Population
The Mandell Berman Institute calculated the Jewish population of Port Arthur and Fort William at 301 in 1961, with two thirds of this population living in Fort William. About 90 families were said to have participated in the construction of the new synagogue on Grey Street. By Thunder Bay’s amalgamation in 1971, the Jewish population had decreased by more than fifty percent over the course of a single decade. The general population numbers of Thunder Bay have remained fairly stable since the 1970s, a pattern indicative of the aging population and somewhat depressed economy of the city. Thus the aging demographic shift of the Jewish population is relatively consistent with the overall demographic trends of the city.
Fewer than 100 members used the synagogue on a regular basis by the late 1970s. By the 1980s it was becoming difficult to establish the quorum of ten Jews to form a minyan. In recent years there has been some sense that the Jewish population may be slightly on the rise, with an increased Jewish presence at Lakehead University. Many of the students, and to a lesser extent the academics also, have tended not to establish permanent roots in the community and are thus not as actively integrated in the affairs of the synagogue and the more established Jewish community of Thunder Bay. The 2001 Canadian Census estimated the Jewish population of Thunder Bay to be 190 persons, on the basis of declared ethnic and religious affiliations.
