In this ethnographic inquiry, I examine the way in which literacy creates personal meaning in the lives of ten Hassidic women in Quebec, Canada. Using an integrative qualitative methodology, I draw from Goldberger, Tarule, Belenky and Clinchy (1996), theories of feminist notions of knowledge, current epistemological discussions about difference, power, multiculturalism, and the expression or suppression of voice. From Street's (1994) ideological model of literacy and from Barton (1994), Hamilton (1998), and Maybin (2000), I more clearly conceptualize the pivotal role of literacy practices in articulating links between individual people's everyday experience and wider social institutions and structures. Marilyn-Martin Jones and Katherine Jones (2000) provide a further theoretical lens for viewing the plurality of literacies associated with the values, understandings and intentions that people have about what they and others do. / The findings led me to four conclusions. First, in the private realm of her home the Hassidic woman commands and receives a great deal of authority and respect. Second, it is the Hassidic woman who is the final arbiter of her own information needs and her literacies encompass a diversity of purposes, materials and competencies. The third finding is that the Hassidic woman is able to successfully negotiate the various arenas of her life without compromising tradition and religious law. Finally, although many of these women in their roles as homemaker and wives, experience financial, emotional and physical hardships while raising large families, I have observed in them infinite amounts of patience, good will, serenity and love.

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This work is a historical re-evaluation of the 1988 Outremont dispute that began as a small municipal affair involving two Hasidic congregations, Congregation Amour Pour Israel and Congregation Munchos Elozar-Munkatz. Both groups failed in their attempts to change a zoning bylaw that would allow the former to construct a synagogue at 1035 Saint-Viateur and the latter to retain its synagogue at 1030 Saint-Viateur. By the time it ended, the Canadian Jewish Congress and the Human Rights League of B'nai Brith had become involved in mediating the dispute and responding to the anti-Hasidic stance expressed by some francophone residents of Outremont and a number of journalists. Although several scholars have examined this incident, it has been secondary to other issues. Moreover, a comprehensive review of the scholarly literature written on the controversy shows that scholars' focus on the media fallout necessarily omits key elements of the incident: the historical narrative of the municipal vote, the extent of Jewish organizational involvement, the larger press reaction to the anti-Hasidic stance, and the positions taken by the Hasidim and the municipal officials themselves. This historical approach provides inclusion and analysis of these issues. Finally, a review of the literature written on Hasidim in Canada places this re-evaluation in its proper scholarly context.

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