The 1950s
Groundbreaking ceremony, 11 April 1951
In 1951, the Building Committee accepted a bid from a local construction company for the Jewish Community Centre and a ground breaking ceremony was held on April 11th of that year. The committee decided to name the centre the Newman Memorial Building, to pay tribute to the late Abe Newman and his wife Mary. That year also marked the 25th anniversary of the shul. The president of the synagogue was David Katzman and the Rabbi was Albert Pappenheim.
The community centre was completed in September 1954. The two-storey brick building included four classrooms for the religious school, a gymnasium/ auditorium that could seat 450, an office for the rabbi, a second meeting room that could accommodate 200, a board room and a library. The dedication ceremony was chaired by Saul Granek, the Chair of the Building Committee. Rabbi Gabriel Davy and Cantor Ben-Gali officiated at the dedication. The ceremony was followed by an unveiling of the inscription on the building by Dr. Harry Newman, the eldest son of Abe and Mary Newman. A reception and dinner were then held in the new building. The guest speaker was Rabbi Abraham Feinberg from Toronto and the musical entertainment was provided by Mort Freeman, a baritone singer from the U.S., and Hanna Zamir, an Israeli opera star from Tel Aviv. In 1955, a year after the dedication ceremony, a library was built that included thousands of volumes of Judaica works as well as children’s books.
