Skip to website content >
'The Kosher Gourmet" and other Jewish businesses, Toronto, Canada, 1984
'The Kosher Gourmet" and other Jewish businesses, Toronto, Canada, 1984

The Jewish Community of Toronto

Toronto

Capital of province of Ontario, Canada.

In early 21st century, more than half of the Jewish population of Canada lives in Toronto. Jews have lived in the city since the 19th century. The Jewish population of Toronto is diverse in terms of its varied religious currents, historical background as well as unique cultural and social identities.

Toronto is home to congregations of several currents of Judaism, including Reform, Reconstructionist, Humanist, conservative and Orthodox. In various waves of immigration, Jews arrived from different localities, bringing with them a different heritage, experience and religious movement.

Organized Jewish community life in Toronto is thought to have begun in 1849. The first synagogue established in Toronto was the Holy blossom Temple, a Reform congregation founded in 1856 by Jews from Germany, the United States, Great Britain and Eastern Europe. Many of the small immigrant congregations later merged, creating larger congregations of mixed communities.

Shortly after 1856 two groups merged as the Holy Blossom Temple retaining the corporate name of Toronto Hebrew congregation (1971). Members of this congregation, Orthodox at its inception, were from various parts of Europe. The synagogue was known as the Daytshishe Shul not for "ethnic" reasons so much as for its tendency to a modernized way of worship.

With the influx of immigrants from Eastern Europe in the Beth Hamidrash Hagadol Chevra T'hillim (1883), whose members originated from Russia; and Shomrei Shabbos (Orthodox,1889), in the early 1950s the former two merged as Beth Tzedec (Conservative). In 1899 Beth Jacob, known as the Poylishe Shul, and in 1902 the Romanian synagogue, also known as Adath Israel, began to function. After the turn of the century shtiblech, kleyzlech (small prayer houses), and synagogues proliferated, and by the 1940s, there were close to sixty synagogues in the city of Toronto. By 2011, there were more than one hundred.

Reform Judaism developed slowly in Toronto. The first moves in that direction were made in the 1880s. From the turn of the 20th century to about the end of the 1930s each "ethnic" segment of immigrant Jewry had its spiritual leader.

In 1871 there were 157 Jews and in 1881, 548. Toronto's Jewish population grew steadily from the 1890s through the post-World War I period.

Immigration dropped in the 1930s due to the restrictions imposed and to the depression, but groups of Austrian and German Jews who fled from Hitler arrived during this period. In the 1940s and early 1950s, about 40,000 Holocaust survivors came to Canada, settling mainly in Toronto and Montreal. During the 1960's thousands of Moroccan-born Jews (as well as Spain) immigrated to Canada and established the first Sephardic community in Toronto and established their synagogues and associations. As of 2011, this community numbered 27,000 people.

With the rise of Quebec Sovereignty Movement, the Jews of Montreal, a primarily Anglophone community, were faced with increased anti-Semitism which resulted in mass migration to Toronto. By the 1970s, Toronto had become the epicenter of Canadian Jewry and home to the largest Jewish population in Canada. According to the 2011 National Household Survey, there were 188,715 Jews residing in the Toronto Metropolitan area with 11,070 in the city of Toronto itself. The majority of Toronto's Jewish population has lived in Toronto for only one or two generations.

Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, Canada was a major center of Jewish immigration from the former Soviet Union (FSU). Approximately 70% of Jewish immigrants from the FSU reside in Greater Toronto. In 1996, there were about 16,000 Jews born of Soviet parents, primarily refuses who arrived during the 1970s and 1980s. By 2003, the number of Jews from the FSU was estimated to be between 25,000 and 30,000.

In the first years of the 21st century, in Toronto, 20% of the Jews identify as Orthodox, 40% Conservative, 35% Reform, and the rest as nondenominational. Jews comprise approximately 3.4% of the city's total population.

Like most cities with a sizeable Jewish population, Toronto has its Jewish enclaves. By the 1930s, much of the Jewish community had moved west from "The Ward" to the Kensington Market district, where Jews represented upwards of 80% of the population. Following World War II, a number of wealthier Jewish families moved to Forest Hill, a neighborhood located north of Toronto's downtown. Since the early 20th century, Bathurst Street has been the heart of the Jewish community, and since the 1970s, its northern section has been the cultural center for the city's Russian-Jewish population. After so many Russian delicatessens and stores were established, the neighborhood was nicknamed "Little Moscow".

A Jewish Cultural and social life have been prosperous for over a century in Toronto, beginning with World War I, where Christian missionaries were active in the Jewish quarter. The missions provided medical and obstetric services, and this stimulated the Jewish community efforts to provide their own services.

In 1911 a coalition of radical groups founded the National Radical School in Toronto, the first such Yiddish school in North America. Several years later there was a split on the language issue and the Po'alei Zion left to start their own Farband Folk School. Those who remained renamed the institution the I.L. Peretz School of the Workmen's Circle (Arbeter Ring). In 1945 the United Jewish People's Order established its own children's school, the Morris Winchevsky School. The left Po'alei Zion, an ideological segment that did not reach Toronto until well after World War I, established its Borochov School and kindergarten in 1932. Toronto's first permanent educational institution was the Simcoe Street Talmud Torah, founded in 1908. Though Orthodox in character and content, it followed the technique of Ivrit be-Ivrit. In 1916 a group, consisting mainly of Jews from Russian Poland who felt that the Ivrit be-Ivrit did not ensure a traditional enough training, started the Eitz Chaim Talmud Torah on D'arcy Street. An important development since the end of World War II was the growth of the congregational school and more strikingly the growth and expansion of the day school. From 1950 the bureau of Jewish education (later known as the Board of Jewish Education) was the central administrative body.

The Ezras Noshim, a women's aid group, was responsible for setting up the Mount Sinai hospital in 1923. From 1948 the welfare fund in partnership with the Toronto Zionist council assumed the functions of the United Jewish Appeal. There were over 70 chapters of Hadassah in Toronto, and 28 branches of the national council of Jewish women. B'nai B'rith had 26 men's lodges and 18 women's chapters. In addition, the Ontario offices of the Canadian Jewish Congress and of the Federated Zionist Organization of Canada were located in Toronto.

Serving the Jewish community of Toronto and its neighboring areas are more than two hundred separate organizations, including several committees, foundations and associations, many of which work in partnership with the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto. These organizations are largely dedicated to social services. Some provide financial support for individuals and outreach programs while others advocate for human rights and Jewish causes. Notable organizations include the Centre for Israel& Jewish Affairs, the Jewish Free Loan Toronto, Hillel of Greater Toronto, B'nai B'rith Canada, and the Canadian Jewish Political Jewish Affairs Committee.

There are also a number of Philanthropic organizations which offer grants and fund programs administrated by groups throughout the city. One such organization is The Philanthropy Forum, which provides funding for educational programs for both families and individuals. Battling hunger throughout Canada to feed the country is Mazon, an organization which has allocated more than seven million dollars to groups in Canada to feed the hungry. Ve'ahavta and United Chesed are two organizations which deliver poverty alleviation programs and offer urgent, short-term relief to those in crisis situations.

For healthcare and medical needs, there is Mount Sinai Hospital, a part of the Joseph and Wolf Lebovic Health Complex. Internationally recognized, Mount Sinai is well known for providing excellent in patient and family care. Over the years, the hospital has received many awards and is one of the top employers in Canada.

The Jewish community of Toronto is replete with educational programs. Not only day school for children, but educational programming for adults as well. There are 43 after-school Jewish schools, 20 elementary schools for grades one through eight, and 16 Jewish high schools, including a number of yeshivas. Jewish education is also provided by social and cultural associations such as BBYO, the Jewish Youth Network (Chabad Youth Network) and Hillel, which is located on the campuses of University of Toronto, York University and Ryerson University.

The city of Toronto boasts a number of Jewish cultural centers. One in particular is the Sarah and Chaim Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre; a popular tourist destination, the center features a permanent collection of archival photography, art, witness testimony and artifacts. Another important Jewish center is the Blankenstein Family Heritage Centre (OJA) holds the largest warehouse of Jewish life in Canada; founded in 1973, if offers guests a chance to explore Canada's Jewish past through a diverse collection of historic records.

Additionally, Toronto has three major community centers which offer a whole variety of different programs for individuals and families. The Posserman Jewish community Centre and the Schwartz Reisman Centre organize community events, provide athletic, educational and cultural programs, and promote community engagement and cohesion. The Jewish Russian Community Centre of Ontario was established to integrate the Jews from the Former Soviet Union by providing cultural, religious and educational services.

Toronto's Jews had a long history of landsmannschaften and sick benefit societies. With the advent of public medical services the sick benefit aspect subsided, and with growing acculturation the landsmannschaft phase also diminished. Post-World War II immigration, however, gave a new impetus to some of the landsmannschaften. A tendency to adapt to new conditions was reflected in the transformation of some of the sick benefit societies into synagogues, e.g., Beth Radom and Pride of Israel.

Located throughout the Greater Toronto area are over 80 Jewish landmarks. Many points of Jewish interest can be found in the Kensington Market/ Spadina area. Most landmarks are locations once home to historic Jewish institutions such as synagogues, schools, restaurants, businesses and organizations. In the Kensington Market neighborhood are two synagogues that remain from the early 20th century, the Kiever synagogue on Bellevue Avenue and Anshei Minsk on St. Andrews Street. A popular tourist site is the Holy Blossom Temple, Toronto's oldest congregation. Another notable landmark is the Balfour Building; names after Arthur J. Balfour, author of the Balfour Declaration, the historic building was listed as a Toronto Heritage Property in 2011.

Among the notable Jewish aldermen were Philip G. Givens, Q.C. (1963-1966) and Newman Leopold (1883-85, and 1897). Two other early aldermen were Louis M. Singer (1914-1917) and Joseph Singer (1920, 1923), the first Jew to become a member of Toronto's Board of Control. From the 1920s Jewish aldermen and school trustees were elected frequently, especially from ward four. In the early 1970s Jews were playing a prominent role in Toronto's civic, cultural, musical, and theatrical circles.

In addition, there is also a fast developing media market in the Jewish communities of Toronto, including four major Jewish publications which circulate throughout greater Toronto. The largest is Canadian Jewish News, a weekly newspaper. This publication is read by as many as 100,000 people each week, making it not only the largest in Toronto but in all of Canada. Other Jewish publications include the Jewish Standard, Shalom Toronto, which is available in English and Hebrew, and The Jewish Tribune.

Srul Irving Glick (1934-2002) , composer. Born in Toronto, Canada, he studied at the university in his native city. His compositions include SUITE HEBRAIQUE No.1 & 2 for clarinet, piano, violin, viola and cello, and a song cycle to poems written by children at the Theresienstadt concentration camp. He died in Toronto, Canada.

Louis Applebaum (1918-2000), composer, born in Toronto, Canada. He composed incidental music for the theater, film, radio and television. Appelbaum was the music director of the Canada National Film Board and beginning in 1961, musical advisor for the Canadian television network. In 1955, he founded the Stratford Music Festival in Ontario and directed it until 1960.
Appelbaum’s works include Christmas Overture (1951); Dark of The Moon, Ballet suite (1953); Three Stratford Fanfares (1953); Suite For Miniature Dances (1958); Concertante (1967); string quartets and songs.

Karel Ancerl (1908-1973), conductor, born in Tučapy, Czech Republic (then part of Austria-Hungary). Ancerl studied in Prague. During the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia, he was deported to a concentration camp. After World War II, Ancerl directed the Prague Opera between 1947-1950. Between 1950-1968, he served as the music director of the Radio Symphony Orchestra in Prague and of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1969 he was appointed director of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. He died in Toronto, Canada.

'The Kosher Gourmet" and other Jewish businesses,
Toronto, Canada, 1984
Photo: Paul Philip Brown, Canada
(The Oster Visual Documentation Center, Beit Hatfutsot,
courtesy of Paul Philip Brown, Canada)

Solomon Asher Birnbaum, paleographer and Yiddish philologist, Toronto, Canada, 1982

The Oster Visual Documentation Center, ANU - Museum of the Jewish People, courtesy of Joel Cahen, Israel

The Holy Blossom Synagogue on Richmond Street,
Toronto, Canada.
This is the oldest congregation in Toronto, dating back to the 1880s, and was started by immigrants from England and Germany. The location has moved through the decades. This building no longer exists, but the Reform congregation built and moved into a new building in accordance with the migration of the community within the city.

Leopold Infeld (1898-1968), physicist, born in Krakow, Poalnd (then part the Austro-Hungarian Empire). He studied physics at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow and obtained his doctorate there in 1921. He worked as an assistant and a docent at the University of Lwow (1930–1933).

In 1933 he went to England where he was appointed a Rockefeller fellow at Cambridge University (1933–1934). Infeld was interested in the theory of relativity and worked together with Albert Einstein at Princeton University, USA, between 1936 and 1938. The two scientists co-formulated the equation describing star movements. He became a professor at the University of Toronto, Canada, between 1939 and 1950. After the first use of nuclear weapons in 1945, Infeld, like Einstein, became a peace activist. Because of his activities in this field he was accused of having communist sympathies. In 1950 he therefore left Canada and returned to Poland where he became a professor at the University of Warsaw, a post he held until his death.

Infeld was one of the 11 signatories to the 1955 Russell–Einstein Manifesto (initiated by Bertrand Russell and Albert Einstein and 8 other Nobel Peace Prize winners) which sought to highlight the dangers posed by nuclear weapons and called for world leaders to seek peaceful resolutions to international conflicts. Infeld also wrote with Einstein "The Evolution of Physics", a widely read history of physical theory from the 17th century to the 20th. Infeld also wrote "Quest: An Autobiography" and the biography "Whom the Gods Love: The Story of Evariste Galois."

W. Gunther Plaut (1912-2012), rabbi, born in Muenster, Germany. He received a doctorate in law at Berlin university in 1934 (one of the last Jews to do so). He then turned to Jewish studies and in 1935 went to Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati where he was ordained. During WW II he was an army chaplain in Europe. From 1948 he was rabbi of Mount Zion Temple, St. Paul, Minnesota, and from 1961 to 1977 was senior rabbi of Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto. Plaut was a founder of the camp movement for Jewish students and held many public Jewish and general posts. His early books included a history of Judaism in Minnesota and he wrote histories of Reform Judaism. In his theological writings,he was a religious liberal. They included Judaism and the Scientific Spirit which argued for the compatibility of liberalism and traditionalism. Plaut edited and was principal author of the English commentary on the Pentateuch The Torah-A Modern Commentary.

György Faludy, (1910-2006), poet, author and translator, born in Budapest, Hungary (then part of Austria-Hungary), and studied at the universities of Vienna, Berlin, Germany, and Graz, Austria. In 1938, he fled to France and then settled in the United States, where he volunteered to serve in the U.S. Army during World War II. In 1946, he returned to Hungary and devoted himself to writing and journalism. In 1951 he was arrested on a political charge, and was released from prison in 1953. Faludy then joined the editorial board of the literary journal Irodalmi Ujsag. In 1956 he published a poem in this journal about his experiences in prison. The failure of the anti-Communist revolution of that year forced him to flee the country once again. This time he went to England, where he resumed publication of Irodalmi Ujsag. In 1967, Faludy moved to Toronto, Canada, and lived there for twenty years. He gave lectures in Canada and the USA and edited various Hungarian language journals. In 1978 he was awarded an honorary doctor at the University of Toronto. His poems were published in New York in 1980.

In 1988, Faludy returned to Hungary, and his works which were burnt by the Nazis and then in later years confiscated by the Communists, were again published. In 1994 he received the most prestigious award in Hungary, the Kossuth Prize

In 1937 Faludy translated Francois Villon's poetry into Hungarian (Villon balladai). Faludy's own writings include A pompeji strazsan ("On the Guard at Pompei", 1938); Europai koltok antologiaja ("An Anthology of European Poets", 1938); and the prose works Tragedie eines Volkes (1938) and Emlekkonyv a rot Bizancrol ("Memories of Red Byzantium", 1961). In 1962 he published his autobiography, My Happy Days in Hell, in English. His other works include City of Splintered Gods (1966), Erasmus of Rotterdam (1970), East and West, Selected poems of Faludy (1987), Corpses, Brats and Cricket Music (1987).

In 2006 the city of Toronto planned to build a park in his memory.

Fritz Moritz Heichelheim (1901-1968) Historian. Born in Giessen, Germany, he taught at the university there from 1929 until dismissed in 1933 after the Nazis came to power. He then went to England, first to Cambridge (1933-42), then teaching in Nottingham (1942-48). From 1948 he taught Greek and Roman history at the university of Toronto. Heichelheim was elected fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1966. His numerous publications covered economic history, archeology, numismatics and papyrology in the ancient world. His best-known work is an economic history of ancient times in three volumes. Involved in Jewish affairs, he was president of the Jewish Historical Society of Toronto.

ANU Databases
Jewish Genealogy
Family Names
Jewish Communities
Visual Documentation
Jewish Music Center
Place
אA
אA
אA
The Jewish Community of Toronto

Toronto

Capital of province of Ontario, Canada.

In early 21st century, more than half of the Jewish population of Canada lives in Toronto. Jews have lived in the city since the 19th century. The Jewish population of Toronto is diverse in terms of its varied religious currents, historical background as well as unique cultural and social identities.

Toronto is home to congregations of several currents of Judaism, including Reform, Reconstructionist, Humanist, conservative and Orthodox. In various waves of immigration, Jews arrived from different localities, bringing with them a different heritage, experience and religious movement.

Organized Jewish community life in Toronto is thought to have begun in 1849. The first synagogue established in Toronto was the Holy blossom Temple, a Reform congregation founded in 1856 by Jews from Germany, the United States, Great Britain and Eastern Europe. Many of the small immigrant congregations later merged, creating larger congregations of mixed communities.

Shortly after 1856 two groups merged as the Holy Blossom Temple retaining the corporate name of Toronto Hebrew congregation (1971). Members of this congregation, Orthodox at its inception, were from various parts of Europe. The synagogue was known as the Daytshishe Shul not for "ethnic" reasons so much as for its tendency to a modernized way of worship.

With the influx of immigrants from Eastern Europe in the Beth Hamidrash Hagadol Chevra T'hillim (1883), whose members originated from Russia; and Shomrei Shabbos (Orthodox,1889), in the early 1950s the former two merged as Beth Tzedec (Conservative). In 1899 Beth Jacob, known as the Poylishe Shul, and in 1902 the Romanian synagogue, also known as Adath Israel, began to function. After the turn of the century shtiblech, kleyzlech (small prayer houses), and synagogues proliferated, and by the 1940s, there were close to sixty synagogues in the city of Toronto. By 2011, there were more than one hundred.

Reform Judaism developed slowly in Toronto. The first moves in that direction were made in the 1880s. From the turn of the 20th century to about the end of the 1930s each "ethnic" segment of immigrant Jewry had its spiritual leader.

In 1871 there were 157 Jews and in 1881, 548. Toronto's Jewish population grew steadily from the 1890s through the post-World War I period.

Immigration dropped in the 1930s due to the restrictions imposed and to the depression, but groups of Austrian and German Jews who fled from Hitler arrived during this period. In the 1940s and early 1950s, about 40,000 Holocaust survivors came to Canada, settling mainly in Toronto and Montreal. During the 1960's thousands of Moroccan-born Jews (as well as Spain) immigrated to Canada and established the first Sephardic community in Toronto and established their synagogues and associations. As of 2011, this community numbered 27,000 people.

With the rise of Quebec Sovereignty Movement, the Jews of Montreal, a primarily Anglophone community, were faced with increased anti-Semitism which resulted in mass migration to Toronto. By the 1970s, Toronto had become the epicenter of Canadian Jewry and home to the largest Jewish population in Canada. According to the 2011 National Household Survey, there were 188,715 Jews residing in the Toronto Metropolitan area with 11,070 in the city of Toronto itself. The majority of Toronto's Jewish population has lived in Toronto for only one or two generations.

Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, Canada was a major center of Jewish immigration from the former Soviet Union (FSU). Approximately 70% of Jewish immigrants from the FSU reside in Greater Toronto. In 1996, there were about 16,000 Jews born of Soviet parents, primarily refuses who arrived during the 1970s and 1980s. By 2003, the number of Jews from the FSU was estimated to be between 25,000 and 30,000.

In the first years of the 21st century, in Toronto, 20% of the Jews identify as Orthodox, 40% Conservative, 35% Reform, and the rest as nondenominational. Jews comprise approximately 3.4% of the city's total population.

Like most cities with a sizeable Jewish population, Toronto has its Jewish enclaves. By the 1930s, much of the Jewish community had moved west from "The Ward" to the Kensington Market district, where Jews represented upwards of 80% of the population. Following World War II, a number of wealthier Jewish families moved to Forest Hill, a neighborhood located north of Toronto's downtown. Since the early 20th century, Bathurst Street has been the heart of the Jewish community, and since the 1970s, its northern section has been the cultural center for the city's Russian-Jewish population. After so many Russian delicatessens and stores were established, the neighborhood was nicknamed "Little Moscow".

A Jewish Cultural and social life have been prosperous for over a century in Toronto, beginning with World War I, where Christian missionaries were active in the Jewish quarter. The missions provided medical and obstetric services, and this stimulated the Jewish community efforts to provide their own services.

In 1911 a coalition of radical groups founded the National Radical School in Toronto, the first such Yiddish school in North America. Several years later there was a split on the language issue and the Po'alei Zion left to start their own Farband Folk School. Those who remained renamed the institution the I.L. Peretz School of the Workmen's Circle (Arbeter Ring). In 1945 the United Jewish People's Order established its own children's school, the Morris Winchevsky School. The left Po'alei Zion, an ideological segment that did not reach Toronto until well after World War I, established its Borochov School and kindergarten in 1932. Toronto's first permanent educational institution was the Simcoe Street Talmud Torah, founded in 1908. Though Orthodox in character and content, it followed the technique of Ivrit be-Ivrit. In 1916 a group, consisting mainly of Jews from Russian Poland who felt that the Ivrit be-Ivrit did not ensure a traditional enough training, started the Eitz Chaim Talmud Torah on D'arcy Street. An important development since the end of World War II was the growth of the congregational school and more strikingly the growth and expansion of the day school. From 1950 the bureau of Jewish education (later known as the Board of Jewish Education) was the central administrative body.

The Ezras Noshim, a women's aid group, was responsible for setting up the Mount Sinai hospital in 1923. From 1948 the welfare fund in partnership with the Toronto Zionist council assumed the functions of the United Jewish Appeal. There were over 70 chapters of Hadassah in Toronto, and 28 branches of the national council of Jewish women. B'nai B'rith had 26 men's lodges and 18 women's chapters. In addition, the Ontario offices of the Canadian Jewish Congress and of the Federated Zionist Organization of Canada were located in Toronto.

Serving the Jewish community of Toronto and its neighboring areas are more than two hundred separate organizations, including several committees, foundations and associations, many of which work in partnership with the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto. These organizations are largely dedicated to social services. Some provide financial support for individuals and outreach programs while others advocate for human rights and Jewish causes. Notable organizations include the Centre for Israel& Jewish Affairs, the Jewish Free Loan Toronto, Hillel of Greater Toronto, B'nai B'rith Canada, and the Canadian Jewish Political Jewish Affairs Committee.

There are also a number of Philanthropic organizations which offer grants and fund programs administrated by groups throughout the city. One such organization is The Philanthropy Forum, which provides funding for educational programs for both families and individuals. Battling hunger throughout Canada to feed the country is Mazon, an organization which has allocated more than seven million dollars to groups in Canada to feed the hungry. Ve'ahavta and United Chesed are two organizations which deliver poverty alleviation programs and offer urgent, short-term relief to those in crisis situations.

For healthcare and medical needs, there is Mount Sinai Hospital, a part of the Joseph and Wolf Lebovic Health Complex. Internationally recognized, Mount Sinai is well known for providing excellent in patient and family care. Over the years, the hospital has received many awards and is one of the top employers in Canada.

The Jewish community of Toronto is replete with educational programs. Not only day school for children, but educational programming for adults as well. There are 43 after-school Jewish schools, 20 elementary schools for grades one through eight, and 16 Jewish high schools, including a number of yeshivas. Jewish education is also provided by social and cultural associations such as BBYO, the Jewish Youth Network (Chabad Youth Network) and Hillel, which is located on the campuses of University of Toronto, York University and Ryerson University.

The city of Toronto boasts a number of Jewish cultural centers. One in particular is the Sarah and Chaim Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre; a popular tourist destination, the center features a permanent collection of archival photography, art, witness testimony and artifacts. Another important Jewish center is the Blankenstein Family Heritage Centre (OJA) holds the largest warehouse of Jewish life in Canada; founded in 1973, if offers guests a chance to explore Canada's Jewish past through a diverse collection of historic records.

Additionally, Toronto has three major community centers which offer a whole variety of different programs for individuals and families. The Posserman Jewish community Centre and the Schwartz Reisman Centre organize community events, provide athletic, educational and cultural programs, and promote community engagement and cohesion. The Jewish Russian Community Centre of Ontario was established to integrate the Jews from the Former Soviet Union by providing cultural, religious and educational services.

Toronto's Jews had a long history of landsmannschaften and sick benefit societies. With the advent of public medical services the sick benefit aspect subsided, and with growing acculturation the landsmannschaft phase also diminished. Post-World War II immigration, however, gave a new impetus to some of the landsmannschaften. A tendency to adapt to new conditions was reflected in the transformation of some of the sick benefit societies into synagogues, e.g., Beth Radom and Pride of Israel.

Located throughout the Greater Toronto area are over 80 Jewish landmarks. Many points of Jewish interest can be found in the Kensington Market/ Spadina area. Most landmarks are locations once home to historic Jewish institutions such as synagogues, schools, restaurants, businesses and organizations. In the Kensington Market neighborhood are two synagogues that remain from the early 20th century, the Kiever synagogue on Bellevue Avenue and Anshei Minsk on St. Andrews Street. A popular tourist site is the Holy Blossom Temple, Toronto's oldest congregation. Another notable landmark is the Balfour Building; names after Arthur J. Balfour, author of the Balfour Declaration, the historic building was listed as a Toronto Heritage Property in 2011.

Among the notable Jewish aldermen were Philip G. Givens, Q.C. (1963-1966) and Newman Leopold (1883-85, and 1897). Two other early aldermen were Louis M. Singer (1914-1917) and Joseph Singer (1920, 1923), the first Jew to become a member of Toronto's Board of Control. From the 1920s Jewish aldermen and school trustees were elected frequently, especially from ward four. In the early 1970s Jews were playing a prominent role in Toronto's civic, cultural, musical, and theatrical circles.

In addition, there is also a fast developing media market in the Jewish communities of Toronto, including four major Jewish publications which circulate throughout greater Toronto. The largest is Canadian Jewish News, a weekly newspaper. This publication is read by as many as 100,000 people each week, making it not only the largest in Toronto but in all of Canada. Other Jewish publications include the Jewish Standard, Shalom Toronto, which is available in English and Hebrew, and The Jewish Tribune.

Written by researchers of ANU Museum of the Jewish People
Srul Irving Glick

Srul Irving Glick (1934-2002) , composer. Born in Toronto, Canada, he studied at the university in his native city. His compositions include SUITE HEBRAIQUE No.1 & 2 for clarinet, piano, violin, viola and cello, and a song cycle to poems written by children at the Theresienstadt concentration camp. He died in Toronto, Canada.

Louis Applebaum

Louis Applebaum (1918-2000), composer, born in Toronto, Canada. He composed incidental music for the theater, film, radio and television. Appelbaum was the music director of the Canada National Film Board and beginning in 1961, musical advisor for the Canadian television network. In 1955, he founded the Stratford Music Festival in Ontario and directed it until 1960.
Appelbaum’s works include Christmas Overture (1951); Dark of The Moon, Ballet suite (1953); Three Stratford Fanfares (1953); Suite For Miniature Dances (1958); Concertante (1967); string quartets and songs.

Karel Ancerl

Karel Ancerl (1908-1973), conductor, born in Tučapy, Czech Republic (then part of Austria-Hungary). Ancerl studied in Prague. During the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia, he was deported to a concentration camp. After World War II, Ancerl directed the Prague Opera between 1947-1950. Between 1950-1968, he served as the music director of the Radio Symphony Orchestra in Prague and of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1969 he was appointed director of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. He died in Toronto, Canada.

'The Kosher Gourmet" and other Jewish businesses, Toronto, Canada, 1984
'The Kosher Gourmet" and other Jewish businesses,
Toronto, Canada, 1984
Photo: Paul Philip Brown, Canada
(The Oster Visual Documentation Center, Beit Hatfutsot,
courtesy of Paul Philip Brown, Canada)
Solomon Birnbaum, Toronto, Canada, 1982

Solomon Asher Birnbaum, paleographer and Yiddish philologist, Toronto, Canada, 1982

The Oster Visual Documentation Center, ANU - Museum of the Jewish People, courtesy of Joel Cahen, Israel

"Holy Blossom" Reform Synagogue on Richmond St. Toronto, Canada
The Holy Blossom Synagogue on Richmond Street,
Toronto, Canada.
This is the oldest congregation in Toronto, dating back to the 1880s, and was started by immigrants from England and Germany. The location has moved through the decades. This building no longer exists, but the Reform congregation built and moved into a new building in accordance with the migration of the community within the city.
Leopold Infeld

Leopold Infeld (1898-1968), physicist, born in Krakow, Poalnd (then part the Austro-Hungarian Empire). He studied physics at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow and obtained his doctorate there in 1921. He worked as an assistant and a docent at the University of Lwow (1930–1933).

In 1933 he went to England where he was appointed a Rockefeller fellow at Cambridge University (1933–1934). Infeld was interested in the theory of relativity and worked together with Albert Einstein at Princeton University, USA, between 1936 and 1938. The two scientists co-formulated the equation describing star movements. He became a professor at the University of Toronto, Canada, between 1939 and 1950. After the first use of nuclear weapons in 1945, Infeld, like Einstein, became a peace activist. Because of his activities in this field he was accused of having communist sympathies. In 1950 he therefore left Canada and returned to Poland where he became a professor at the University of Warsaw, a post he held until his death.

Infeld was one of the 11 signatories to the 1955 Russell–Einstein Manifesto (initiated by Bertrand Russell and Albert Einstein and 8 other Nobel Peace Prize winners) which sought to highlight the dangers posed by nuclear weapons and called for world leaders to seek peaceful resolutions to international conflicts. Infeld also wrote with Einstein "The Evolution of Physics", a widely read history of physical theory from the 17th century to the 20th. Infeld also wrote "Quest: An Autobiography" and the biography "Whom the Gods Love: The Story of Evariste Galois."

W. Gunther Plaut

W. Gunther Plaut (1912-2012), rabbi, born in Muenster, Germany. He received a doctorate in law at Berlin university in 1934 (one of the last Jews to do so). He then turned to Jewish studies and in 1935 went to Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati where he was ordained. During WW II he was an army chaplain in Europe. From 1948 he was rabbi of Mount Zion Temple, St. Paul, Minnesota, and from 1961 to 1977 was senior rabbi of Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto. Plaut was a founder of the camp movement for Jewish students and held many public Jewish and general posts. His early books included a history of Judaism in Minnesota and he wrote histories of Reform Judaism. In his theological writings,he was a religious liberal. They included Judaism and the Scientific Spirit which argued for the compatibility of liberalism and traditionalism. Plaut edited and was principal author of the English commentary on the Pentateuch The Torah-A Modern Commentary.

Gyorgy Faludy

György Faludy, (1910-2006), poet, author and translator, born in Budapest, Hungary (then part of Austria-Hungary), and studied at the universities of Vienna, Berlin, Germany, and Graz, Austria. In 1938, he fled to France and then settled in the United States, where he volunteered to serve in the U.S. Army during World War II. In 1946, he returned to Hungary and devoted himself to writing and journalism. In 1951 he was arrested on a political charge, and was released from prison in 1953. Faludy then joined the editorial board of the literary journal Irodalmi Ujsag. In 1956 he published a poem in this journal about his experiences in prison. The failure of the anti-Communist revolution of that year forced him to flee the country once again. This time he went to England, where he resumed publication of Irodalmi Ujsag. In 1967, Faludy moved to Toronto, Canada, and lived there for twenty years. He gave lectures in Canada and the USA and edited various Hungarian language journals. In 1978 he was awarded an honorary doctor at the University of Toronto. His poems were published in New York in 1980.

In 1988, Faludy returned to Hungary, and his works which were burnt by the Nazis and then in later years confiscated by the Communists, were again published. In 1994 he received the most prestigious award in Hungary, the Kossuth Prize

In 1937 Faludy translated Francois Villon's poetry into Hungarian (Villon balladai). Faludy's own writings include A pompeji strazsan ("On the Guard at Pompei", 1938); Europai koltok antologiaja ("An Anthology of European Poets", 1938); and the prose works Tragedie eines Volkes (1938) and Emlekkonyv a rot Bizancrol ("Memories of Red Byzantium", 1961). In 1962 he published his autobiography, My Happy Days in Hell, in English. His other works include City of Splintered Gods (1966), Erasmus of Rotterdam (1970), East and West, Selected poems of Faludy (1987), Corpses, Brats and Cricket Music (1987).

In 2006 the city of Toronto planned to build a park in his memory.

Fritz Moritz Heichelheim

Fritz Moritz Heichelheim (1901-1968) Historian. Born in Giessen, Germany, he taught at the university there from 1929 until dismissed in 1933 after the Nazis came to power. He then went to England, first to Cambridge (1933-42), then teaching in Nottingham (1942-48). From 1948 he taught Greek and Roman history at the university of Toronto. Heichelheim was elected fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1966. His numerous publications covered economic history, archeology, numismatics and papyrology in the ancient world. His best-known work is an economic history of ancient times in three volumes. Involved in Jewish affairs, he was president of the Jewish Historical Society of Toronto.