Between 1881 and 1924 over two-and-a-half million Jews—roughly one-third of the world’s Jewish population—emigrated from central and eastern Europe, primarily to North America. Motivated by economic deprivation, anti-Semitic persecution, industrialization and urbanization. They sought a new life in countries that promised peace, prosperity and plenty. In North America, these immigrants had to navigate a new language and new social customs. To ease their transition into this society, they often formed social networks based on their place of origin. Such groups—called landsmanschaften or “hometown associations”— provided social benefits like shared medical care, burial societies and familiar religious customs and rituals.  By the 1930s there were 60,000 Jews living in the Kensington Market area with over 30 Synagogues.

As the city of Toronto grew during the postwar years, the downtown Jewish community moved north. By the 1960s, Jewish institutions that had originated and thrived in the downtown core followed their members northward, closing their downtown doors and rebuilding in new spaces uptown.

I lived in Toronto from 1968 to 1974 with a year back in California, mid 1969 to mid 1970.  I was intrigued with the Kensington Market Area and its changing demographics and Jewish history.  In 1972, I took on a photography project to “document” the vanishing Synagogues of Toronto – The Kensington Market area.  Vanishing describes a process and its outcome was uncertain.  In 1972 it was clear that many Synagogues were in decay and some might  vanish. I succeeded in photographing eight Synagogues in downtown Toronto and one in Owen Sound.

Fortunately, only two of the nine have vanished and seven have been renovated, preserved, or revitalized by “returning” Jewish families to the downtown neighborhoods

Kensington Market

During the early twentieth century, Kensington became populated by eastern European Jewish immigrants. The area became known as "the Jewish Market". Jewish merchants operated small shops as tailors, furriers and bakers. Around 60,000 Jews lived in and around Kensington Market during the 1920s and 1930s, worshipping at over 30 local synagogues. There were also many shtiebels (little room or house) – a place used for communal Jewish prayer, in contrast to a formal synagogue. [Wikipedia] {more pictures}

Agudath Israel Anshei Sfard Shul

The congregation was established in 1914, and services were first held in a house. In 1924, a building was erected at 151 Palmerston Ave. It was a thriving shul until the community began to move North in the 1950s. They decided to close their doors in 1978, and the building was subsequently destroyed the following year. [Wikipedia]. {more pictures}

Eastern Children of Israel Synagogue

Bnai Israel Hamizrachim or Eastern Children's Congregation was founded in a house on Berkeley Street before the First World War. Its first synagogue was officially opened in 1918. A Talmud Torah was later added onto the back. The synagogue was bulldozed in 1960 to make way for the Moss Park housing project, although the land sat vacant until 1962. The synagogue subsequently moved to Parliament Street in 1962 but is no longer in existence.  [Ontario Jewish Archives] {more pictures}

Shaarei Tzedic Shul

Shaarei Tzedec Congregation (also known as the Markham Street Shul) is an Orthodox Jewish synagogue founded in 1902 and is the westernmost of the three Orthodox synagogues left in Downtown Toronto. In 1912, a number of families left Shaarei Tzedec, then on Centre Street, in a dispute over burial rites, and formed a new congregation, Chevra Rodfei Sholem, commonly known as the Kiever Shul. Shaarei Tzedec has been located in a converted Victorian semi-detached house since 1937. It is one of the few remaining synagogues and the last remaining shtiebel in the area around Kensington Market area. [Wikipedia] {more pictures}

Kiefer Shul

The First Russian Congregation of Rodfei Sholem Anshei Kiev, known as the Kiever Shul, an Orthodox Shul founded by Jewish immigrants in 1912, and formally incorporated in 1914. Two houses were purchased in the Kensington Market area, and construction was completed on the current twin-domed Byzantine Revival building in 1927. After WWII, the congregation was declining and experiencing financial difficulties and considered selling the building. In 1973, the Archives Committee of the Canadian Jewish Congress Central Region decided to help preserve the Kiever.  A restoration committee was established and by1982, enough money was raised to restore the building. It  became the first Jewish building to be designated a historical site by the province of Ontario -- the Kiever is historically unique because of its distinctive architectural features and because "it was the first synagogue built by Ukrainian Jews who had escaped from Czarist Russia." [Wikipedia] {more pictures}

Knesseth Israel (Junction) Shul

Congregation Knesseth Israel, also known as the Junction Shul, is an Orthodox Jewish congregation in Toronto.  The congregation was established in 1909 by Jewish immigrants, largely from Russia and Poland. Services were originally held at a home and in 1911, the tract of land on which the synagogue was built was purchased and construction began shortly thereafter. 

It is the oldest Toronto synagogue still in use  today. It was restored in the early 1990s and remains active today and is cared for by the descendants of the founding families. [Wikipedia] {more pictures}

Anshei Minsk Shul

One of the first congregations formed in the Kensington Market neighborhood of Toronto in 1912.  The Minsk's founders were poor Jews from Minsk (in Belarus), who had settled in Kensington Market at the turn of the century. At its founding, it was a shtibel or small storefront synagogue typical of poorer Jewish immigrant communities.

Funds were raised for the construction of a synagogue building which began around 1922 but wasn’t completed until the end of 1930.

Anshei Minsk, the Kiever Shul, and Shaarei Tzedek Shul are the only historic Orthodox congregations remaining of at least 40 that existed in downtown Toronto in the early 1930s. Anshei Minsk is the only Orthodox synagogue in downtown Toronto with a full-time rabbi and to hold daily services. [Wikipedia] {more pictures}

Narayever Shul

The town of Narayev that gives its name to the First Narayever Congregation of Toronto, was a small market town in eastern Galicia, now in modern Ukraine. In 1900, Narayev was home to fewer than 1,000 Jews, who comprised close to one-third of the town’s population. The name Narayev derives from two Russian words, “na” and “ray,” meaning “on the way to paradise,” hence the Yiddish name "Narayever."

Founded in 1914 as an Orthodox synagogue by Galician immigrants, it was a landsmanshaft, an association whose members had immigrated from the same town. The congregation originally met in a rented building.

By 1943, after twenty years of renting, the members had raised enough money for the purchase of a permanent house of worship farther west. Originally built as a Foresters’ Hall in the 1890s, the building later served as the home of the Bethel Church, the first Mennonite congregation in Toronto. Because of its origins as a fraternal lodge, the building’s design is not typical for a modern synagogue. Its simple, white-walled sanctuary, seating 220 people, boasted little ornamentation.

After WWII, the Jewish community moved north, leaving their institutions and Synagogues behind. The First Narayever was one of only a handful of downtown synagogues to remain open at that time. It continued to serve the needs of older Orthodox Jews whose own synagogues had relocated. Their needs would come to compete with an alternative vision of congregational renewal in the 1970s and 1980s. In the late 1970s, the First Narayever developed new membership and fundraising projects to revive its dwindling congregation. The synagogue’s identity was shifting as it absorbed younger, unaffiliated Jews into its membership base. These members supported the older congregants by helping to lead services and administer synagogue business

In 1983, the congregation experienced a major transformation in its identity. A new leadership team advanced a successful proposal to allow the full participation of women in its traditional services. While the liturgy remained unchanged, women could now deliver sermons, lead prayers and read from the Torah, a level of participation not permitted for women in Orthodox Judaism. Five long-standing members of the congregation took legal action to prevent these changes. The case was resolved in favour of the new group. The congregation began to call itself “traditional-egalitarian”, while remaining unaffiliated with any larger movement of Judaism. The combination proved attractive to many individuals and families. [from their website and Wikipedia] {more pictures}

Beach Hebrew Institute Shul

The Beach Hebrew Institute, also known as Beth Jacob Congregation (transliterated from Hebrew as "Beit Knesset Beit Ya'akov"), is a Conservative Jewish congregation and synagogue, located in The Beaches neighborhood of Toronto. Founded in 1919 as an Orthodox Jewish congregation, the members purchased their current building—a former church—in 1920, and renovated it in 1926.

Following World War II the congregation declined. The members considered selling the building in the 1970s, but a campaign to save it led to its receiving much needed repairs, and the 1982 designation of the building as a site of historical importance by the City of Toronto. An influx of younger, more liberal families, led to the congregation becoming an unaffiliated egalitarian Conservative congregation. [Wikipedia] {more pictures}

 Beth Ezekiel Shul - Owen Sound

When it comes to being small, few rival historic Beth Ezekiel. In fact, Owen Sound is by far the smallest community in Canada still to have an active synagogue. While urbanization, changing demographics, and attrition have claimed other synagogues, Beth Ezekiel remains steadfast as a unique example of Canada's early Jewish settlement.

There has been a Jewish presence in Owen Sound for as long as there has been the town of Owen Sound. At the turn of the 20th century Jewish merchants and tradespeople, fleeing the pogroms of Eastern Europe, found their way to this bustling commercial centre. In 1893 the Owen Sound Times carried mention of a “Hebrew birth” in Owen Sound. By 1904 a Hebrew teacher was hired to instruct the Jewish community’s children. At about this time regular services were being held, first in homes, then in various rented accommodations.

In 1947, the Calvary Church, built fifty years earlier, was purchased and named in honour of Isaac Ezekiel Cadesky, a driving force in the establishment of the present synagogue. A full-time rabbi soon took up residence with his family on the top floor of the new synagogue to lead services, teach the children, and slaughter chickens, kosher-style, for the growing Jewish community.

Today, though the top floor is vacant, the local Jewish community continues to keep the synagogue alive, and Beth Ezekiel endures as the centre of Jewish life for the region -- and a source of great pride for its congregation. [Website] {more pictures}