Women's Groups
The Ladies Auxiliary was formally organized in the early 1930s, but likely existed informally from the very beginning of the Sons of Jacob Congregation. By 1956, when the new shul was built, there were between 25 and 30 active members and the co-presidents were Mrs. Jennie Nemtin and Mrs. Sue Black. The Ladies Auxiliary organized charity drives, helped sponsor scholarships to finance trips to Israel in the 1950s and prepared meals for virtually every major event at the synagogue. Eleanor Jourard recalls the rummage and bake sales being a community affair, highly organized, involving baking quotas and often arranged in conjunction with other local charity groups including Ladies’ Auxiliary groups from Belleville and district churches. The annual balls, however, were the social events of the season for the whole city.
The local Hadassah-WIZO chapter was formally organized in 1962 by Becky Shulman, who later became the chair of the Eastern Ontario Region. Ethel Burke was the local chapter president in 1969. Most of the Jewish women were involved in both Hadassah and the Ladies Auxiliary, with funds for both groups often being raised at the same event. Members of the Ladies Auxiliary and Hadassah were extremely active in all aspects of the congregation’s social life. Becky Shulman, for example, started the Nudnik newsletter in the late 1970s to help keep the congregation informed of upcoming events, anniversaries, deaths, marriages and the goings on of current and former members of the congregation both in Belleville and those who had moved away but still maintained strong ties to the community. The local Hadassah chapter frequently donated trees on behalf of the Sons of Jacob Synagogue to the city as part of its fundraising activities and on special occasions such as the 30th anniversary in 1978 of Israel’s founding, when the group held a planting ceremony with then Mayor Ben Corke. Florence “Flo” Yanover was president of the local Hadassah-WIZO chapter in 1978 and was remembered as being extremely involved in overseeing the fashion shows, which were highly publicized affairs that included live commentary, music, all the latest Israeli fashions and professional models brought in from Toronto.
