Interfaith pioneer Victor Goldbloom remembered at MTL event

Posing at the unveiling of a portrait of Victor Goldbloom: From left, Victor's son Jonathan Goldbloom; Rev. Diane Rollert, president of Christian-Jewish Dialogue of Montreal; Victor's wife Sheila Goldbloom and artist Vahé Mersilian. JANICE ARNOLD PHOTO

Victor Goldbloom’s fervent hope was that a younger generation would carry on his lifelong devotion to building bridges between peoples of different faiths and cultures.

Goldbloom, a pioneer in Christian-Jewish dialogue in Quebec and beyond, was still actively working toward that goal when he died in February 2016 at age 92.

Christian-Jewish Dialogue of Montreal (CJDM), an organization Goldbloom helped found in 1971 and led for many years, has vowed to carry on his legacy.

On the first anniversary of his death, CJDM paid tribute to Goldbloom’s memory at an event hosted by Temple Emanu-El-Beth Sholom on March 21.

Organizer Sabrina Di Matteo, director of Espace Benoît Lacroix, an organization affiliated with the Université de Montréal which organizes Catholic and inter-religious activities on campus, announced plans for a youth contest, in Goldbloom’s memory.

To be officially launched in September, “Building Bridges” will be aimed at children and young people from age six to the university undergraduate level. Through word and art, they will be invited to reflect on Goldbloom’s message as it relates to their generation.

In his memoir Building Bridges/Les Ponts du Dialogue, published in 2015, Goldbloom’s appealed to those who would come after him to follow “une politique de presence – being present wherever and whenever possible. Be present. Be engaged. Be constructive.”

Details of the contest will be announced in September, and the winners of the inaugural Dr. Victor Goldboom Memorial Award are expected to be announced next February, around the second anniversary of Goldbloom’s death.

Di Matteo believes youngsters will gravitate to dialogue because they are growing up in an increasingly diverse society.

The commemoration also saw the unveiling of a portrait of Goldbloom painted by Vahé Mersilian, a young French-born artist of Armenian descent, who greatly admired Goldbloom.

He has rendered his smiling subject in black-and-white against a luminous golden background.

The portrait will hang in the temple, where Goldbloom was president for many years, said CJDM president Rev. Diane Rollert of the Unitarian Church of Montreal, but it will travel as much as possible.

Rev. Rollert said she reluctantly took over the reins of the organization about three years ago, at Goldbloom’s “kind and gentle persistence,” making her the first woman in the post.

“I can’t overstate how much Dr. Goldbloom touched my life,” she said. “I am among hundreds of others whose life he changed.”

She recalled joining Goldbloom and theologian Jean Duhaime in presenting the CJDM’s position at the public hearings on the previous Parti Québécois government’s proposed charter of values, which it strongly opposed.

“Every politician came over to [Goldbloom] and said, ‘You are the reason I am in politics.’”

Goldbloom, the MNA for D’Arcy McGee from 1966 to 1979, was the first Jewish cabinet minister in Quebec.

Well into his senior years, Goldbloom continued to travel around the province “introducing himself as a Jew to many who had never met a Jew before,” Rev. Rollert said, affirming that one can be Jewish and Québécois. “I was amazed by his courage.”

That outreach is needed as much as ever with the persistence of prejudice against Jews and Muslims, she indicated.

His widow, Sheila Goldbloom, said her husband believed that people must have the “willingness to take a risk, to be open to hearing the other and to not close the door…

“When anyone who was interested in starting a dialogue came to him, he would go anywhere possible, any time; he never said, ‘No, I can’t come.’ He made a big effort to give them his support.

“He knew that it was not guns, but only words that give us the power to create peace.”

Son Jonathan Goldbloom said his father in his last years was making concrete plans to expand the dialogue to the Muslim community.

Counc. Mary Deros, representing the City of Montreal, said Goldbloom exemplified Mayor Denis Coderre’s vision of “vivre ensemble” – citizens of all backgrounds living in harmony.