Montreal, Canada – Officials at the Ben Weider Jewish Community Centre (Snowdon Y) have reached an agreement with local rabbis regarding the decision to open the Y on Saturdays, the Jewish Sabbath, The Suburban has learned.
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Starting in late October, the Y will be opening 1 p.m. Saturdays. The later opening was decided on, so as not to interfere with Sabbath synagogue services. There will also be no exchange of money, no organized classes, and the front desk and restaurant will be closed.
The decision, reached by a clear majority of the board this past summer, pleased many who wanted to work out Saturdays, but displeased those who felt the Y should continue its longstanding tradition as a Montreal Jewish community institution of not opening on the Sabbath. Most JCCs in North America open on Saturdays. In recent weeks, local rabbis have engaged in negotiations with the Y.
The decision reached this week was that no electricity would be turned on or off on Saturdays — observant members of the Jewish community respect the Sabbath prohibition against doing so.
“The Y will be open on Shabbos for Jewish programming, the basketball court and the swimming pool will be open, but in terms of the cardio room, where the real Sabbath violations occur, that will be closed off,” said Rabbi Reuben Poupko of Côte St. Luc’s Beth Israel Beth Aaron Synagogue. “I think it’s a compromise most people can live with.”
Rabbi Poupko was one of several rabbis involved in the extensive negotiations.
“I’m sure there will be people who aren’t happy the Y is open at all, and many people will be unhappy that the cardio room is closed, but to me it’s the solution that maintains the sanctity of Shabbos and the unity of the community.”
Asked if all the rabbis involved are satisfied with the accord, the rabbi said “there are various degrees of satisfaction, but I believe the overwhelming consensus is that” this is the best solution.
Congratulations to the rabbonim in Montreal for taking such a pragmatic postion on shabbos opening. The limited chilul shabbos they are contemplating is a much better alternative than the original proposal.
R Poupko is not the spokesman for the Orthodox rabbinate in this city. Lets hear what the Rabbanim have to say!
Isn’t there an issur doriasa for swimming on Shabbos?
What about taking hot showers on Shabbos?
This is a common sense approach as would be expected from the involvement of Rav Poupko, shlita, who always manages to find a way of accomodating daas torah and the realities of living in a city with a largely secular jewish population. Rather than demanding strict shabbos adherence, the Rav finds a derech that will mimimize the scope of the inevitable shabbos violations that would occur anyway. In the long term, maybe they can cut back further but this at least provides a rabbinical hashgacha to partial opening on shabbos.
its very hard not to compromise the sanctity of shabbat with people using the pool
there are various prohibitions involved
what does the MK say about this?
Both Poupko, and the MK aren’t the real rabbonim in MTL, although they try very hard to shove themselves on everyone.
mk denouced the compremise
To add to my previous comment. Reb Moshe in fact has a tshuva where he is asked if it is permissible to have mixed dancing for youth in a shul. The submitter argues that at least in the shul the participants will meet Jewish people, whereas if they don’t allow it in shul they’ll go dance somewhere else anyway and there they will likely meet and dance with goyim. In short Reb Moshe says “No”. That is more similar to the case here.
Rav Poupko’s decision/say on this matte and compromise he reached is not representative of his general actions or philosophies but it was the decision that had to be made considering the Y was inevitably going to open on shabbos. So before one of you decides to slander or accuse someone its important to know the context of the situation.