Montreal – Skver Chasidim Charged for Selling Wine Without Permit

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    Montreal – The stage has been set for a potentially thorny legal test case, likely starting in Montreal Municipal Court, over the right of religious congregations to import alcoholic beverages for sacramental purposes from outside the province – while entirely bypassing the Société des alcools du Québec (SAQ).

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    Prosecutors have brought the matter forward by filing civil charges against 10 members of a Hasidic synagogue in Outremont, involving wines and spirits not purchased through the SAQ.

    Similar civil charges against another five members of the same congregation are expected to follow shortly.

    The synagogue itself has also been charged civilly.

    Potential fines for each offence, upon conviction, range from $125 to $6,000.

    The civil charges were laid following a lengthy investigation that included a seizure by Montreal police last Dec. 17 of 891 litres of wines and spirits at the Toldos Yakov Yosef of Skver Congregation, on Durocher Ave., corner Lajoie Ave. The synagogue was established more than three decades ago by the Skver branch of Hasidism and now serves more than 300 families. The Skver branch, which originated in the Ukraine, also has a significant presence in New York City and London, England.

    Max Lieberman of the Jewish Orthodox Community Council said the actions by the synagogue members who have been charged fall entirely within the parameters of Quebec and federal law.

    The Orthodox council is a coalition of more than a dozen Hasidic synagogues in the Outremont area, which altogether have more than 10,000 members. It expects to take a somewhat more public profile in the future, Lieberman said. The city’s Hasidic community had traditionally maintained a very low public profile.

    No transgressions whatsoever of the liquor laws have been committed, Lieberman said – “and we have a legal opinion to that effect.”

    As a result, Lieberman added, the legal position taken by municipal-court prosecutors – as well as the civil fines they wish to impose – will be vigorously contested.

    Lieberman noted that the federal Importation of Intoxicating Liquors Act specifically allows “the importing, sending, taking or transporting, or causing to be imported, sent, taken or transported, into any province from or out of any place within or outside Canada of intoxicating liquor for sacramental … purposes.”

    The federal law “clearly supercedes the Quebec law,” he added, although Quebec alcohol law itself specifically provides exemptions for religious congregations.

    Lieberman expressed both surprise and disappointment that legal authorities have now chosen to bring the civil charges forward.

    “There are so many complicated laws,” Lieberman said. “But there are also simple laws, and this is one of them.”

    “It’s important to understand there’s no contraband in the Jewish synagogues. … We’re not guilty and we’ll plead it through the courts to show sacramental use.”

    “If it’s not sacramental use, you have to buy it there,” at the SAQ, he added.

    On the eve of the Jewish Sabbath, Rabbi Yochanan Wosner and others in authority at the synagogue itself could not be reached.

    According to Linda Bouchard, an SAQ spokesperson, all religious communities in Quebec are obliged to buy their religious wines from the SAQ “at a discount of 17 per cent” from listed prices.

    “The system has been operating this way for many years,” she added.

    She was aware, Bouchard said, of complaints about the Outremont activities relayed to the SAQ “during the course of the past year.”

    Anyone who called the SAQ was, she added, instructed to instead contact Montreal police directly.

    Insp. Bernard Lamothe, head of the Montreal police organized-crime squad, who was involved in the investigation, was quoted in one report following the Dec. 17 raid that the wines and spirits seized – which included peach schnapps and banana liqueur – were “not necessarily” from Ontario.

    “That’s part of the investigation,” Lamothe added at the time.

    Synagogue members co-operated in full with police investigators when they arrived and made the seizures, Lamothe specified.

    “They invited us to do our jobs and told us they would make their point through legal channels.”


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    29 Comments
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    yankel
    yankel
    13 years ago

    i dont know when the shuls in usa are going to wake up, this is not a joke…. go get a permit

    a
    a
    13 years ago

    The same can be charged against almost every other shamas, and what difference does it make which shul they’re affiliated with? Were they selling it in shul?

    Anon Ibid Opcit
    Anon Ibid Opcit
    13 years ago

    Several warnings already and they still kept doing it? That was foolish.

    HaNavon
    HaNavon
    13 years ago

    During the age of prohibition a lot of rabbis did this, but R’ Shraga Feivel Mendelowitz was very outspoken against it. We live in a world of laws, and laws are what bind us. Without law there can be no justice, and without justice we are nothing but the worst of the animals. The reason for “dina d’malchusa dina” isn’t o that the non-Jews will come against us as much as it is so that we have a feeling of respect for law.

    am i correct
    am i correct
    13 years ago

    when wine is sold for “sacremental purposes” as kidush, havdala daled kosos… you dont need a permit in ny???

    ShatzMatz
    ShatzMatz
    13 years ago

    selling wine to your congregants for sacremental purposes is one thing. But what these guys did was distribute it all over quebec. these pepsies take this matter very seriously. life for chassidim in outromont will get progressively more difficult.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    B”H
    dan l”chaf zchus
    why believe secular media over chasidim?
    even the secular media says “accused” …. u posters are talking like they are convicted (CH”VS) and guilty

    a
    a
    13 years ago

    (reply to #9 ) I was going to argue that al pi halacha, a yid has a chezkas kashrus even if a different yid was caught doing something wrong in the past. However after reading your entire comment, I think your own words speak for themselves, and don’t need anything else.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    Stop the rush to judgement. What is it with VIN readers and a rush to judgement. Are you from Quebec – the laws are very different here and does allow for shuls to sell wine.

    So stop the reflexive Jew bashing and wait to hear the other side of the story please

    I am not a Skver or whatever chassid and have no affiliation with anyone involved, but I do live in Quebec.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    In Quebec it’s different, because the government operates their own stores, so they LOOSE a lot of money over the shuls, but we all know that shuls are a must, you cannot buy “nesech” in the SAQ atores.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    they must have hade one great kiddush club!

    chusid
    chusid
    13 years ago

    they needed the money to be sble to go to the rebbes milchiga tish
    my husband was lucky enough to be there bh we had the $10.000
    its the first time thst the rebbe allowed people to his house for the milchig meal

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    Why must wine in Quebec be so outrageously expensive?

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    see this is wjat will be happening in america after obama makes us socialized. government run healthcare. government run alcohol. government run everything.

    i'm true
    i'm true
    13 years ago

    I just feel that the media makes up whatever they want, cause I saw the fines and none of them were charges for selling wine without a permit, it was just for importing a having wine in your shul without going thru the SAQ

    abe boyaksy
    abe boyaksy
    13 years ago

    The fact is that the quebec has been very good to the jews. I have a school and a hotel here in Montreal and I have made a lot of money through the Quebec goverment system. I also serve wine at Le Grill resturant.

    Ani
    Ani
    13 years ago

    I have never felt a greater amount of anti-Semitism then when having the misfortune of a business venture in Quebec. Never before have I been inclined to wear goyishe clothing to fit in. Never have I felt a greater degree of hatred when walking to shul with my talis. This legal issue simply confirms what we knew all along.