Address

150 Beverley Street

Source

Landmarks

By 1919 the plight of post-war Eastern European Jewry and the need for a united community voice for Canadian Jewry led to the creation of the Canadian Jewish Congress. Its founding meeting was held on March 16, 1919 in Montreal. Though it briefly maintained a tiny regional office in Toronto, the CJC remained inactive until 1933, when it fully reconvened by opening offices in Winnipeg, Montreal, and Toronto. Egmont L. Frankel was the first President of the new Central Division in Toronto. While the National Office in Montreal focused on the overarching issues of the social and economic rights of European Jewry, assistance for Jewish immigrants, and combating prejudice in Canada, the Toronto office dealt with local violent anti-Jewish demonstrations as well as continuing discrimination both in employment and in access to public recreational facilities. The structure was based on regular national biennial plenary conferences at which policies were delineated and national and regional executives were elected. Between plenary sessions, National and Regional Councils were in charge.

Address

1950 Bathurst St.

Source

Landmarks

Holy Blossom was the first Jewish congregation in Ontario, established in September 1856 as the Toronto Hebrew Congregation. Many of Toronto’s earliest Jewish families were members of this congregation and were also responsible for establishing the city’s first Jewish cemetery on Pape Avenue. For 20 years, the congregation rented space over a drug store on Yonge Street until 1876 when a Synagogue was built on Richmond Street West. As the congregation grew, it moved to a new building on Bond Street in 1897, designed in the Byzantine Revival style (this building is now St. George’s Greek Orthodox Church).