HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Beth Israel Synagogue ( he, בית ישראל) is a Modern Orthodox synagogue located at 131 Wolf Willow Road NW in the Oleskiw neighbourhood of Edmonton,
Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Terri ...
, Canada. Founded in 1906 as the Edmonton Hebrew Association, it is the city's oldest synagogue. Beth Israel's (and Edmonton's) first rabbi was Hyman Goldstick, recruited from Toronto in 1906; he was later elected mayor of
Edson, Alberta Edson is a town in west-central Alberta, Canada. It is located in Yellowhead County, west of Edmonton along the Yellowhead Highway and east of the intersection with Highway 47. History The town was founded as Heatherwood, but the name wa ...
. The congregation's Hebrew school, founded in 1907, would share space with the congregation until 1925, and later became Canada's first Jewish day school. Over the years, the congregation has occupied three different buildings; in 1912 it moved into its first building on 95th Street. It moved into its second building, on 113th Street, in 1952, and moved into its current location in 2000. Long-serving rabbis include A. Pinsky (1912–1933) and Abraham Postone (1941–1955). and Rabbi Daniel Friedman 2002–2018, and Rabbi Zolly Claman (2018–present).


Early history

Edmonton had only sixteen Jews living in it in 1901, but the Jewish population grew rapidly as a result of immigration from Eastern Europe, and in-migration from small towns and Jewish agricultural colonies in Alberta and Saskatchewan. In 1906, Edmonton's Jews, in concert with Jews in Calgary, began recruiting in eastern Canada for a rabbi to organize their communities. Hyman Goldstick arrived from Toronto in August to take on the role. Born in Latvia in 1882, Goldstick was Edmonton's first rabbi, and also served as Calgary's rabbi. He was also the Edmonton community's ''
mohel A ( he, מוֹהֵל , Ashkenazi pronunciation , plural: , arc, מוֹהֲלָא , "circumciser") is a Jew trained in the practice of , the "covenant of circumcision". Etymology The noun ( in Aramaic), meaning "circumciser", is derived from ...
'' ( circumciser), and ritual slaughterer (subsequent rabbis would, for decades, also fill all three roles). On September 16, 1906, the Edmonton Jewish community founded the Edmonton Hebrew Association. Its role was to provide for all Edmonton's Jewish needs, including Jewish education, circumcision, prayer services, kosher meat, and burial.
High Holiday The High Holidays also known as the High Holy Days, or Days of Awe in Judaism, more properly known as the Yamim Noraim ( he, יָמִים נוֹרָאִים, ''Yāmīm Nōrāʾīm''; "Days of Awe") #strictly, the holidays of Rosh HaShanah ("Jewi ...
services were held in the
Independent Order of Odd Fellows The Independent Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF) is a non-political and non-sectarian international fraternal order of Odd Fellowship. It was founded in 1819 by Thomas Wildey in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Evolving from the Odd Fellows, Or ...
hall. In April 1907, the Edmonton Hebrew Association registered the Edmonton Hebrew Congregation of Beth Israel under the Religious Societies Lands Act of Alberta. In May of that year it purchased land for a
cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite or graveyard is a place where the remains of dead people are buried or otherwise interred. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek , "sleeping place") implies that the land is specifically designated as a buri ...
, near Clover Bar, in Edmonton's east end. In September of that same year William Diamond was appointed president of the congregation. Diamond ran a clothing business he had started in Edmonton; by the 1920s, it was the largest in the
Canadian Prairies The Canadian Prairies (usually referred to as simply the Prairies in Canada) is a region in Western Canada. It includes the Canadian portion of the Great Plains and the Prairie Provinces, namely Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. These provin ...
. Diamond would serve as congregational president until 1938, the same year the synagogue transferred title of its cemetery to the local ''
chevra kadisha The term ''Chevra kadisha'' (Modern Hebrew: חֶבְרָה קַדִּישָׁא) gained its modern sense of "burial society" in the nineteenth century. It is an organization of Jewish men and women who see to it that the bodies of deceased Je ...
'' (burial society). In September 1907, the Edmonton Hebrew Association also created the Edmonton Talmud Torah for the community's five children, and purchased its first Torah scroll. The Edmonton Talmud Torah would operate out of the synagogue's location for over twelve years, and later became Canada's first Jewish day school.


95th Street building

In 1910, Diamond donated land on 95th Street near Grierson Hill south of Jasper Avenue to the congregation for a synagogue building. Construction of the $11,700 building began in 1911, and was completed in 1912. That year a ''
mikveh Mikveh or mikvah (,  ''mikva'ot'', ''mikvoth'', ''mikvot'', or (Yiddish) ''mikves'', lit., "a collection") is a bath used for the purpose of ritual immersion in Judaism to achieve ritual purity. Most forms of ritual impurity can be purif ...
'' (ritual bath) was constructed next to the synagogue. Goldstick move to
Edson, Alberta Edson is a town in west-central Alberta, Canada. It is located in Yellowhead County, west of Edmonton along the Yellowhead Highway and east of the intersection with Highway 47. History The town was founded as Heatherwood, but the name wa ...
that year, and went into private business. He would later serve on Edson's town council and school board, and as the town's mayor. He was replaced as rabbi that year by A. Pinsky. The Edmonton Talmud Torah moved into its own building in 1925. That year, according to Stuart E. Rosenberg, "its curriculum was adopted at a Hebrew education conference in Saskatoon, as the 'model' for all Western Canadian Hebrew schools. This was a great honour for a Jewish community numbering less than a thousand persons." Pinsky was Beth Israel's longest-serving rabbi, resigning in 1933; he was replaced that year by Isaac Haft. In 1940, Abraham Postone would join as assistant, and in 1941 would take on the senior role, after the death of Haft. Born in Lithuania in 1915, Postone was married to Haft's daughter Evelyn. He would serve until 1955.


119th Street building

Three lots on 113th Street were purchased in 1945, to accommodate a new synagogue building. By 1949, however, the land was "deemed unsuitable", as the location was not central to the Jewish community. That year two lots were purchased instead on 119th Street, in Edmonton's Oliver neighborhood. The construction of the new building at that location was initially delayed in favor of a new Talmud Torah; when that plan was abandoned in 1951, planning for and construction of the synagogue began. In 1952, the land on 113th Street was sold, and the old synagogue building on 95th street was put up for sale. That same year the new building construction was completed, in time for the High Holidays. The 95th Street building became a Catholic church. Louis Ginsburg joined Postone as rabbi in 1954; that year, the Talmud Torah moved to a new building in the city's northwest section, and Edmonton's Jewish Community Council was formed. The Jewish Community Council would assume financial responsibility for a number of local Jewish causes, including the Talmud Torah. Ginsburg was followed in 1955 by A. Fruichter, in 1957 by Dr. Eli Kahn, and in 1959 by Bertram G. Fink. Fink would serve until 1963, and the following year would be replaced by the returning Ginsburg, who would serve until 1967. After a two-year hiatus, Abraham Mandelbaum joined as rabbi in 1969, but served only until 1970. Saul Aranov served from 1970 to 1976 and was followed by Rabbis Rosenberg (1976–1977) and Sultan (1977). Milton Polinsky served from 1977 to 1982, followed by Akiva Mann (1982–1989).


Wolf Willow Road building

Land was donated at 131 Wolf Willow Road NW for a new synagogue in 1984, but it would be another twelve years before further steps were taken. Rabbi Shmuel Mann replaced his brother Rabbi Akiva Mann in 1989, serving until 1992. He was followed by Asher Vale (1992–1995) and Eli Lagnado (1995–1999). In 1996, during Lagnado's tenure, a competition was held to design of the current building. Construction began in 1999, and that same year Ari Enkin, a musmach of Rabbi
Ephraim Greenblatt Ephraim Greenblatt (1932–2014) was a rabbi and '' halachic'' authority in the United States, and at the end of his life in Jerusalem. He was famous for his many halachic answers and is considered a leading disciple of Moshe Feinstein. Biography G ...
, joined as rabbi. The new building was opened in May, 2000. In the sanctuary, Torah is read to the congregation from the bimah and the Torah scrolls are stored in the
aron kodesh A Torah ark (also known as the ''Heikhal'', or the ''Aron Kodesh'') refers to an ornamental chamber in the synagogue that houses the Torah scrolls. History The ark, also known as the ''ark of law'', or in Hebrew the ''Aron Kodesh'' or ''aron ha- ...
on the east wall. The congregation face towards the east, and Jerusalem, in praying. The ornamentation features symbols such as
Stars of David The Star of David (). is a generally recognized symbol of both Jewish identity and Judaism. Its shape is that of a hexagram: the compound of two equilateral triangles. A derivation of the '' seal of Solomon'', which was used for decorative ...
, signs of the zodiac and natural forms. On October 31 of that year the new building was
firebombed Firebombing is a bombing technique designed to damage a target, generally an urban area, through the use of fire, caused by incendiary devices, rather than from the blast effect of large bombs. In popular usage, any act in which an incendiary d ...
. Enkin served until 2002, and Rabbi Daniel Friedman & Rabbanit Batya Ivry-Friedman joined as rabbi and rebbetzin that year. In 2007, hate messages were written on the front door of the synagogue, immediately prior to the arrival there of the Premier of Alberta and
Mayor of Edmonton This is a list of mayors of Edmonton, a city in Alberta, Canada. Edmonton was incorporated as a town on January 9, 1892, with Matthew McCauley acclaimed as its first mayor during the town's first election, held February 10, 1892. On October ...
to celebrate the congregation's 100th anniversary. Membership was 250 families in 2008.


Notable people associated with Beth Israel

Joe Shoctor Joseph Harvey Shoctor (August 18, 1922 – April 19, 2001) was a Canadian theatre producer, real estate developer, and lawyer. Shoctor was born in Edmonton, Alberta in 1922, the son of a Jewish father, and grew up in the Boyle Street neighbourh ...
– lawyer, founder of Edmonton's Citadel Theatre, recipient of the
Alberta Order of Excellence The Alberta Order of Excellence (french: Ordre d'excellence de l'Alberta) is a civilian honour for merit in the Canadian province of Alberta. Instituted in 1979 when Lieutenant Governor Frank C. Lynch-Staunton granted royal assent to the Alberta ...
and the 1998
Governor General's Performing Arts Award A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political r ...
, and officer of the Order of Canada – had a long association with Beth Israel Synagogue. Joe's father, Morris, was a supporter of the original 95th street building, Joe pledged the first $1,000 towards the 1952 119th Street building, and was Building Chair for the 2000 Wolf Willow Road synagogue.


See also

*
History of the Jews in Canada Canadian citizens who follow Judaism as their religion and/or are Jewish ethnic divisions, ethnically Jewish are a part of the greater Jewish diaspora and form the third largest Jewish community in the world, exceeded only by those Israeli Jew ...


Notes


References

* * * * * * * * * * *


External links

* {{official website, http://familyshul.org/ 21st-century attacks on synagogues and Jewish communal organizations 1906 establishments in Alberta Modern Orthodox synagogues in Canada Jewish organizations established in 1906 Synagogues completed in 1912 Synagogues completed in 1952 Synagogues completed in 2000 Synagogues in Edmonton 20th-century religious buildings and structures in Canada 21st-century religious buildings and structures in Canada