The Park Avenue YMCA in Montreal has become the flashpoint of a clash between an ultra conservative Hasidic Jewish group and a parade of spandex-clad female exercisers.

The Y has installed frosted windows in one of its exercise rooms, at the request and expense of the neighboring Yetev Lev synagogue, which also houses an orthodox Jewish school.

"We have a problem with women being dressed immodestly, and we don't believe in our children seeing that," explained congregation member Mayer Feig.

The move has drawn the ire of some Y members, who think the Y went too far to accommodate a minority.

Y member Rene Lavaillante has collected a hundred names on a petition, demanding the right to see and be seen in the exercise room.

It's humiliating, she told CTV News in French during an interview. "We represent evil to them," Lavaillante said. "They have no right to block out the sun."

The congregation says if it could block the view itself, it would. The windows in its building are already frosted. But sometimes it's too hot to keep them all closed, the congregation said.

"Even if you stand in the backyard and look up, you can see the windows,"  Feig pointed out.

The synagogue serves about 300 Hasidic families. The yeshiva, or religious school, has about 120 students, according to a report in The Globe and Mail. About half of them are from New York and board at the school, the paper said.

Y officials said the agreement to frost the windows seemed to be a reasonable accommodation.

But even so, the issue has strained relations between the Jewish congregation and the Y's patrons.

"Intolerance against our community, 100 per cent," said Abraham Perlumutter. "We are neighbours. We respect you and we are asking you to respect us."

"It's like you're forcing us to wear a veil," Lavaillante responded.

Montreal's devout Hassidic community has had strained relations with its secular neighbors that date back decades.

The Hasids avoid contact with non-Hasidic neighbours and their children attend separate schools. Hasidic families tend to be large, and members of the devout community now constitute about 20 per cent of about 23,000 residents in the Outrement neighbourhood.

In a controversial move, Outremont adopted a bylaw in the 1980s that prohibited bathing suits in public parks. Quebec Superior Court struck the law down as unconstitutional in 1985.

The neighbourhood had been a separate municipality before Quebec government forced Outrement to merge with Montreal to form a megacity in 2001.

On this latest controversy, the Y's patrons are clearly divided.

"I think it's good for cultures to see each other, because it opens things up," one gym goer said. "I think it's a compromise," said another. "I think it's a nice gesture from the Y."

The Y said it's now reconsidering the gesture, and is investigating whether there is another solution everyone can agree on.

With a report from CTV's Jed Kahane