Religion


During the 1950s, the congregation decided to deviate from Orthodox tradition, allowing men and women to pray together. This shift was attributed to changing attitudes as well as pressure from individuals, such as synagogue executive member Jack Leve. By 1960, the executive decided to offer more prayers in English as well as explanations throughout the service, in order to make it more accessible to worshippers.

After Rabbi Rosenthal's departure, the shul was unable to secure a permanent rabbi until 1990, when the North Bay and Sudbury community's pooled their resources to hire Abraham Menachem Israel Avnit. Before that time, he had served a congregation in Zimbabwe. After he was hired, the Sudbury newspaper described him as a "mohel, shofar-blower, baal-korei, shochet, cantor and teacher" whose mission was to establish kosher services and draw in the "stray sheep". Unfortunately, despite his lofty goals, he was unable to bring either of the communities together and secure the type of commitment that they were hoping to achieve for the synagogues and the rabbi.

After that time, the synagogue relied on Jack Abourbih, a urologist who is currently the Dean of Medicine, to teach Hebrew to approximately three or so children each year and lead High Holiday services. After that time, Dennis Perlin, a lawyer from Nova Scotia, ran the services. After he relocated to Toronto, the shul decided to fly in a rabbi from Israel to fulfill that role. They continued to follow this plan until 2001. Since that time, they have relied on David Anidjar from Toronto for this purpose.