50 Years Since 1976 Montreal Olympics: The Munich Memorial Service at the Shaar

This year marks 50 years since Montreal hosted the 1976 Olympics. Given that these Olympics were the first Summer Olympics after the massacre of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics, the Jewish community felt it important to hold a memorial service. At 7:00 PM on July 12, 1976, less than a week before the Summer Olympics in Montreal, a memorial organized by the Jewish Community of Canada (chaired by Allan Bronfman) was held at the Shaar.

The memorial was open to the public, and notices were published in both French and English newspapers.

The Shaar’s Archives has a copy of the service programme. The service was officiated by Rabbi Gunther Plaut, Rabbi of Toronto’s Holy Blossom Temple. Other participants included the Shaar’s Rabbi Shuchat, Israeli Ambassador Mordecai Shalev, and the Shaar’s Cantor Joseph Gross.

Perhaps most notably, the Right Honourable Pierre E. Trudeau, then Prime Minister of Canada, took part in the ceremony, reading out an excerpt from Psalms. Trudeau was moved by the ceremony, and many reports noted that he openly wept during the memorial service.

The Shaar’s Archives also has the seating plan for the evening, which notes many other notable people in attendance including Quebec Premier Robert Bourrassa, Montreal mayor Jean Drapeau, and International Olympic Committee chair Lord Killanin, among many others.

The Montreal Gazette initially reported over 1,800 people in attendance. Later reports suggested as many as 5,000 people attended, with overflow rooms set up in the Shaar’s other halls, where video reception was set-up.  Honoured attendees included massacre survivor Esther Roth, the widows and relatives of three of the murdered athletes, as well as 60 members of the 1976 Israeli Olympic team.

Security for the memorial service was heavy. The building was sniffed by three RCMP dogs for explosives before the Israeli athletes arrived. Moreover “a Canadian Armed Forces helicopter hovered overhead and combat-ready stood guard around the synagogue” and plainclothes policemen where stationed throughout the building.

The Shaar’s September 1976 bulletin notes that the memorial took place following “the refusal of the Olympics authority to include a two minute ‘silence of memorial’ at the opening ceremonies of the Montreal Olympics.” As we now know, it would be many, many decades until the International Olympic Committee would memorialize the massacre during active Olympic events.