The Community Today
Kingston's Jewish community today is flourishing. Its two synagogues serve the variety of beliefs among the Jewish population well. Those unaffiliated with either synagogue can be involved with Jewish life through membership in the Jewish Community Council and its various educational and outreach activities. Thanks to the presence of Queen's University, the city's population of young Jews is continually renewed; as well, the university attracts Jewish academics as teachers. The Queen's Jewish Studies program allows those interested to delve into the academic study of Judaism. The program also enriches the city's cultural life through public lectures and special programs that are open to the entire campus and community.
Though thoughts of the past may evoke nostalgia, Kingston's Jews nonetheless remain engaged in meeting the challenges of the present and in looking to the future. While the tensions that divided the synagogue community in two in the past had been strong, recently there have been opportunities for collaboration, particularly under the auspices of the Kingston Jewish Council. Indeed, the Jewish Community Council has served as an important bridge between the two congregations in Kingston, as well as the many of the Jews in town who are unaffiliated with either congregation. In recent years the Council has offered many popular and well attended activities and events such as the Jewish Community Choir, the children's Chanukah party and the annual Holocaust Remembrance Day memorial and Israel Independence Day celebration. It has also organized a Jewish art show and a klezmer band concert. In the past, members of Iyr Ha-Melech who so wished, were permitted burial in the Beth Israel cemetery, provided they observed the Orthodox rituals. Today, it is possible for an intermarried couple from the Orthodox shul to be buried together in Iyr Ha-Melech plots provided they join the Temple for one year.
