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You don’t have to be Jewish to love bagels.

Anyone who remembers that famous ad slogan from the 1960s may think it must have been a great way to expand sales of bagels and other Jewish foods beyond the Jewish community — and that Montrealers must have been very open to the Jewish community to have so willingly embraced its cuisine.

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In fact, says a researcher from the Université de Montréal in a new study on Montreal’s culinary heritage, bagels and smoked meat were immediately popular as they were introduced by Jewish immigrants in the 1930s — but it had nothing to do with openness and everything to do with bagels and smoked meat being cheap and accessible.

Not to mention delicious.

How is it that the humble bagel and the city’s unique brand of Romanian style smoked meat have become such iconic symbols of Montreal’s culinary heritage when Jews are (and always were) only a small minority here?

Photo by Marie-France Coallier / Montreal Gazette

“It’s as if the culinary heritage of Montreal corresponds almost exclusively to Jewish specialties, which seems disproportionate,” said U de M theology professor Olivier Bauer. According to Federation CJA statistics, the Jewish population of Montreal in 2011 was 90,780, or 2.4 per cent of the total Montreal population.