Leonard, Show Me the Place

by Rowan Johnson
In the 1950s, Leonard Cohen often walked a long road home from Congregation Shaar Hashomayim, the synagogue where his grandfather was a rabbi. When losing his way at times, he was guided by the light of a giant illuminated cross on Mount Royal that still dominates the city of Montreal. The cross was erected in 1924 and illuminated with lights that allowed it to be seen more than fifty miles away.
That road skirts the edge of the mountain and follows a trail of leafy lawns and almost too lush foliage, considering the often-frigid weather. This is where the well-off live, high a...