Federation
On 3 January 1943, the Jewish community of Niagara Falls established a Federation. It was one of the smallest communities in the province to support this type of undertaking. The first meeting was held in the shul and the executive that was elected included: H. Bogomolny (Chair), S. Wernick (Vice-Chair), Joe Greenspan (Secretary), L. Stein (Treasurer), I. Zeldin, H. D. Rosberg and T. Dale (Committee Members). The main purpose of this organization was to raise funds through an annual campaign dinner and allocate the funds to charitable causes in Palestine (later Israel) and Toronto, as well as support local causes and the synagogue. The committee typically met at H. D. Rosberg’s house and organized the annual campaign dinner with the help of the local Sisterhood members.
The inaugural dinner for the Federation was held on 31 January 1943 and the speakers for the event included Mr. Sadowski and Mr. Lunenfeld. Pledge cards were distributed to the guests and the campaign target was set at $2500. In future campaigns, prominent speakers from across Canada were brought in, such as politicians J. B. Salsberg, Phil Givens and Allan Grossman, some of the Consul Generals of Israel, as well as George Liban, who was the Executive Director of the Zionist Organization of Canada. During the 1950s, entertainers were also added to the program, including famed singer Eddie Cantor in 1950 and Cantor Danto from Beth Emeth Congregation in Toronto. The banquets were quite successful, some attracting over 100 guests, likely from surrounding Ontario and U.S. cities.
The campaign grew significanty over time, from $10,717 in 1950 to $52,179 in 1982. The funds were distributed to organizations such as the Canadian Jewish Congress, Youth Aliyah, the Old Folks Home in Toronto, JIAS, Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, Russian Relief, United Palestine Appeal as well as some local Christian charities.
