Part of a series on |
Ethnicity in Toronto |
---|
|
Toronto's Jewish community is the most populous and one of the oldest in the country, forming a significant part of the history of the Jews in Canada. It numbered about 240,000 in the 2001 census, having overtaken Montreal in the 1970s. As of 2011, the Greater Toronto Area is home to 188,710 Jews. [1] The community in Toronto is composed of many different Jewish ethnic divisions, reflecting waves of immigration which started in the early 19th century. Canada's largest city is a centre of Jewish Canadian culture, and Toronto's Jews have played an important role in the development of the city.
The earliest record of Jewish settlement in York is an 1817 communication between colonial offices. The report indicated that several weddings had taken place, one of which was Jewish. [2] However, the first permanent Jewish presence in Toronto began in 1832, with the arrival of Arthur Wellington Hart, the Harts being among the most established Jewish families of British North America. By 1846, the census indicated that 12 Jews lived in Toronto, with the number doubling the following year. [3] The first Jewish cemetery was established in 1849 and Toronto's first synagogue, the Toronto Hebrew Congregation, was founded in 1856. [4]
In the late nineteenth and early part of the twentieth century, the Jewish community and other non-British immigrants were densely concentrated in "The Ward" between College Street, Queen Street, Yonge Street and University Avenue.[ citation needed ]
Mendel Ryman, who immigrated to Toronto from Jezierna, a town in the Austrian Empire, in 1903, built the first Jewish bathhouse and mikvah (shvitz) on Centre Avenue. [5]
Members of the Toronto Jewish community bought land and established the Oakdale Golf & Country Club in 1926 in response to antisemitism in Canada that strictly excluded Jews from private golf clubs, including the Rosedale Golf Club. [6] [7] [8] [9]
Toronto's Jews generally centred themselves in distinct neighbourhoods and ethnic enclaves. By the 1930s, the largest concentration of Jews had moved west from "The Ward" to Kensington Market with Jews representing upwards of 80% of the population. [10] Between Queen and Bloor Streets, toward Dovercourt, Jews established a distinct domicile, forming the ethnic majority in many areas. Often, employment opportunities determined the areas in which the Jews settled, as in the case of the Spadina district, a hub of the textile industry.
With the election of the first Parti Québécois government in 1976 and the looming prospect of Quebec independence, many members of Montreal's largely anglophone Jewish community migrated to Toronto. As a result, Canada's epicentre of Jewry effectively moved to Toronto. [11] Simultaneously, Toronto Jews left the crowded confines of the ethnic neighbourhoods within the city's core, retreating to the near suburbs along Bathurst Street. [12]
In the 1990s and early 2000s, many Jews from the former Soviet Union (FSU) immigrated to Canada, approximately 70% of whom chose to settle in Greater Toronto. [13] [14]
In 1871, 157 Jews lived in Toronto, rising to 1,425 by 1891 and 3,090 by 1901. The community grew in the wake of immigration from Europe, where Jews suffered from persecution and pogroms. By 1911, the Jewish population of Toronto had grown to 18,237. The number almost doubled by 1921. In 1931, there were 45,000 Jews living in Toronto, mostly Polish Jewish immigrants. After 1924, when the United States imposed immigration restrictions, Toronto attracted a growing number of Jewish immigrants. On the eve of World War II, the Canadian government also restricted immigration. As a result, only small groups of Austrian and German Jews fleeing Hitler found a safe haven in Toronto during this period. In 1941, the Jewish population was 49,046, [15] comprising the largest ethnic minority in Toronto. [16]
Data from 2011 National Household Survey shows 188,710 Jews living in the Greater Toronto Area, [1] comprising nearly half of the nation's Jews. [17]
Data from the 2021 Canadian census for the city of Toronto (not including all parts of the Greater Toronto Area) shows 74,080 individuals reporting their ethnic or cultural origin as Jewish, and 99,390 reporting it as their religion. [18]
In 1849, Abraham Nordheimer purchased land for a cemetery on behalf of the Toronto Hebrew Congregation, an Orthodox synagogue that became known as the Daytshishe Shul. In 1856, Lewis Samuel of York, England helped to found the Sons of Israel Congregation, which merged with Toronto Hebrew Congregation in 1858. In the 1920s, the synagogue became a Reform synagogue, joining the Union of American Hebrew Congregations. [15] As Jews fleeing the pogroms in Czarist Russia in the 1880s began to settle in Toronto, three new synagogues were established. Goel Tzedek and Beth Hamidrash Hagadol Chevra Tehillim, founded by Russian Jews in 1883, and Shomrei Shabbos, founded in 1888 by Jews from Galicia, Poland. [15] In 1889, two more congregations were established: Beth Jacob, known as the Poylishe Shul, and Adath Israel, founded by Romanian Jews. [15]
For ten years, Shomrei Shabbos was housed in rented buildings along Richmond Street. The first permanent synagogue was on Chestnut Street. A year later, the first rabbi was brought to Toronto, Rabbi Joseph Weinreb of Busk, Galicia. In 1933, the synagogue moved to a larger building that could seat 300 on the corner of Brunswick and Sussex. [19]
In the decades leading up to World War I, the community established Jewish afternoon schools, theatres, a newspaper, Benjamin's Funeral Chapel, and mutual-aid societies. [20]
Bathurst Street has been the heart of the Jewish community of Toronto for many decades. [21] Since the early twentieth century, Jews have lived around Bathurst Street south of Bloor Street, east to Spadina Avenue (particularly in the Kensington Market district) and west to beyond Christie Pits. After World War II, wealthier members of the community moved to Forest Hill. [22] Today, much of the Jewish community resides along the street from north of St. Clair Avenue to south of Wilson Avenue and beyond the city limits at Steeles Avenue, extending from Steeles north until Elgin Mills Road in Richmond Hill. [23]
Since the early 1970s, the northern stretch of Bathurst has become one of the centres of the Russian Jewish community in Toronto. [24] The electoral district of York Centre has the largest number of Russo-Canadian voters in Canada. Due to the large number of Russian delicatessens, restaurants, and book and clothing stores, the neighbourhood has been nicknamed "Little Moscow." [25] [ failed verification ]
Toronto has two eruvin for the purposes of Sabbath and Yom Kippur observance: one in the central area (though excluding downtown) and one in the north end, which extends to Thornhill; these two eruvin are connected under Highway 401 at Bathurst Street, Wilson Avenue, and Bayview Avenue. Richmond Hill has a separate eruv as well. [26]
The original eruv was downtown, but because its boundaries could not be agreed upon, [27] it is not recognized by the majority of Shabbat-observant Jews in Toronto. Chabad of Downtown Toronto, for example, states that there is no eruv in downtown Toronto. [28]
Bathurst Manor is a neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located in northern Toronto in the former suburb of North York. It sits on a plateau bounded on the north by Finch Avenue West, on the west by Dufferin Street, on the east by the Don River, and on the south by Sheppard Avenue West. The area is also regarded as part of the Downsview postal area as designated by Canada Post. It is part of the former city of North York, which merged with five other municipalities and a regional government to form the new "City of Toronto" in 1998. It is part of the federal and provincial electoral district York Centre, and Toronto electoral ward 10: York Centre (East). In 2006, it had a population of 14,615.
Overbrook Park is a neighborhood in the West Philadelphia section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It was founded in the 1940s on the site of a former farm known as Supio's farm, offering new housing for returning GIs and their families. Overbrook Park is a largely middle-class African-American and historically Jewish-American neighborhood.
Glenhazel is a suburb of the Municipality of Johannesburg, South Africa. It is located in Region E, bordering Fairmount, Sandringham, Lyndhurst and Percelia Estate. The area lies on a sloping hill with a park in the valley. It is known for its large Jewish population as well as for being home to the largest Jewish kosher hub in Johannesburg, which attracts many Jewish tourists.
The Holy Blossom Temple is a Reform synagogue located at 1950 Bathurst Street in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the oldest Jewish congregation in Toronto. Founded in 1856, it has more than 7,000 members. W. Gunther Plaut, who died on 8 February 2012 at the age of 99, was a long time Senior Rabbi for this synagogue. Notable members and supporters include Heather Reisman and Gerald Schwartz who made donations to create the Gerald Schwartz/Heather Reisman Centre for Jewish Learning at Holy Blossom Temple.
Adath Israel Congregation is a Conservative synagogue located at 37 Southbourne Avenue in the North York district of Toronto, Ontario. It is one of the largest Conservative Synagogues in Canada, with approximately 1,600 member families. Like the majority of Conservative synagogues in the Toronto area, and in contrast to most American Conservative synagogues, has not adopted egalitarianism. In 2008, the congregation seceded from the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism and affiliated with the Canadian Council of Conservative Synagogues.
Lawrence Manor is a neighbourhood in the city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. This neighbourhood is bounded by Bathurst Street on the east, Highway 401 to the north, the Allen to the west, and Lawrence Avenue to the south. The western side of the area borders along Bathurst Heights and the large public housing project.
Humewood–Cedarvale is an area of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, consisting of Humewood in the south, divided by Vaughan Road and Cedarvale Ravine. The neighbourhood is bordered by Bathurst Street on the east, Eglinton Avenue to the north, Arlington Avenue to the west, and St. Clair Avenue to the south. Humewood has also been known as "the Woods" because of its many streets that have names ending with "-wood", including Wychwood, Humewood, Cherrywood, Valewood, Maplewood, Wellwood, Kenwood, and Pinewood. The neighbourhood's main commercial areas are along St. Clair Ave. W., referred to as Hillcrest Village and along Eglinton Ave. W..
The First Russian Congregation of Rodfei Sholem Anshei Kiev, known as the Kiever Synagogue or Kiever Shul, is a Modern Orthodox Jewish synagogue in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by Jewish immigrants from Ukraine in 1912, and formally incorporated in 1914. The congregants were poor working-people, and services were led by members and held in their homes. Two houses were eventually purchased in the Kensington Market area, and in their place construction was completed on the current twin-domed Byzantine Revival building in 1927. The building was once the site of George Taylor Denison's home Bellevue.
Breed Street Shul, also known as Congregation Talmud Torah of Los Angeles or Breed Street Synagogue, is a former Orthodox Jewish synagogue in the Boyle Heights section of Los Angeles, California, in the United States. It was the largest Orthodox synagogue west of Chicago from 1915 to 1951, and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
Synagogues may be considered "oldest" based on different criteria, and can be oldest in the sense of oldest surviving building, or oldest in the sense of oldest congregation. Some old synagogue buildings have been in continuous use as synagogues, while others have been converted to other purposes, and others, such as the Touro Synagogue, were shuttered for many decades. Some early established congregations have been in continuous existence, while other early congregations have ceased to exist.
First Narayever Congregation is a traditional-egalitarian synagogue located at 187 Brunswick Avenue, in the Harbord Village neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the largest Jewish congregation in downtown Toronto. It was founded by the Jewish immigrants from Narayiv, western Ukraine, hence the Yiddish name "Narayever".
The Stashover-Slipia Congregation is a halachically progressive traditional unaffiliated Jewish congregation in the North York district of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The current congregation is a merger of two of the oldest congregations in Toronto - Anshei Stashov and Chevra Knesseth Israel Anshei Slipia.
Anshei Minsk is a synagogue in the Kensington Market neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded in 1912 by poor Jewish immigrants from what is now Belarus, which at the time was part of the Russian Empire. The current Byzantine Revival building was completed in 1930.
Shaarei Tzedec Congregation is an Orthodox Jewish synagogue located at 397 Markham Street in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
The Beach Hebrew Institute is a synagogue in The Beaches neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1919 as an Orthodox Jewish congregation, the members purchased their current building—a former church—in 1920, and renovated it in 1926.
City Shul is a Reform synagogue in downtown Toronto, founded in October 2012 and led by Rabbi Elyse Goldstein. Until September 2017, the congregation met at the Wolfond Centre for Jewish Campus Life, near the St George campus of the University of Toronto. From 2017 to 2022, it was located in the same building as Bloor Street United Church. Since 2022, the congregation has met at the St George by the Grange.
Joseph (Yosef) Weinreb (1869–1943), also known as the "Galitzianer Rav," was the first chief rabbi of Toronto, Canada.
Beth Tzedec Congregation is a Conservative synagogue on Bathurst Street in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded in 1955 with the amalgamation of the Goel Tzedec and Beth Hamidrash Hagadol Chevra Tehillim congregations, established respectively in 1883 and 1887. The synagogue has some 2,600 member units, representing over 4,400 members.