First Minyan and Synagogue

Initially, the first minyans in the region were formed in the homes of Osias Schacter and Sol Waiser. The Schacters had a small Aron Kodesh and a Sefer Torah in a room set aside as a chapel on the upstairs level of their family home. This same Aron Kodesh was donated to the original shul of the Sons of Jacob Congregation, which received its letters patent in 1924. The first by-laws establish as the priorities of the new congregation the building fund for the synagogue and the education of the congregation’s children.

The Sons of Jacob Synagogue, located at 302 McIntyre Street West on the corner of Cassells Street, was constructed around 1913 and housed a grocery store, a picture frame outlet and a furniture store before the congregation took over the building in 1925. The building had been owned by Max Sklar, proprietor of the furniture store and one of the founding members of the congregation. The lower level was renovated into a sanctuary. The school room and a small community hall were located on the second floor, along with a small apartment for the rabbi’s living quarters. Osias Schacter was the congregation’s first president in 1924. Other founding members of the executive of the shul included Osias’s eldest son, Harry, as well as Henry Wiseman, Herman Fried and Sol Waiser. Harry Ritter and Max Sklar were also named in the Letters Patent.

The congregation included a few families from Sturgeon Falls, such as the Rosenbaums. Gertrude Marks recalled in a letter how being from Rutherglen in the 1920s, a town of only six houses, her family moved to North Bay partly for the Jewish culture, because there was a synagogue and her brother could have a Bar Mitzvah. Over time, the simple building was renovated as new members joined the small Orthodox congregation. New stained glass windows were installed in 1935. In 1943, a new Aron Kodesh was donated by the Schacters in memory of Osias Schacter at a dedication ceremony presided over by Rabbi Slonim, who visited North Bay occasionally to conduct special services. During the late 1940s, both the interior and exterior of the synagogue was re-designed under the leadership of Marvin Hockman, Sari Markson and Gloria Guttman. Presidents of the shul in the 1960s included Ben Herman, owner of Ben’s Supermarket, and Gordon Rosenberg, who owned the Marilee Shop, a clothing store, with his brother Allen Rosenberg.

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