Social Activities
Threatened by the same population decreases felt throughout small communities across Ontario, North Bay’s Jewish community experienced its low point in the 1990s. The young people of the second and third generation of Jewish immigrants to North Bay had all left for opportunities in other places. Of the twenty-eight pupils registered in the Talmud Torah program in 1970-1971, none lived in North Bay by 1992. However, because the city has always had a small Jewish population, the decline has not been felt so drastically in North Bay as it has in other places.
The community has relied on the occasional influx of new members to keep it going. Rikki Baker, who came to North Bay in 1974 with her husband, has been actively involved in Hadassah, which still had 18 members in 1992. Although the B’nai Brith chapter has disbanded the remaining Jewish families in North Bay have successfully maintained the Sons of Jacob Synagogue as a centre for Jewish activity in the city. They have reason to remain hopeful for the renewal of the community, due to the influx of new families attracted to North Bay based on its strong sense of community as well its proximity to some of Ontario’s loveliest natural parks and wilderness.
