This month, an unusual feature of Jewish culture in Montreal is on display at the Centre des mémoires montréalaises: “By and For: 30 Years of Sex Worker Resistance.” The exhibit honours the 30th anniversary of Stella, an organization that fights for sex workers’ rights and dignity. The organization Stella is named after a woman, Stella, who would often visit the safe home created by Maimie Pinzer, a Jewish activist of the 20th century. Though sex work is a taboo topic in both wider society and Jewish history, Maimie’s work, alongside others, was integral to the development of advocacy as a concept and for the rights of sex workers in Montreal.
On Sunday, October 26th, I joined the Jewish Museum of Montreal on a Red Light District Walking Tour with Concordia professor of sexual and cultural studies Karen Herland. While pointing to old buildings and streets in Montreal’s Old Port, Herland explained the history of the district. Though Jews moved further East on the island after arrival, as Montreal’s port-of-entry, Old Port was the initial home of the growing Jewish population. Concurrently, the area became a burgeoning Red Light District.
Mamie is central to both the tour and the exhibit. She was born in Philadelphia in 1885 where she worked as a prostitute. When she turned to sex work, her family, like many others at the time, disowned her. Maimie eventually moved to Montreal in 1913. In 1915, when she was thirty, she started The Montreal Mission for Friendless Girls. Her community centre aimed to help former and current sex workers, creating a safe space that fostered solidarity. Now, there is a mural painted in Mile End that honours her.
Jews were also involved in the Red Light District as brothel owners. Ida Katz operated under the alias of “Liliane Brown”. Though her changed name was supposed to distance herself from the Jewish community, she was known as “La Juive”, or “the Jew”. From 1932 until the closure of the district in 1944, Katz owned at least five brothels.
The world’s oldest profession (or so the saying goes), prostitution is indeed mentioned in Judaism’s texts. In Leviticus 19:29, it is stated, “do not degrade your daughter and make her a harlot, lest the land fall into harlotry and the land be filled with depravity.” This emphasis on preserving purity and virginity (and by association the worth of a daughter to a family) has continued with Jewish culture today.
Despite the strict warning against the practice, King David’s, lauded as Judaism’s most admired King, lineage is actually associated with a woman playing the harlot. In Genesis 38:15, Tamar, who has been prevented from entering into the levirate marriage she is entitled to, dresses up as a prostitute and sleeps with her father in law, Judah. As payment, she ensures that she collects objects that are undoubtedly his—a seal and staff. Once it has been revealed that unmarried Tamar is pregnant, Judah orders her burned. In response, she sends the seal and staff as proof of her child’s progeny, to which Judah admits “She is more in the right than I.”
Beyond Judah’s admittance of his mistake, the fact that Tamar conceived (which is considered to be a sign of divine approval) and is a part of one of the most honored lineages in Judaism signals that perhaps being a harlot is acceptable in certain circumstances.
In modern times, the immigrant Jewish population’s involvement in Montreal’s Red Light District highlights both the economic destitution of the young women, and the economic capital of Jews who owned brothels at the time. Through advocacy as a protector of women’s rights, Maimie Pinzer positively represents Jews in creating a centre of community and solidarity for one of the most vulnerable populations in Montreal at the time.
Powered by Froala Editor
