Rabbis
For the first decade of its existence, the members of Beth Israel met their religious needs for kosher slaughter and Hebrew education for its children thanks to a succession of rabbi-teachers who did double duty killing chickens in the kosher manner for community members, for a fee.
By 1918, the community was in a position to hire a professional cantor and teacher, at a salary of $300 a month. A few years later, the congregation hired one of their longest-serving clergy, Rabbi Saimon Petegorsky, who came to Kingston from Ottawa, along with his wife Sarah and their six children. Petegorsky was with the community from 1922 to 1934, during which time he acted as rabbi, cantor, teacher, shochet and mohel. In addition, he organized a boys minyan and conducted a campaign for a Jewish library in Kingston. He also served as chaplain to Jewish inmates incarcerated in the Kingston penitentiary.
Rabbi Gilbert Klaperman became the director of the newly established Hillel at Queen's University. Klaperman was an exceptional man. Having received rabbinical ordination from the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary in New York in 1941, he served in Kingston from 1942-43 and then went on to a long and distinguished career, earning masters, doctorate and law degrees and eventually becoming president of the Rabbinical Council of America, the largest Orthodox rabbinic group in the world.
Rabbi Abraham Pimontel served as director of Hillel and prayer leader for the High Holidays between 1948 and 1955. Pimontel was a Sephardic Jew born in Amsterdam, who had gone on to earn an M.A. in Oriental Studies from the University of Manchester, England. He came to Kingston with his wife Gertrude and their two daughters. Gertrude Pimontel taught in the Hebrew school, where she is remembered as having been both a woman of learning and a fine teacher.
Another memorable rabbi was South African-born Karpol Bender, who served between 1959 and 1967. The man who guided the community through the process of building its new shul on Centre street, Bender was an inspiring leader and was greatly missed by the community when he moved on to Bar Ilan University in Israel.
