The job may be temporary, but Montreal has its first Jewish mayor.

Michael Applebaum, 49, won a city council vote to serve as interim mayor for a year, with a promise not to run in the next municipal election slated for November 2013. He also is the first Anglophone mayor in a century of the predominantly French-speaking Canadian city.

Applebaum, who was elected to the council in 1994, replaces Gérald Tremblay, who resigned Nov. 5 in a corruption scandal that linked him to graft and organized crime. — jta