Population
By the 1911 Canadian Census, six Jewish families were listed in Belleville. A decade later that number had increased to 61 reported Jewish residents. Jews have consistently comprised less than one per cent of the total population of Belleville, but nonetheless have managed to represent a relatively stable, if small, community. There were 90 Jews in Belleville in 1931, 103 in 1941 and at its height as many as 130 by 1951, prompting the Sons of Jacob Congregation to contract the building of a new synagogue. The congregation has always included Jewish residents of nearby towns such as Trenton and Picton, as well as the further communities of Madoc, Cobourg, Colborne, Napanee and Brighton, though typically there have only been a handful of Jewish families in these towns and other surrounding rural districts.
