Dancing the Horah? "Charting" Directions for State, Religion and Quebec Values

Abstract

The Charter of Québec Values can be held up to constitutional scrutiny and criticized for the lack of connection between their objectives and the mechanisms envisaged for achieving them. Beyond that analysis, however, it is helpful to employ the metaphor of the ‘horah’, a Jewish circle dance, to probe the connections between directed choreography (top-down) and the actual movements of the dancers (bottom-up). The paper suggests that social projects require distinctive variations created by active participants, and refers to the Ethics and Religious Culture course in Québec high schools as a rich illustration of the lessons learned from watching (or dancing) the horah.