MONTREAL — Rabbi Shmuli Cohen and his wife, Chana, knocked on hundreds of doors in the West Island town of Kirkland and discovered that there was much more than a minyan to be found west of St. Charles Road.

In fact, Rabbi Cohen established that there were as many as 300 Jewish families in the town, more than enough to justify setting up a Chabad of Kirkland centre.

Located since late summer in a strip mall at 4905 St. Charles Rd., the centre has been flourishing, Rabbi Cohen said

“We are now the only Jewish organization that exists west of St. Charles,” said the 25-year-old, who married in Chicago and is now living in Kirkland.

“We are there for two reasons. Our first mission was to create a Jewish community that is unified.

“Our second is to reach out to the unaffiliated, to inspire and touch every single Jew in the war against the fading of the Jewish people.”

Rabbi Cohen said “two or three” Jewish residents of the general area approached his father, Rabbi Chaim Cohen, who runs the MADA Center in Plaza Cote de Neiges, about the idea of establishing such a centre.

One of the concerns for them was that there was no place to daven that was within walking distance from where they lived, especially on Shabbat or a Jewish holiday when driving is proscribed.

“So we went down there to see how many Jews we could find,” Rabbi Cohen said.

To gauge interest as well as find out how many Jews actually lived in Kirkland, Rabbi Cohen and his wife spent several weeks perusing the telephone book, looking for Jewish-sounding names and then went knocking on doors.

“We thought if we just called up people they might feel intimidated,” he said.

What the couple discovered were Jews who were “very, very receptive and open” to the idea of of such a centre.

“We went to one door, and it turned out the person wasn’t Jewish, but referred us to the man next door.

“The man living there was a 96-year-old [Holocaust] survivor who spoke perfect Yiddish but had not been in touch with any Jewish organization for decades,” Rabbi Cohen said.

“We found many Jews who had been out of touch for 40, 50, 60 years.”

The location of Kirkland, roughly bounded by Pierrefonds and Dollard des Ormeaux (DDO) to the north and east, Chemin Ste-Marie to the west, and Beaconsfield to the south, has historically made it a less attractive place to live for West Island Jewish families, the vast majority of whom reside in DDO in an area not far west of Boulevard des Sources off Roger Pilon Boulevard.  

The overwhelming majority of West Island Jewish families who go to synagogue, in fact, worship at DDO’s Congregation Beth Tikvah in that area. The Sephardi community has its own synagogue in DDO, the Or Shalom.

 Three other Chabad centres – Chai West, the Jewish Learning Institute of the West Island and the Gutnick Mazal Jewish Centre – also operate in DDO.

However, with the number of Jewish families who live in Kirkland, it was a logical place for Chabad to set up shop, Rabbi Cohen said.

He said he thinks that besides the 300 families who live within proximity to the new centre, there are probably another 200 or so Jewish families in adjacent Pierrefonds and Beaconsfield who would also find the Kirkland location convenient.

Rabbi Cohen and his family live within walking distance of the centre on Brunswick Boulevard.

Along with religious services and Jewish holiday activities, Chabad of Kirkland has Jewish heritage, Hebrew language and Kabbalah classes, a Sunday morning men’s club and a women’s circle, as well as a kids’ club and even a mom and tots program.

“We even have a monthly Friday night community dinner,” Rabbi Cohen said. “Everyone is welcome.”

Chabad Kirkland can be reached by calling 514-630-7770 or 514-475-7770. Its e-mail address is [email protected].