legislation adopted in 2000, concerning the place of religion in the public school system, which had a few years earlier been reformed from being organized along Catholic or Protestant lines to being French- or English-based.

That law stipulates that any activities sponsored by schools must be inclusive, pluralistic and educational.

“Religious services for one particular faith cannot be held in the building during or after school hours,” said EMSB spokesperson Michael Cohen.

“The law clearly states that if a school wishes to have a multicultural or multi-faith discussion or presentation, representative religious leaders from a church, synagogue, mosque or temple may participate only as invited guests of the trained [staff] facilitator.”

In a prepared statement, the EMSB acknowledges that the Jewish club at Royal West was open to all students. The problem was that the “outside rabbi needed to be accompanied by a trained facilitator.”

Rabbis and other clergy can be brought in as guest speakers for Life 101 program, as long as a “pluralistic” approach is maintained.

Royal West math and science teacher Carolyn Gehr, who brought the cancellation of the clubs to the attention of The CJN, served as her school’s club director last year. That was how she was described in a press release issued by the EMSB last March about the club, focusing on its celebration of Purim.

“Royal West was in the process of preparing for a program which would meet the needs of the students and be in line with Bill 118, organized by its trained spiritual community animator when the CJN story was printed,” the EMSB said.

The Royal Vale club was stopped because it was taking place without the knowledge of the then-new principal and the Westmount one “ended on its own several years ago,” it said.

Royal West principal Tony Pita said he has explained the Life 101 program to a number of parents whose children wanted to take part in the Jewish club, and they’re satisfied with the idea.

Gehr, who is on maternity leave this year, commented: “It has potential. Let’s see how it turns out.

“It is gratifying to see that people at the board are truly searching for a satisfying solution to this issue, and not just sweeping it under the carpet.”

EMSB chair Angela Mancini stressed that the board is committed to meeting the needs of its diverse student population to the extent the law allows.

“Since 2000, the EMSB has worked hard to support school environments that reflect diversity and pluralism in accordance with Bill 118,” she said.

“Consequently, the schools of the EMSB have held and will continue to hold multifaith celebrations and encourage activities and clubs that honour and respect our multicultural society, in line with Bill 118, while focused on the needs of the students.”

Mancini noted that the EMSB continues to offer the Heritage Language Program, commonly known by its French acronym PELO, in co-operation with the education ministry.

A Hebrew PELO, which includes Jewish cultural content, has been running at Royal Vale’s elementary school for many years.

In addition, she said that since 2008, all elementary and high schools in the province have been obliged to teach a course called Ethics and Religious Culture, designed to educate about the major religious groups in Quebec and promote a “culture of dialogue” among students.

She cited a number of efforts over the years to increase knowledge of the Jewish community, such as field trips to synagogues, the Montreal Holocaust museum and model matzah factories, as well as cultural exchanges between the EMSB’s Laurier Macdonald High School in St. Léonard and LaurenHill Academy in St. Laurent with Bialik High School in Côte St. Luc.