This internship was offered through the Quebec Studies program, and given that I am a proud Quebecker and interested in the history and culture of this province I call home, I felt that it would be an apt program to apply through. More specifically, this program permitted me to explore Montreal鈥檚 Jewish history and present Jewish community, one that I am a part of. I wanted to be able to fully learn the story of how the Jewish community came to be so strong here and the interesting history that the Plateau neighbourhood has had in shaping that history.
I had the privilege of interning at the Museum of Jewish Montreal. This museum is a creative institution that informs and educates the public about all matters Jewish, but with a heavy emphasis on the cultural and civic history of the Jews in Montreal, dominantly the Jews who historically lived in what are today the very upscale and gentrified neighbourhoods of the Plateau and Mile End.
One of the biggest activities of the museum is giving walking tours around these historically Jewish neighbourhoods. While I conducted plenty of research for the museum, giving walking tours was the activity I embarked on the most. I was selected to give the 鈥淢aking their Mark鈥� walking tour, which is the quintessential tour that talks about the first Jews who arrived in Montreal and how the Montreal Jewish cultural identity was formed. We get a lot of tourists, largely from the United States, and these are by far the biggest demographic of people who go on the walking tours. As a guide, I went through training for 3 weeks, doing the route of the tour every single day, as well as learning my lines and becoming a font of information for all things related to the tour.
My background in research, as well as having taken classes where personability and public speaking are paramount, aided greatly in this internship.
Undoubtedly, the overarching highlight of the internship was the people I met, who I connected with immensely, and a couple of whom I think will be very important in my future. My biggest single highlight was giving a packed tour to twenty people, our maximum allowed, and receiving a tremendous amount.
The only major challenge that I truly had to overcome was simply the sheer amount of memorization that needed to be done in order to do my tour. Ensuring that I was giving the appropriate information in its entirety was paramount.
Whilst I did not receive academic credit for my internship, the impact on my future will definitely be measurable. I have come away from my internship with a much greater appreciation for the field of education and history and would possibly like to continue working or operating in the field of history in the future.
Thank you once again to Mr. Mark Wiltzer for making this experience possible.
