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The Jewish Community of Cape Breton, NS

Official name: Cape Breton Island

French: île du Cap-Breton

Scottish Gaelic: Ceap Breatainn, Eilean Cheap Bhreatainn

Mi’kmaq: Únamakika

An island in the province of Nova Scotia, Canada.

21ST CENTURY

A pattern of outmigration is common across Cape Breton, and it has deeply affected the island’s Jewish population. All of the synagogues on Cape Breton Island are closed except for the one in Sydney, which celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2016. Most of the members of the Sydney congregation are seventy-five or older (it is worth noting that Cape Breton’s population, on the whole, is aging). There is no full-time rabbi in Sydney’s synagogue, though a dedicated rabbi visits regularly from Halifax on festivals. The woman who led the religious services died in November 2016. In spite of these hardships, Cape Breton’s Jews remain very dedicated to their Jewish faith and proud of the important contributions they have made to Cape Breton’s economy, culture, and history. They have also ensured that the Jewish cemeteries in Glace Bay and Sydney will be maintained long after their community members have passed on. In this way, members of the Jewish families of Cape Breton will always be able to come home to visit the graves of their ancestors.

Working with local community members and an international research team, ethnomusicologist Dr. Marcia Ostashewski has developed the diversitycapebreton.ca web portal. The project’s main objective is to investigate the historical and contemporary expressive cultures of the island’s Central and Eastern European communities, including its Jewish communities, focusing on their music and dance practices. The publicly-accessible web portal serves as a living archive which provides a platform for Cape Bretoners to share their contributions to the island’s rich heritage.

HISTORY

At the dawn of the twentieth century, Cape Breton’s flourishing steel and coal industries attracted immigrants from around the world, all of whom made important contributions to the island’s cultural heritage. Among these immigrants were hundreds of Jews who entered Canada through Pier 21 (now the Canadian Museum of Immigration) in Halifax, Nova Scotia. They traveled aboard ships from Eastern and Central Europe to escape ethnic discrimination and political instability in their homelands. Soon after arriving in Halifax, they made their way across the channel to Cape Breton Island and settled primarily in Sydney, Whitney Pier, Glace Bay and New Waterford.

Most Jewish men arrived in Cape Breton on their own, initially working as peddlers. Later, they entered into retail businesses and then brought their families. Local residents remember that almost all of the commercial stores on the main streets in the island’s two main cities, Glace Bay and Sydney, belonged to Jews. Though most of these Jewish-owned stores eventually closed, Schwartz’ Furniture is an example of one that has to thrive into the 21st century.

Over time, strong and distinct Jewish communities were established across Cape Breton, each with its own synagogue. The earliest synagogue opened in Glace Bay in 1902, the Congregation of the Sons of Israel. For a long time, Glace Bay was home to the largest community of Cape Breton Jews. In 1901, the Jewish population in Glace Bay was 134, and by 1941 it had increased to 939. Sydney, New Waterford and Glace Bay followed similar migration and population growth trends. At its height, the island was home to over 400 Jewish families.

The Jewish communities of Cape Breton were connected through their religion and heritage, but tensions also existed between the communities in Glace Bay, Sydney and Whitney Pier. Glace Bay and Whitney Pier remained Orthodox, while Sydney’s community moved to affiliate with the Conservative Movement, with men sitting with the women in the synagogue. Another notable difference was the duration of the rabbis’ stay in each community. Glace Bay faced a persistent problem of rabbis only staying a few months. As a consequence, Hebrew School students at the Congregation Sons of Israel never quite got past the first book of the Torah, as each new rabbi began with it and left before the book was completed. In contrast, Leon Dubinsky and other members of Sydney’s Jewish community like to share stories about Rabbi Israel Kenner, who remained in the community for over thirty-five years, from 1927-72. Rabbi Kenner was a stabilizing force in the community. He was also an extremely influential figure for the Dubinsky clan, a family known for its musical talents, because he started the shul’s choir. Dubinsky and his siblings joined the choir when they were very young. Their love of music led two of the siblings to become music teachers, and Leon became a celebrated local songwriter. After Rabbi Kenner retired, Dubinsky’s sister, Evie, continued to lead the choir until her death in 2016.

Most of Cape Breton’s Jewish-owned businesses lasted for two generations, as Jewish children were often encouraged to move elsewhere in order to prosper. The financial success that was achieved by many of the Jewish families during the island’s economic boom meant that they could afford to send their children to institutes of higher education. After World War II, many young Jews moved away from Cape Breton to university and never returned. They became lawyers and doctors, establishing families in larger city centers such as Halifax, Montreal and Toronto.

Halifax

Atlantic Ocean port and capital of Nova Scotia province, Canada.

The Jewish population in 1970 was 1,200. Until recently it was believed that Jews first came to Canada after the British conquest of Quebec in 1759--60. It is now known that shortly after the British founded Halifax as a military base in 1749, a Jewish settlement existed there. Recorded as merchants in 1752 were Israel Abrahams, Isaac Levy, Isaac Solomon, and Nathan Nathans (d. 1778), who by later records lived in Halifax for 27 or 28 years. These settlers, some of whom had families, seem to have come up from the neighboring and older British colonies of New England. Shortly after 1749 a burial ground was set aside for Halifax Jews. By 1758, however, a committee of the assembly and council recommended that the space be used as a site for a workhouse. Samuel Hart was in Halifax in the 1790s and sat in the house of assembly for the town of Liverpool from 1793 to 1799. He, not (as hitherto supposed) Selim Franklin, was thus the first Jew to sit in a Canadian legislature. The Halifax Jewish community later dwindled and virtually vanished; in 1861, the first year for which a census of Jewish population exists, three Jews were living in the city. In 1881 there were at least 16 and ten years later, only two more. By 1901, however, the figure rose to 102. It more than doubled by 1911 and grew slowly but steadily thereafter. The 1961 census showed 1,188 Halifax Jews. By 1902 an Orthodox synagogue, the Baron de Hirsch Hebrew Benevolent Society, also known as Beth Israel synagogue, had been founded. The building was demolished in 1917 in a disastrous explosion caused by the collision of a steamship carrying TNT with another ship, but was soon reestablished. A Conservative congregation, Shaar Shalom, also serves the community. The Canadian Jewish Congress and the Federated Zionist Organization of Canada maintain a joint regional office for the Atlantic provinces of Canada in Halifax. The city had a Jewish mayor, Leonard A. Kitz, from 1955 to 1957.

Montreal

Montreal, second largest city in Canada, in the province of Quebec. The population of the Jewish community in metropolitan Montreal, the oldest and largest in Canada, was estimated at 121,000 in 1970 out of an approximate total of 2.4 million.

Jews first went to Montreal in 1760 as officers with the British army under General Amherst, and after the surrender of the city to the British on Sept. 8, 1760, several Jews settled in Montreal as merchants, fur traders, exporters, and importers. The earliest Jewish settlers in Montreal had previously lived in New York, in which the only synagogue was the Shearith Israel congregation, which followed the Sephardi minhag. In December 1768, when there were sufficient permanent Jewish residents in Montreal, they formed a congregation which adopted the same name and followed the same Sephardi minhag as the synagogue they had attended in New York. The congregation did not receive legal and official government recognition until 1831. The first minister of the Shearith Israel congregation was the Rev. Jacob Raphael Cohen. From 1847-1882 the Rev. Abraham de Sola, grandson of rabbi Raphael Meldola, the haham of the Sephardi congregation in London, served as a spiritual leader to the Montreal Spanish and Portuguese congregation. He was appointed professor of Hebrew and oriental literature at McGill University soon after his arrival in Montreal, was for many years president of the natural history society of Montreal, was a prolific writer on Jewish religious and historical subjects, and was the first Jew awarded an honorary LLd. by McGill University (in 1858). It was not until 1858 that Jews who preferred the Ashkenazi minhag, most of whom had previously been members of the Spanish and Portuguese congregations, were able to purchase a lot and erect a synagogue called the German and polish synagogue. This was subsequently renamed the Shaar HaShomayim synagogue, and was the first Ashkenazi Orthodox synagogue erected in Canada.
The number of Jewish congregations in metropolitan Montreal increased rapidly until 1946, and there were 40 synagogues in 1970, of which 33 were Orthodox, three were conservative, three were reform, and one was Reconstructionist.

In accordance with the British North America Act of 1867 there were in Quebec only two types of tax-supported public schools, one Roman Catholic and the other Protestant. All school taxes paid by Jewish property owners went to the Protestant school board, and in return Jewish children had the right to attend the schools of the Protestant school board of greater Montreal, and were exempted from Christian religious instruction upon request of their parents. From 1903 on, attempts were made by the Montreal Jewish community at various times to obtain changes in legislation which would establish a secular nondenominational system of public schools or tax-supported Jewish schools parallel with and with powers equal to the existing roman catholic and protestant public schools, but without success. After protracted negotiations, five Jews were appointed by the Quebec provincial government to the Protestant school board of greater Montreal in 1968 from a list recommended by the Canadian Jewish Congress. The Protestant board agreed to accept as "associate schools" those Jewish voluntary elementary and high schools which had the same pedagogical standards and regulations pertaining to training of teaching staff, curriculum, and salaries, and to pay an annual grant of 350 dollars per Jewish pupil attending nine of these approved "associate" Jewish day schools, leaving Hebrew studies and religious instruction to be financed by the associate Jewish day schools themselves. In 1969 there were about 5,000 children attending the Jewish day schools in Montreal which were approved "associate schools" receiving the aforementioned per capita grant, and the Jewish children attending the Protestant elementary and high schools in 1969 numbered 17,000.

Jews formed the third largest ethnic group in metropolitan Montreal during the period from 1901 to 1961, exceeded only by the population of French origin with 64.2% and those of Anglo-Celtic origin with 17.9%. Thirty-four percent of the total Jewish population of Canada lived in Montreal. By 1961 this percentage had increased to 40.4. In 1961 there were 72 cities, towns, and villages in what is known as the suburban metropolitan Montreal census area, and Jews were resident in 64 of them. There were seven suburban cities and towns within the metropolitan Montreal area each with a Jewish population exceeding 1,000. Those residential suburbs with their Jewish population in 1961 were Outremont (9,033), Cote St. Rue (8,307), St. Laurent (7,696), Chomedy (3,493), Mount Royal (2,617), Westmount (2,222), and Hampstead (1,560).

The majority of the total Jewish population in metropolitan Montreal in 1961 was Canadian-born (56.9%), while 11.7% were born in Poland; 10.0% in Russia; 4.4% in Romania; 3.6% in Hungary; 2.3% in the United States; 1.6% in the United Kingdom; 4.4% in other European countries; and 5.1% in all other countries. 53.8% of the total Jewish population of metropolitan Montreal in 1961 reported English as their mother tongue and 30.2% reported Yiddish as their mother tongue; while 97.2% could speak English and French. Jews engaged in commerce formed 30% of the total Jewish labor force in metropolitan Montreal in 1961, followed by 22% in industry, 16% in clerical occupations, 13% in the professions, 12% in service occupations, 2% in transport and communications, 1% in construction, and 1% in unskilled labor.

In 1970 the national headquarters of almost all Jewish communal organizations in Canada were situated in that city. The Young Men's Hebrew Benevolent Society founded in Montreal in 1863 was the first Jewish social welfare organization in Canada. Its object was to assist the increasing stream of Jewish immigrants fleeing from discrimination and persecution in Eastern Europe. It changed its name to the Baron de Hirsch Institute in 1900 in recognition of the munificent grants made to it by Baroness Clara de Hirsch. As the Jewish population of Montreal increased, the Montreal Jewish community became more self-supporting and fund-raising campaigns multiplied; and in 1916 the Baron de Hirsch Institute, the Mount Sinai sanatorium, the Herzl dispensary, and the Jewish home for the aged combined to form the federation of Jewish community services. During the period from 1916 to 1965 the number of Jewish social welfare and health agencies continued to multiply rapidly and the need for larger
Funds necessary to maintain them brought about the organization of a combined Jewish appeal campaign in 1941, which in 1951 joined with the United Israel Appeal to conduct one annual fund-raising campaign. In 1965 the need for still greater coordination, planning, fund-raising, and cooperative action in Jewish community affairs brought about the reorganization of the Montreal federation of Jewish community services and the combined Jewish appeal into a new all-embracing body named the allied Jewish community services of Montreal.

Members of the Jewish community in Montreal have been prominent in the political, musical, literary, and artistic life of Canada during the past century. Lazarus Phillips, a prominent Jewish lawyer active in Jewish communal life, was appointed a member of the Canadian senate in 1969. In 1970 Victor Goldbloom, who was reelected as a member of the Quebec provincial legislature, became the first Jew to hold the position of a cabinet minister in the Quebec provincial government.

The Jews of Montreal make up the second-largest Jewish community in Canada. The community is one of the oldest and most populous in the country, about 23% of the total population. In 2011, the Jewish population of Montreal was approximately 91,000, with over 40,000 Jewish households. Jews comprise 2.4% of the city's total population. The community is composed of several different Jewish groups that settled in Canada at different time periods and under varied circumstances.

The most recent waves of immigration have included Jews from the former Soviet Union (some via Israel), France, Argentina, and small numbers of Ethiopian Jews from Israel.

Since the beginning of the 20th century, the Jewish community of Montreal had established numerous organizations. Many of these organizations were in the areas of social welfare, health care, education and culture while others were established specifically to fund various community activities. In 1965, a federation was established to better organize community planning and fundraising. Originally, this federation was known as Allied Jewish Community Services but was renamed to Federation CJA in the 1990s.

The Federation supports several organizations throughout the city of Montreal. Due to their extensive support of Israel and local allocation for social services and educational programs, the Jewish community of Montreal is considered one of the most generous communities per capita in all of North America. Other notable Jewish organizations include The Jewish Community Foundation, the Jewish Genealogical Society of Montreal, Canadian Council of Israel, B'nai B'rith Canada, The Canadian Jewish Congress, and the Jewish Immigrant Aid Services.

Religious life among the Jews of Montreal is quite diverse. While Orthodox congregations make up the overwhelming majority of the city's synagogues, there are also Reform, Reconstructionist and numerous Conservative congregations. Even within the Orthodox movement is a wide spectrum of communities, including several Hasidic sects, Modern Orthodox, ultra-Orthodox and Sephardi. Orthodox Judaism has historically been very strong in Montreal. Since the early 21st century, Chabad Lubavitch has established a significant presence in the areas of Côte des Neiges and Hampstead.

The Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue, also known as Shearith Israel is Montreal's oldest synagogue. It is also the oldest congregation in Canada. Formally established in 1768, its original building, designed in a Judeo-Egyptian style, was the first non-Catholic place of worship in the entire province of Québec. It remained the only place of Jewish worship in Montreal until 1846.

Beginning in the 19th century, most Jewish families opted to send their children to private Jewish day schools. Whether due to segregation or the confessional nature of Montreal's public schools, the Jewish community established a number of schools of their own. As of 2015, there were about 13 private Jewish schools in Montreal. More than half of Jewish school age children are enrolled in private Jewish schools. Approximately half of the Jewish students who complete Jewish elementary school continue to Jewish high school. Jewish education in Montreal is quite varied. There are many private schools affiliated with a wide range of Jewish movements and communities, including Orthodox, ultra-Orthodox, Hasidic, Conservative, Yiddishist, and Sephardi.

There are additionally several youth movements and organizations, and a well-established network of camps, after-school activities and educational programs.

The city's major Jewish cultural centers include the Museum of Jewish Montreal (founded in 2010), the Montreal Holocaust Memorial Centre, the Jewish Public Library, the Miles Nada Jewish Community Centre, and the YM-YWHA Jewish Community Centres of Montreal: The Ben Weider JCC and Y Country Camp. There are also more than 25 different Chabad centers throughout Greater Montreal.

The area with the largest Jewish population in Montreal is Cote St. Luc (19,395), where Jews comprise nearly 63% of the overall population. Cote St. Luc also boasts the largest population of Sephardim in Montreal (5,580). Large contingents of Sephardi Jews also live in Ville St. Laurent (3,365) and the West Island (2,205).

The second-largest population is in the West Island, with 12,055 Jewish residents. The affluent suburb of Hampstead has the highest density of Jews than any other area, approximately 75% of its total populace. Other areas with sizeable Jewish populations include St. Laurent, Snowdon and Côte des Neiges.

Montreal is also home to a number of Haredi enclaves. In Outremont are the three Hasidic dynasties of Belz, Satmar and Skver; in Côte des Neiges is a sizeable Lubavitch community; and in the suburb of Boisbrand are the Tash, a group originating in Hungary.

Nearly one third of Montreal's Jewish population was born outside Canada. The largest waves of immigration have been from North Africa and Eastern Europe, including the former Soviet Union.

In addition to the Holocaust Memorial, Jewish Museum and the Jewish Public Library, the most significant Jewish landmarks and points of interest can be found in the historic Jewish quarter. Located on St. Laurent Boulevard, or Main Street, this historic neighborhood was once home to a number of synagogues and Jewish businesses. By 1871, a Jewish enclave of 400 people had formed and Yiddish was the common language. Other main streets include Clark Street, Park Avenue, Saint Urbain Street and Esplanade Street.

Serving both the Jewish and non-Jewish communities of Montreal are various hospitals and health care facilities that had been established by Jews. The most notable are hospitals, Mount Sinai and the Jewish General Hospital. The latter provides general and specialized care and was partially founded by Jewish philanthropist Allan Bronfman. Ground broke on the hospital in 1931 and in 1933 it was officially named the Jewish General Hospital. The first patient was admitted the following year. Other Jewish health care services include Donald Berman Maimonides (geriatric care) and the Miriam Home, a rehabilitation center that provides residential services for children and adults with disabilities.

Circulating throughout Montreal are the city's very own Jewish publications. The largest and most well-known is "Montreal Jewish Magazine". A premium source for all things Jewish, this widely distributed publication has a readership of more than 90,000. Montreal Jewish Magazine includes a wide variety of articles and editorials about community events, local activities and international news.

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.

Canada

A country in the northern part of North America. 

21st Century

Estimated Jewish population in 2018: 390,000 out of 37,000,000 (1%). Canada has the fourth largest Jewish population in the world. It is generally regarded as the fastest growing Jewish community outside Israel. The majority of the Jewish population of Canada is concentrated in the greater area of the largest cities: Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, and Ottawa. Smaller communities exists all over the country, including Winnipeg, MB, traditionally called "Jerusalem of Canada".  

Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) is the main umbrella organization supporting the numerous Jewish Federations and communities in Canada. Established in 2011, CIJA consolidated and included various Jewish organizations, most notably the former Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC). 

Mainly of Ashkenazi background with significant Sephardi and Mizrahi communities located chiefly in Montreal greater area, most Jews of Canada belong to the main steams of Judaism with the Conservative and Orthodox movements sharing each about 40% of the Jewish population while the remaining 20% belong to the Reform movement.   

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The Jewish Community of Cape Breton, NS

Official name: Cape Breton Island

French: île du Cap-Breton

Scottish Gaelic: Ceap Breatainn, Eilean Cheap Bhreatainn

Mi’kmaq: Únamakika

An island in the province of Nova Scotia, Canada.

21ST CENTURY

A pattern of outmigration is common across Cape Breton, and it has deeply affected the island’s Jewish population. All of the synagogues on Cape Breton Island are closed except for the one in Sydney, which celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2016. Most of the members of the Sydney congregation are seventy-five or older (it is worth noting that Cape Breton’s population, on the whole, is aging). There is no full-time rabbi in Sydney’s synagogue, though a dedicated rabbi visits regularly from Halifax on festivals. The woman who led the religious services died in November 2016. In spite of these hardships, Cape Breton’s Jews remain very dedicated to their Jewish faith and proud of the important contributions they have made to Cape Breton’s economy, culture, and history. They have also ensured that the Jewish cemeteries in Glace Bay and Sydney will be maintained long after their community members have passed on. In this way, members of the Jewish families of Cape Breton will always be able to come home to visit the graves of their ancestors.

Working with local community members and an international research team, ethnomusicologist Dr. Marcia Ostashewski has developed the diversitycapebreton.ca web portal. The project’s main objective is to investigate the historical and contemporary expressive cultures of the island’s Central and Eastern European communities, including its Jewish communities, focusing on their music and dance practices. The publicly-accessible web portal serves as a living archive which provides a platform for Cape Bretoners to share their contributions to the island’s rich heritage.

HISTORY

At the dawn of the twentieth century, Cape Breton’s flourishing steel and coal industries attracted immigrants from around the world, all of whom made important contributions to the island’s cultural heritage. Among these immigrants were hundreds of Jews who entered Canada through Pier 21 (now the Canadian Museum of Immigration) in Halifax, Nova Scotia. They traveled aboard ships from Eastern and Central Europe to escape ethnic discrimination and political instability in their homelands. Soon after arriving in Halifax, they made their way across the channel to Cape Breton Island and settled primarily in Sydney, Whitney Pier, Glace Bay and New Waterford.

Most Jewish men arrived in Cape Breton on their own, initially working as peddlers. Later, they entered into retail businesses and then brought their families. Local residents remember that almost all of the commercial stores on the main streets in the island’s two main cities, Glace Bay and Sydney, belonged to Jews. Though most of these Jewish-owned stores eventually closed, Schwartz’ Furniture is an example of one that has to thrive into the 21st century.

Over time, strong and distinct Jewish communities were established across Cape Breton, each with its own synagogue. The earliest synagogue opened in Glace Bay in 1902, the Congregation of the Sons of Israel. For a long time, Glace Bay was home to the largest community of Cape Breton Jews. In 1901, the Jewish population in Glace Bay was 134, and by 1941 it had increased to 939. Sydney, New Waterford and Glace Bay followed similar migration and population growth trends. At its height, the island was home to over 400 Jewish families.

The Jewish communities of Cape Breton were connected through their religion and heritage, but tensions also existed between the communities in Glace Bay, Sydney and Whitney Pier. Glace Bay and Whitney Pier remained Orthodox, while Sydney’s community moved to affiliate with the Conservative Movement, with men sitting with the women in the synagogue. Another notable difference was the duration of the rabbis’ stay in each community. Glace Bay faced a persistent problem of rabbis only staying a few months. As a consequence, Hebrew School students at the Congregation Sons of Israel never quite got past the first book of the Torah, as each new rabbi began with it and left before the book was completed. In contrast, Leon Dubinsky and other members of Sydney’s Jewish community like to share stories about Rabbi Israel Kenner, who remained in the community for over thirty-five years, from 1927-72. Rabbi Kenner was a stabilizing force in the community. He was also an extremely influential figure for the Dubinsky clan, a family known for its musical talents, because he started the shul’s choir. Dubinsky and his siblings joined the choir when they were very young. Their love of music led two of the siblings to become music teachers, and Leon became a celebrated local songwriter. After Rabbi Kenner retired, Dubinsky’s sister, Evie, continued to lead the choir until her death in 2016.

Most of Cape Breton’s Jewish-owned businesses lasted for two generations, as Jewish children were often encouraged to move elsewhere in order to prosper. The financial success that was achieved by many of the Jewish families during the island’s economic boom meant that they could afford to send their children to institutes of higher education. After World War II, many young Jews moved away from Cape Breton to university and never returned. They became lawyers and doctors, establishing families in larger city centers such as Halifax, Montreal and Toronto.

Written by researchers of ANU Museum of the Jewish People

Halifax, NS

Halifax

Atlantic Ocean port and capital of Nova Scotia province, Canada.

The Jewish population in 1970 was 1,200. Until recently it was believed that Jews first came to Canada after the British conquest of Quebec in 1759--60. It is now known that shortly after the British founded Halifax as a military base in 1749, a Jewish settlement existed there. Recorded as merchants in 1752 were Israel Abrahams, Isaac Levy, Isaac Solomon, and Nathan Nathans (d. 1778), who by later records lived in Halifax for 27 or 28 years. These settlers, some of whom had families, seem to have come up from the neighboring and older British colonies of New England. Shortly after 1749 a burial ground was set aside for Halifax Jews. By 1758, however, a committee of the assembly and council recommended that the space be used as a site for a workhouse. Samuel Hart was in Halifax in the 1790s and sat in the house of assembly for the town of Liverpool from 1793 to 1799. He, not (as hitherto supposed) Selim Franklin, was thus the first Jew to sit in a Canadian legislature. The Halifax Jewish community later dwindled and virtually vanished; in 1861, the first year for which a census of Jewish population exists, three Jews were living in the city. In 1881 there were at least 16 and ten years later, only two more. By 1901, however, the figure rose to 102. It more than doubled by 1911 and grew slowly but steadily thereafter. The 1961 census showed 1,188 Halifax Jews. By 1902 an Orthodox synagogue, the Baron de Hirsch Hebrew Benevolent Society, also known as Beth Israel synagogue, had been founded. The building was demolished in 1917 in a disastrous explosion caused by the collision of a steamship carrying TNT with another ship, but was soon reestablished. A Conservative congregation, Shaar Shalom, also serves the community. The Canadian Jewish Congress and the Federated Zionist Organization of Canada maintain a joint regional office for the Atlantic provinces of Canada in Halifax. The city had a Jewish mayor, Leonard A. Kitz, from 1955 to 1957.

Montreal

Montreal

Montreal, second largest city in Canada, in the province of Quebec. The population of the Jewish community in metropolitan Montreal, the oldest and largest in Canada, was estimated at 121,000 in 1970 out of an approximate total of 2.4 million.

Jews first went to Montreal in 1760 as officers with the British army under General Amherst, and after the surrender of the city to the British on Sept. 8, 1760, several Jews settled in Montreal as merchants, fur traders, exporters, and importers. The earliest Jewish settlers in Montreal had previously lived in New York, in which the only synagogue was the Shearith Israel congregation, which followed the Sephardi minhag. In December 1768, when there were sufficient permanent Jewish residents in Montreal, they formed a congregation which adopted the same name and followed the same Sephardi minhag as the synagogue they had attended in New York. The congregation did not receive legal and official government recognition until 1831. The first minister of the Shearith Israel congregation was the Rev. Jacob Raphael Cohen. From 1847-1882 the Rev. Abraham de Sola, grandson of rabbi Raphael Meldola, the haham of the Sephardi congregation in London, served as a spiritual leader to the Montreal Spanish and Portuguese congregation. He was appointed professor of Hebrew and oriental literature at McGill University soon after his arrival in Montreal, was for many years president of the natural history society of Montreal, was a prolific writer on Jewish religious and historical subjects, and was the first Jew awarded an honorary LLd. by McGill University (in 1858). It was not until 1858 that Jews who preferred the Ashkenazi minhag, most of whom had previously been members of the Spanish and Portuguese congregations, were able to purchase a lot and erect a synagogue called the German and polish synagogue. This was subsequently renamed the Shaar HaShomayim synagogue, and was the first Ashkenazi Orthodox synagogue erected in Canada.
The number of Jewish congregations in metropolitan Montreal increased rapidly until 1946, and there were 40 synagogues in 1970, of which 33 were Orthodox, three were conservative, three were reform, and one was Reconstructionist.

In accordance with the British North America Act of 1867 there were in Quebec only two types of tax-supported public schools, one Roman Catholic and the other Protestant. All school taxes paid by Jewish property owners went to the Protestant school board, and in return Jewish children had the right to attend the schools of the Protestant school board of greater Montreal, and were exempted from Christian religious instruction upon request of their parents. From 1903 on, attempts were made by the Montreal Jewish community at various times to obtain changes in legislation which would establish a secular nondenominational system of public schools or tax-supported Jewish schools parallel with and with powers equal to the existing roman catholic and protestant public schools, but without success. After protracted negotiations, five Jews were appointed by the Quebec provincial government to the Protestant school board of greater Montreal in 1968 from a list recommended by the Canadian Jewish Congress. The Protestant board agreed to accept as "associate schools" those Jewish voluntary elementary and high schools which had the same pedagogical standards and regulations pertaining to training of teaching staff, curriculum, and salaries, and to pay an annual grant of 350 dollars per Jewish pupil attending nine of these approved "associate" Jewish day schools, leaving Hebrew studies and religious instruction to be financed by the associate Jewish day schools themselves. In 1969 there were about 5,000 children attending the Jewish day schools in Montreal which were approved "associate schools" receiving the aforementioned per capita grant, and the Jewish children attending the Protestant elementary and high schools in 1969 numbered 17,000.

Jews formed the third largest ethnic group in metropolitan Montreal during the period from 1901 to 1961, exceeded only by the population of French origin with 64.2% and those of Anglo-Celtic origin with 17.9%. Thirty-four percent of the total Jewish population of Canada lived in Montreal. By 1961 this percentage had increased to 40.4. In 1961 there were 72 cities, towns, and villages in what is known as the suburban metropolitan Montreal census area, and Jews were resident in 64 of them. There were seven suburban cities and towns within the metropolitan Montreal area each with a Jewish population exceeding 1,000. Those residential suburbs with their Jewish population in 1961 were Outremont (9,033), Cote St. Rue (8,307), St. Laurent (7,696), Chomedy (3,493), Mount Royal (2,617), Westmount (2,222), and Hampstead (1,560).

The majority of the total Jewish population in metropolitan Montreal in 1961 was Canadian-born (56.9%), while 11.7% were born in Poland; 10.0% in Russia; 4.4% in Romania; 3.6% in Hungary; 2.3% in the United States; 1.6% in the United Kingdom; 4.4% in other European countries; and 5.1% in all other countries. 53.8% of the total Jewish population of metropolitan Montreal in 1961 reported English as their mother tongue and 30.2% reported Yiddish as their mother tongue; while 97.2% could speak English and French. Jews engaged in commerce formed 30% of the total Jewish labor force in metropolitan Montreal in 1961, followed by 22% in industry, 16% in clerical occupations, 13% in the professions, 12% in service occupations, 2% in transport and communications, 1% in construction, and 1% in unskilled labor.

In 1970 the national headquarters of almost all Jewish communal organizations in Canada were situated in that city. The Young Men's Hebrew Benevolent Society founded in Montreal in 1863 was the first Jewish social welfare organization in Canada. Its object was to assist the increasing stream of Jewish immigrants fleeing from discrimination and persecution in Eastern Europe. It changed its name to the Baron de Hirsch Institute in 1900 in recognition of the munificent grants made to it by Baroness Clara de Hirsch. As the Jewish population of Montreal increased, the Montreal Jewish community became more self-supporting and fund-raising campaigns multiplied; and in 1916 the Baron de Hirsch Institute, the Mount Sinai sanatorium, the Herzl dispensary, and the Jewish home for the aged combined to form the federation of Jewish community services. During the period from 1916 to 1965 the number of Jewish social welfare and health agencies continued to multiply rapidly and the need for larger
Funds necessary to maintain them brought about the organization of a combined Jewish appeal campaign in 1941, which in 1951 joined with the United Israel Appeal to conduct one annual fund-raising campaign. In 1965 the need for still greater coordination, planning, fund-raising, and cooperative action in Jewish community affairs brought about the reorganization of the Montreal federation of Jewish community services and the combined Jewish appeal into a new all-embracing body named the allied Jewish community services of Montreal.

Members of the Jewish community in Montreal have been prominent in the political, musical, literary, and artistic life of Canada during the past century. Lazarus Phillips, a prominent Jewish lawyer active in Jewish communal life, was appointed a member of the Canadian senate in 1969. In 1970 Victor Goldbloom, who was reelected as a member of the Quebec provincial legislature, became the first Jew to hold the position of a cabinet minister in the Quebec provincial government.

The Jews of Montreal make up the second-largest Jewish community in Canada. The community is one of the oldest and most populous in the country, about 23% of the total population. In 2011, the Jewish population of Montreal was approximately 91,000, with over 40,000 Jewish households. Jews comprise 2.4% of the city's total population. The community is composed of several different Jewish groups that settled in Canada at different time periods and under varied circumstances.

The most recent waves of immigration have included Jews from the former Soviet Union (some via Israel), France, Argentina, and small numbers of Ethiopian Jews from Israel.

Since the beginning of the 20th century, the Jewish community of Montreal had established numerous organizations. Many of these organizations were in the areas of social welfare, health care, education and culture while others were established specifically to fund various community activities. In 1965, a federation was established to better organize community planning and fundraising. Originally, this federation was known as Allied Jewish Community Services but was renamed to Federation CJA in the 1990s.

The Federation supports several organizations throughout the city of Montreal. Due to their extensive support of Israel and local allocation for social services and educational programs, the Jewish community of Montreal is considered one of the most generous communities per capita in all of North America. Other notable Jewish organizations include The Jewish Community Foundation, the Jewish Genealogical Society of Montreal, Canadian Council of Israel, B'nai B'rith Canada, The Canadian Jewish Congress, and the Jewish Immigrant Aid Services.

Religious life among the Jews of Montreal is quite diverse. While Orthodox congregations make up the overwhelming majority of the city's synagogues, there are also Reform, Reconstructionist and numerous Conservative congregations. Even within the Orthodox movement is a wide spectrum of communities, including several Hasidic sects, Modern Orthodox, ultra-Orthodox and Sephardi. Orthodox Judaism has historically been very strong in Montreal. Since the early 21st century, Chabad Lubavitch has established a significant presence in the areas of Côte des Neiges and Hampstead.

The Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue, also known as Shearith Israel is Montreal's oldest synagogue. It is also the oldest congregation in Canada. Formally established in 1768, its original building, designed in a Judeo-Egyptian style, was the first non-Catholic place of worship in the entire province of Québec. It remained the only place of Jewish worship in Montreal until 1846.

Beginning in the 19th century, most Jewish families opted to send their children to private Jewish day schools. Whether due to segregation or the confessional nature of Montreal's public schools, the Jewish community established a number of schools of their own. As of 2015, there were about 13 private Jewish schools in Montreal. More than half of Jewish school age children are enrolled in private Jewish schools. Approximately half of the Jewish students who complete Jewish elementary school continue to Jewish high school. Jewish education in Montreal is quite varied. There are many private schools affiliated with a wide range of Jewish movements and communities, including Orthodox, ultra-Orthodox, Hasidic, Conservative, Yiddishist, and Sephardi.

There are additionally several youth movements and organizations, and a well-established network of camps, after-school activities and educational programs.

The city's major Jewish cultural centers include the Museum of Jewish Montreal (founded in 2010), the Montreal Holocaust Memorial Centre, the Jewish Public Library, the Miles Nada Jewish Community Centre, and the YM-YWHA Jewish Community Centres of Montreal: The Ben Weider JCC and Y Country Camp. There are also more than 25 different Chabad centers throughout Greater Montreal.

The area with the largest Jewish population in Montreal is Cote St. Luc (19,395), where Jews comprise nearly 63% of the overall population. Cote St. Luc also boasts the largest population of Sephardim in Montreal (5,580). Large contingents of Sephardi Jews also live in Ville St. Laurent (3,365) and the West Island (2,205).

The second-largest population is in the West Island, with 12,055 Jewish residents. The affluent suburb of Hampstead has the highest density of Jews than any other area, approximately 75% of its total populace. Other areas with sizeable Jewish populations include St. Laurent, Snowdon and Côte des Neiges.

Montreal is also home to a number of Haredi enclaves. In Outremont are the three Hasidic dynasties of Belz, Satmar and Skver; in Côte des Neiges is a sizeable Lubavitch community; and in the suburb of Boisbrand are the Tash, a group originating in Hungary.

Nearly one third of Montreal's Jewish population was born outside Canada. The largest waves of immigration have been from North Africa and Eastern Europe, including the former Soviet Union.

In addition to the Holocaust Memorial, Jewish Museum and the Jewish Public Library, the most significant Jewish landmarks and points of interest can be found in the historic Jewish quarter. Located on St. Laurent Boulevard, or Main Street, this historic neighborhood was once home to a number of synagogues and Jewish businesses. By 1871, a Jewish enclave of 400 people had formed and Yiddish was the common language. Other main streets include Clark Street, Park Avenue, Saint Urbain Street and Esplanade Street.

Serving both the Jewish and non-Jewish communities of Montreal are various hospitals and health care facilities that had been established by Jews. The most notable are hospitals, Mount Sinai and the Jewish General Hospital. The latter provides general and specialized care and was partially founded by Jewish philanthropist Allan Bronfman. Ground broke on the hospital in 1931 and in 1933 it was officially named the Jewish General Hospital. The first patient was admitted the following year. Other Jewish health care services include Donald Berman Maimonides (geriatric care) and the Miriam Home, a rehabilitation center that provides residential services for children and adults with disabilities.

Circulating throughout Montreal are the city's very own Jewish publications. The largest and most well-known is "Montreal Jewish Magazine". A premium source for all things Jewish, this widely distributed publication has a readership of more than 90,000. Montreal Jewish Magazine includes a wide variety of articles and editorials about community events, local activities and international news.

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.

Canada

Canada

A country in the northern part of North America. 

21st Century

Estimated Jewish population in 2018: 390,000 out of 37,000,000 (1%). Canada has the fourth largest Jewish population in the world. It is generally regarded as the fastest growing Jewish community outside Israel. The majority of the Jewish population of Canada is concentrated in the greater area of the largest cities: Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, and Ottawa. Smaller communities exists all over the country, including Winnipeg, MB, traditionally called "Jerusalem of Canada".  

Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) is the main umbrella organization supporting the numerous Jewish Federations and communities in Canada. Established in 2011, CIJA consolidated and included various Jewish organizations, most notably the former Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC). 

Mainly of Ashkenazi background with significant Sephardi and Mizrahi communities located chiefly in Montreal greater area, most Jews of Canada belong to the main steams of Judaism with the Conservative and Orthodox movements sharing each about 40% of the Jewish population while the remaining 20% belong to the Reform movement.