Montreal – A 24 year-old Hasidic woman said she is hoping to become a “uniter” as she embarks on her campaign to become the first Hasidic woman to hold a borough seat in the tension-filled community of Outremont, Quebec.
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THE GLOBE AND MAIL (http://bit.ly/18DAilZ) reports that Mindy Pollak, a beauty salon employee who still lives with her parents and whose four grandparents all survived the Holocaust, called her candidacy “revolutionary,” due to the contentious relationship between Outremont’s Hasidic community and its secular neighbors, but added that “if we focus on what we have in common rather than what divides us, then we can work towards solutions.”
Ms. Pollak, who speaks fluent English, French, and Yiddish, got interested in public service when she co-founded “The Friends of Hutchison Street” with a secular friend on the heels of a highly contentious vote rejecting the expansion of a local synagogue.
Despite the fact that Hasidic men have served publicly on councils and appointed boards, Ms. Pollak is the first Hasidic person to ever seek elected office.
Ira Robinson, an expert on Hasidism and interim director of the Institute for Canadian Jewish Studies at Montreal’s Concordia University, said, “Frankly, I have never heard of a Hasidic woman going for electoral office elsewhere. This is something new, and it’s quite significant.”
So far, Ms. Pollak has managed to balance her Hasidic faith with the rigors of the campaign, but her candidacy has not come without its detractors, including one of her opponents, Pierre Lacerte, an acerbic blogger who has taken to calling Ms. Pollak’s efforts “pseudo neo-Gandhis.”
To that Ms. Pollak said that conflicts stem from “ignorance, fear and misunderstanding, a fear of what is different. We all share the same values, deep down.”
way to go . I just wonder why she formed an aliance with a secular person?
Good for her!! Communication is the best way!!
Doesn’t look Hasidic…
Good luck to her
wow..you go girl!!!
Wow, I guess Chazal interpreted Torah differently , cuz all of those who claim that some of us ( I guess only jews( excuse me “yidden)) were made in hashem’s image. All of humanity ( is there a derogatory Yiddish word I am missing for this??) was created in the image of God. By denigrating those whom you term “goyim” you sin greatly by denying the grace of Hashem and all of his glory and creations, namely the entire world. The tremendous ignorance you display under the banner of uniqueness and the ‘ or laGoyim’ banner only furthers darkness.The Torah made us a people and a nation of Jews. Now, what does that say about Noach and Avraham, Yitchak and Yaakov? It would be heretical/apikorses to say that the Torah was revealed to them before Sinai, if that’s what you response would be. revelation came at Sinai. It is specifically the TORAH that makes us unique and able to fill the world with it’s infinite sparks of life. All those who speak bitter lash on harah of secular Jews, who defend terrible deeds committed by supposedly religious leaders, spreaders of hate, sinaat chinam, who fail to seek justice and to pursue it are the greatest shame of Hashem.learn Torah. Practice it. BeAhava.
It was reported she is from Vishnitz chassidic sect.