Photo Credit : Alex Dworkin Canadian Jewish Archives
Rabbi Dr. Harry J. Stern explaining the reading of the Torah to a group of nuns from around the world, Temple Emanu-El, Montreal, Quebec, ca. 1960s.
Photo Credit : Jewish Public Library - Archives
Rabbi Dr. Harry J. Stern holding the branches of a lulav and an etrog (citrus fruit) to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, Temple Emanu-El, Montreal, ca. 1950s -1960s.
Photo Credit : Jewish Public Library - Archives
An interfaith Passover Seder with Rabbi Dr. Harry Stern, 1960s.
Photo Credit : Jewish Public Library - Archives
1897 - 1984
Harry J. Stern
Born in Eragoly, Lithuania, Rabbi Harry Stern was a fervent Zionist, labour activist, accomplished intellectual and champion of interfaith dialogue.
Following the pogroms of 1905, Stern’s family decided to flee Eastern Europe and immigrate to the US, where they settled in Ohio. In 1927, Stern moved to Montreal to become rabbi of Temple Emanu-El, the city’s first Reform synagogue.
Soon after he arrived in Montreal, a major conflict broke out in the garment industry between workers and their employers, many of whom were members of his own congregation. At the time, more than 32% of the city’s garment workers were Jewish. Stern actively defended their interests in negotiations between the two parties. He rebuked the wealthy manufacturers for their treatment of their “downtowner” brethren, even referring to them as “Jewish anti-Semites.”
Rabbi Stern was also devoted to improving Jewish-Christian relations. He established ties with the Catholic and Protestant clergy and, in 1942, founded the Institute for Clergy and Religious Educators, through which representatives of various faiths exchanged information about their respective religious traditions. In the 1950s and 60s, his annual Fellowship Dinners were created for clerics and laypeople of a variety of faiths to socialize. Indeed, these events were attended by prominent members of the Jewish and non-Jewish communities, including Mayor Jean Drapeau, Cardinal Paul-Émile Léger and even Martin Luther King, Jr. Rabbi Stern was involved in these activities at a time when some Jews denied the legitimacy of Reform Judaism. In 1967, The Rabbi Dr. Harry J. Stern Award was created in his honour, to be conferred upon an individual noted for their significant contribution to interfaith and intercultural dialogue. After his death in 1984, Rabbi Stern’s name was given to a mountain in the Laurentians to commemorate his service to Quebec society.
Rabbi Stern fought against anti-Semitism in the Catholic clergy and in Quebec society, and he publicly denounced Nazism and the atrocities committed against Jews in Europe during the Second World War. A fervent Zionist, he participated in the creation of the Christian Council for Palestine in 1944, a group through which Zionists sought to raise awareness of their cause among the Christian clergy. Rabbi Stern was the Canadian delegate to the first World Jewish Congress in Geneva, in 1936, and served on the Executive Board of the Central Conference of American Rabbis.
