The
Congregation Knesseth Israel was established in 1909 in
the west-end neighbourhood of Toronto known as “The
Junction”. Immigrant Eastern European Jews, primarily
from Russia and Poland, started settling in the Junction
at the close of the nineteenth-century. Most were naturally
drawn to the area by the business opportunities afforded
by the intersecting railway lines. The first Knesseth
Israel congregation was comprised of a small number of
these immigrant families, who held services out of a modest
home at 303 Maria
Street at Runnymede
Road. However, as the Jewish population in the Junction
grew, the need for a larger synagogue became apparent.
On
November 25, 1910, the Congregation Knesseth Israel had
also established and dedicated a Bais-Oilom for the members of the congregation. The acting trustees
of the “Congregation Cnesses of Israel” purchased
a plot of land at an existing cemetery on Royal York Road,
in the township of Etobicoke, from Mr. Thomas Bethel.
One hundred feet of eastern land from the Knesseth Israel
cemetery was later sold to the Men of England Congregation
for$425.00 on March 3, 1911, perhaps to help finance the
purchase of the Maria
Street
property.
In
1911, a tract of land at what is now 56 Maria
Street (plan
833, lot 36) was purchased by the founding families of
the congregation for $520.00. Shortly thereafter, construction
of the present-day synagogue began. Known as the “Junction
Shul”, Knesseth Israel was designed by James A.
Ellis of the architectural firm Ellis and Connery. It
was, however, built with the bartered labour and donated
funds of the founding members and their families.
The
Congregation Knesseth Israel was dedicated September 8,
1912. During the ceremony Rabbi Levy, Rabbi Gordon, and
B. Nathanson addressed the audience and Cantor Wladowsky
conducted the choir. Although traditional Orthodox services
began in the new building in 1913, the congregation did
not draft its constitution until 1918. The constitution
set out to define the obligations of the Congregation
by outlining the rules of membership, dues, conduct, and
hierarchy.
The
establishment of the Knesseth Israel synagogue prompted
a dramatic rise in Jewish migration to the Junction, peaking
at 200 member families by the 1920s. During this period,
Maria
Street was the most densely concentrated area
of Jewish residents in the west-end. Most members of the
community also worked in the Junction in industries like
construction and demolition. Many also laboured as artisans,
peddlers, shop owners and scrap and metal collectors,
while a large number of Jewish residents with a background
in carpentry and cabinetry found work at the Heintzman
Piano factory, which was located on Keele Street. Several
of these cabinet-makers were the same men who carved much
of the Synagogue’s interior wooden architectural
details.
The
first full-time rabbi, Mordecai Langner, was employed
by Knesseth Israel in 1924. Rabbi Mordecai Langner was
the brother of Rabbi Solomon Langner of the Kiever and
First Narayever shuls. He lived in the Junction and served
at this post until 1939. Rabbi Langner was the shul’s
only permanent rabbi, and after his departure, subsequent
services were led by a cantor or by the members themselves.
After
the Second World War, the Jewish population within the
Junction began to wane, as many second-generation residents
moved east of the Junction and later on to the northern
areas of Toronto. As a result, Knesseth Israel found it
financially difficult to support full services during
this period of migration. After the late 1950s, the Synagogue
was forced to restrict its services to the High Holidays,
when members would be willing to make the trip to the
Junction.
Knesseth
Israel is now the oldest original synagogue in Toronto
that is still in use today. It is cared for by the descendents
of the founding members. Although the Jewish population
within the Junction has decreased considerably since the
time of the Synagogue’s founding, Knesseth Israel
continues to perform weddings and bar mitzvahs
and offer High Holiday services.
NEXT |
|
Isaac and Layka Sorosky and family
(c. 1915)
Louis and Sosil Melamed (c. 1915)
Cantor Bernhard Wladowsky (c. 1906)
Pincus
containing an early draft of Knesseth Israel's constitution
(c. 1910)
Congregation Knesseth Israel constitution (July 1918)
Seat deed for Benny Nikolaevsky
(August 21, 1917)
Joseph Alexandroff in his father’s lumberyard
(c. 1930)
Portrait of Boris Alexandroff, shortly after arriving
in Canada (1904)
CPR tracks looking west from Old Weston Road Bridge
(August 4, 1957)
|