Canada’s Historic Trois-Rivières Gets Its First Rabbi in 70 Years
by Moshe New – chabad.org
Trois-Rivières is a historic city in Quebec, Canada, about halfway between Montreal and Quebec City. The city gets its name (“Three Rivers” in English) from the three channels formed by islands at the mouth of the Saint-Maurice River, on the banks of which it sits.
The city of around 140,000 residents has a notable but intermittent Jewish history. In fact, the earliest known Jew to settle in Canada was Aaron (Moshe Uri) Hart, who made Trois-Rivières his home in 1761. Hart’s son Ezekiel made history when he refused public office because it required that he swear an oath as a Christian. Ezekiel later won election—this time achieving office without the oath, helping establish the precedent that Jews could serve without taking the oath. He was perhaps the first elected official in British Empire history to do so.
Fast-forward 300 or so years, and there is a new Jewish Aaron in town. This time, he’s a rabbi. Rabbi Aaron and Amanda Spiro, natives of Montreal, have officially established Chabad-Lubavitch of Trois-Rivières, along with their three children.
The city once supported a synagogue, with early-20th century city records showing a meeting to establish a “shtiebel.” However, economic opportunities in Montreal gradually drew many Jewish residents away, and by 1959 the community declined to the point that it was almost gone. In the late 1980s, even its cemetery was relocated to Montreal.
Today, while the legacy of this earlier Jewish community is preserved in city landmarks like the Aaron Hart statue downtown, the Spiros are effectively re-establishing organized Jewish life in Trois-Rivières from the ground up. Their recent Rosh Hashanah services marked the first locally organized minyan in roughly 70 years.
One attendee at Rosh Hashanah services this year was Montreal resident Levana Toledano, who together with her daughter Sarah Levy—a physiotherapy student at the University of Trois-Rivières—was on hand to witness the milestone.
“Quite fortuitously, my daughter was teaching tennis lessons to Aaron and Amanda’s son,” Toledano told Chabad.org. “It wasn’t long before they struck up a relationship. My daughter calls Amanda her ‘point person’ for all things Jewish in Trois-Rivières.”
She added: “You walk in there and you feel the love. The space is beautiful. It’s big and spacious and lit nicely. The Spiros are truly lovely people. The rabbi gave a speech, we heard the shofar and enjoyed a wonderful holiday meal.”
‘Not Your Average Couple’
Aaron Spiro grew up in Montreal in a secular Jewish family. Amanda did, too, attending synagogue service once a year for the High Holidays.
“I was always searching, even when I was younger and disconnected from my Jewishness, I was a searcher,” Amanda said. In 2007, at the age of 21, she faced her greatest challenge yet when she was diagnosed with cancer. But this period, as dark a time as it was, was also the time that her life changed forever. It was after receiving her diagnosis that Amanda met Aaron; it was also the time that she really connected with her spirituality.
“Even through my challenges and pain, Hashem [G‑d] has been very kind to me. I saw His hand in everything, and I was introduced to the teachings of the Rebbe [Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory] whose teachings strengthened me then and have continued to this whole time since,” she explained.
After she’d recovered, she moved to Israel to study in university there. Aaron did the same, and both simultaneously began attending supplementary yeshivah and seminary programs. Aaron learned at Aish Hatorah and Amanda at The Mayanot Institute of Jewish Studies. They spent three years there learning and immersing themselves in Jewish life and practice, during which time they got married.
The couple then returned to Montreal, where Amanda quickly connected with Rabbi Moishe and Nechama New—directors of the Montreal Torah Center (MTC)—and started working at the Friendship Circle and giving classes at the Chabad seminary.
It didn’t take long for Aaron to get involved, too. “I quickly got acquainted with Rabbi New and the rest is as they say ‘history,’” he said.
At that point, Spiro was working as a tax consultant and looking for ways to engage in more facets of Jewish life. He jumped at the opportunity to volunteer in Montreal Torah Center’s “L’Chaim Project,” whose goal is to give opportunities for businesspeople to be involved in Jewish communal leadership.
‘A Chance to Lead’
The L’Chaim Project is named for the late Chaim New of Melbourne, Australia, who, although a businessman and not an official rabbi, made it a point to always attend Jewish funerals to ensure there was a minyan. He started doing this after happening across a funeral without the requisite 10 men in attendance. Upon seeing this, New told the funeral director that if that were to ever happen again, to call him and he’ll make sure there’s a prayer quorum.
New created a WhatsApp messaging group with the Melbourne Chevra Kadisha to make sure that no Jew should be buried without the dignity of a Jewish funeral. He would himself attend such funerals on his motorcycle, keeping a bag of rocks in its storage compartment at all times to have them on hand to place upon the graves. Chaim New passed away suddenly at the age of 53 in 2016.
The Montreal Torah Center—run by Chaim’s brother, Rabbi Moishe—decided to implement this initiative locally and took it a step further, encouraging volunteers to go on mivtzoim, host Purim and Chanukah parties in their offices as well as deliver shmurah matzahs for Passover.
“The idea is to give everyone in the community a chance to lead,” said Rabbi Levi New, Rabbi Moishe’s son and director of the L’Chaim Project. “It quickly became a very big part of the community’s culture and consciousness. And by extension, what we have been able to achieve with these extra sets of hands is remarkable.”
New started teaching community members how to blow the shofar themselves, how to read the megillah and how to lead other outreach activities.
“It was the height of the pandemic. Everyone was working from home, I was the only one in the office, and Levi called me and told me about the program, about taking it one step further and reaching out to Jews in outlying cities,” Spiro remembered. “I thought to myself, ‘Here I am sitting isolated, feeling alone in my office, but I have a wife and kids at home, I have a synagogue I attend and a community I’m a part of. There must be people out there who are really feeling isolated.’ ”
“Even though during the pandemic there were those isolated and frozen by fear; there were also people who were inspired to take on a leadership role,” Levi said. “We looked at the map and looked for cities with a university and a hospital; if they have those, there will be Jews there.”
Aaron consulted with his wife, and the Spiros decided to go to Trois-Rivières for the first time.
‘Bring a Community Spirit’
When the family arrived for their first visit in the summer of 2021, things were quiet. Canada had imposed strict pandemic restrictions and they had little-to-no local contacts.
“We started running Facebook advertisements, and soon enough, people started reaching out. We would meet with them, bringing them kosher food from Montreal,” Spiro said. “One thing led to another, they started letting their friends know about us and just a few months in, we held a Shabbaton [Shabbat retreat] for more than 20 people.”
The Spiros started going back and forth, making the close-to-two-hour trek from Montreal for Jewish holidays as well as for meet-ups with local Jews. Each time after they would return, Rabbi Spiro would take to the podium at the MTC on Shabbat and let his fellow congregants know of their successes.
“I met the Spiros after seeing an ad on Facebook,” said Gina Lavine, a resident of Trois-Rivières for more than 30 years. “They took it upon themselves to bring a community spirit to the Jews who live in the area. Most of us were convinced that we were the only Jews living here, so how wonderful it was to discover that there are others who come from similar upbringings and heritage.”
The community started out with just a few families, but now nearly 40 Jewish people, including children, regularly attend events.
But it wasn’t all smooth sailing. Each visit was complicated. The couple had no permanent location and would rent a different Airbnb for each trip. They would have to kosher the premises anew each time, and before Passover this year, they started to talk between themselves about what the long-term plan was.
“Just a few days after we resolved to double down on our commitment, we got a call from a friend of ours in Montreal who had heard about what we were doing,” said the rabbi. “He told me that he owned a few buildings in Trois-Rivières and that we should come to visit him the next day.”
The couple met with the developer and just 10 days after viewing a beautiful condo overlooking the river in the heart of downtown Trois-Rivières, the Spiros signed papers and finally had a place to call their own.
It was then that the Spiros, together with Montreal Torah Center leadership, invited local politicians and community members for an inauguration of the new Chabad center. There, they printed a copy of the Tanya, making Trois-Rivières one of thousands of similar cities around the world with a Tanya printing, an initiative encouraged by the Rebbe in the mid 1980s.
At the event, Rabbi Moishe New spoke of the significance of the Tanya, which embodies the message of dirah btachtonim (“creating a dwelling place for G‑d in this world”) and that G‑d wants a connection with people here in this world.
“The intention is that you can make a difference,” New told the assembled 100 or so people who fit comfortably in the living room of the Spiros’ new home.
The Spiros were formally appointed Chabad representatives to Trois-Rivières in time for the 2024 International Conference of Chabad-Lubavitch Emissaries (Kinus Hashluchim).
‘Let Things Happen Organically’
With the inauguration behind them and a growing list of local contacts, Amanda Spiro says they plan to nurture the relationships they’ve begun to build. Additionally, they plan to spend more time in outreach, to places like the nearby university and a nearby naval base to scope the scene. Being in Trois-Rivières means being “more proactive, having more responsibility,” she said.
One initiative is bringing Jewish books to locals. “Almost everyone we’ve met has a basic library now,” Aaron says. Amanda plans to host challah bakes and a women’s retreat in the near future, and Aaron has been preparing Torah classes to teach.
“The plan is to let things happen organically,” Amanda concurs. “We’re here for the community; if they want it, we’ll do it. We go at least once a month for Shabbat and do many trips throughout the week.”
Last Shabbat, the Spiros hosted their biggest event yet: a Shabbat dinner for 30 people. The dinner was especially meaningful as it was dedicated in memory of Amanda’s father, who passed away after a lengthy illness in October of this year. The couple’s second child, Miriam, prepared a speech and d’var Torah and told of her grandfather’s philanthropic involvement with Chabad activities, a fact even Amanda didn’t know of until his passing.
The children are a key part of the new Chabad center. Dovid, 11; Miriam, 8; and Chaim, 4, join in all of the activities. “They love it,” Amanda says.
She adds that they never expected to get this far. Rabbi Moishe New thought otherwise.
“The Rebbe empowered each shliach to lead, and to inspire leadership in others,” New said. “Each of us has something unique to share with our fellow. I’m delighted at how far the Spiros have taken this, but I am not surprised.”
