The 1950s
The new synagogue was opened by the Sons of Jacob Congregation at a dedication ceremony on June 10, 1956. The old synagogue on Pinnacle Street was sold to the Canadian Legion for $16,000 and became the Royal Canadian Legion Hall. The cost of the new property was $6,000 and the overall cost to build the synagogue was just over $70,000. A mortgage was taken out to help finance the construction of the new building. Norm Albert and others worked a weekly bingo night at Tobe Country Gardens for many years to help the community pay off the mortgage on the shul.
Abraham Safe, J. Albert and F. Gitelman were involved in the Torah processional at the opening ceremony of the new synagogue at 211 Victoria Avenue, located in a residential neighbourhood at the corner of Bleecker Avenue. The whole community participated with individual donations bequeathed to specific furnishings. For example, new ark covers were donated by Mr. and Mrs. Abraham Safe in 1958, as part of the ongoing renovation and upkeep of the new building. Following the opening of the new shul, in 1957, the congregation’s president, S. Safe, resigned and moved to Montreal. Joel Mazer, a local manufacturer of costume jewellery and owner of Joel E. Mazer Ltd. located on Dundas Street East, was his replacement.
The Religious Divide
Norm Albert talks about how a disagreement within the community about the level of orthodoxy the congregation should follow led to conflict by the board of directors as well as difficulty in finding and keeping rabbis after the 1940s.
Interview with Norm Albert, 30 May 2007, Sharon Gubbay Helfer. OJA, Oral History #311
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