Baron Byng High School

Baron Byng students take part in a victory parade in 1941.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Quebec's confessional school system prohibited Jews from attending French-language Catholic schools, relegating them to Protestant schools.[4] By 1916, Jews made up 44% of the total enrolment in Montreal's English-language Protestant schools. Jewish participation, however, was forbidden on school committees and at the Protestant School Board, and Jewish teachers were discriminated against in terms of employment opportunities.[6] Throughout the period of mass Jewish migration to Montreal, the Board enforced a policy of segregation in its schools.[7]^:160

Built by the Protestant School Board in 1921, Baron Byng High School was named in honour of Julian Byng, Governor General of Canada from 1921 to 1926 and a distinguished World War I soldier. The school was designed by Montreal architect John Smith Archibald.[8] The population of Baron Byng was consciously constructed to be Jewish by the Board, which sought to segregate Jews to avoid the dilution of English-Canadian culture and Protestant religious instruction taught in their public schools.[4] From the 1920s through to the mid-1960s, the student population was largely Jewish, reaching 99 per cent by 1938, though the faculty and staff were resolutely English-Canadian.[9][10]

One of Anne Savage's art classes at Baron Byng in 1948.

Baron Byng's students went on strike in 1934 to protest the School Board's increase of school fees and reduction in teachers' salaries.[11][12] In April 1945, Baron Byng held a commemorative service for the second anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, sponsored by the Canadian Jewish Congress; speakers included Baruch Zuckerman and Michael Garber.[13]

In the 1960s, there was an influx of Moroccan Jewish students and a French section was created.[14] By the 1970s, there were a significant number of students of Greek and other origins.[14]

Eventually, Quebec education laws prohibited the immigrant population from attending English schools. For lack of sufficient enrolment in the school's territory and rising costs, the Protestant School Board was forced to close the school in June 1980.[15][16] After the school's closure, the Baron Byng building became home of the non-profit community organization Sun Youth.[17] An extensive online museum was created in 2016 to honour the school's illustrious history.[18]