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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).
Holy Blossom Temple, 1937-present
- 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).
- Address
- 1950 Bathurst St.
- Time Period
- 1937-present
- Scope Note
- 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).
- History
- While Holy Blossom was first established as an Orthodox congregation, in the late 1800s a move toward Reform practices began, including changes to services and the introduction of music and family seating. In 1920, Holy Blossom became a Reform Congregation affiliated with the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (now the Union for Reform Judaism), and has remained a leading Reform Synagogue in Canada ever since. By the 1930s, Holy Blossom had outgrown its Bond Street location and a fundraising campaign began to raise money to purchase property and build a new larger synagogue. In 1937, Holy Blossom moved to its present location on Bathurst south of Eglinton, designed in the the Romanesque Revival style by architects Chapman and Oxley with Maurice Dalvin Klein.
- Category
- Religious
- Architecture
- Source
- Landmarks
