Shomrim Laboker, Beth Yehuda, Shaare Tefillah, Beth Hamedrash Hagadol Tifereth Israel

1997 - present
6410 Westbury

(Traduction à venir)

Historic Outline - Beth Hamedrash Hagadol

Far from the center of the Jewish community, this synagogue was in the present day antique district. In 1917 the congregation established itself in what was probably a former Presbyterian church at 1887 Notre Dame. It was the only synagogue servicing the community in that area and held the only Talmud Torah in the neighborhood. It must have as well served an important social function as the congregation maintained not only a Ladies Auxiliary but a Young People’s Society.

The congregation remained at the Notre Dame location until 1949. In 1951, Jacob Cohen and a handful of officers met with members of a burgeoning congregation on McKenzie Street in the Côte des Neiges area. The new congregation took over the older synagogue’s assets, accepted its charter, perpetuated its name and hung its memorial plaques in the new synagogue. The inauguration of the McKenzie shul, in 1953, was dedicated to the members of Congregation Beth Hamedrash Hagadol, 1917-1949 and to its honouary president, Jacob Cohen. The new congregation, recognizing its amalgamation with a congregation that had relocated from St. Urbain Street, was renamed Beth Haknesseth Hagadol Tifereth. Unable to continue to maintain that building, the congregation merged with the Shomrim Laboker at 6410 Westbury in 1999.

Historic outline - Beth Yehuda

The 50th anniversary booklet of 1940 suggests that the congregation recognized its date of origin as being around 1890. According to this account, the Beth Yehuda originated with a small congregation of Hasidic followers of the Bohusher rabbi. They named the congregation Ohel Moshe after the Bohusher rabbi’s son. Worshipping at first in the home of Abraham Lang, the fledgling congregation rented space on Cadieux Street in 1902. It was with the purchase of a former theatre at 16 Lagauchetiere East, that the congregation was renamed Beth Yehuda.

It was with great pride that the congregation celebrated the construction of an architecturally significant synagogue in 1923 at 210 Duluth East. Despite considerable and ongoing financial challenges, the congregation remained at that location until the late-fifties when it joined other immigrant congregations in forming the amalgamated Shomrim Laboker, Beth Yehuda, Shaare Tefillah, Beth Hamedrash Hagadol Tifereth Israel in the emerging Jewish neighbourhood of Snowdon at 6410 Westbury.

Written by Sara Tauben

Links

Liens

Congregation Shomrim Laboker
Traces of the Past

Sources

Tauben, Sara Ferdman. "Aspirations and Adaptations: Immigrant Synagogues of Montreal, 1880s-1945." Masters Thesis. Concordia University, 2004.

Tauben, Sara Ferdman. Traces of the Past: Montreal's Early Synagogues. Montréal: Véhicule Press, 2011.

*Images courtesy of McCord Museum, Arie Subar, the private holdings of Eiran Harris, and Sara Tauben.

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