[PHOTO] Two Kensington Market Synagogues
Aug. 6th, 2009 10:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rfmcdonaldToronto's Kensington Market district was arguably first defined by waves of Jewish immigrants towards the end of the 19th century as Elysse Zarek writes at www.jewishtorontoonline.net.
The diaspora along the Bathurst Corridor happened and most of the Jews left to be replaced by migrants of any number of nationalities, and most of their religious institutions closed down, but at least two didn't and remain active.
I've blogged in the past about Anshei Minsk Synagogue at 10 St. Andrew's Street, its name suggesting the congregation's origins in migrants from today's Belarus. The synagogue's website goes into more detail, also establishing the congregation as orthodox.
I haven't blogged in the past about the Kiever Synagogue at 25 Bellevue Avenue, though I made an informed guess that the shul was founded (in 1914, as it happens) by migrants from the area of Kyiv. In fact, the congregation was founded in 1914 Ukrainian migrants, but only in 1927 was the modern synagogue opened up. This building was declared a historic site in 1979.
Jews settled in Toronto as early as 1832, but the waves of immigration from Eastern Europe didn’t take place until 1890. Arriving poor and with limited English language skills, the new immigrants sought work in the garment factories and congregated in the cheapest area of town, bounded by Yonge, Queen and Gerrard Sts. and University Ave. Synagogues, kosher food shops and schools sprung up in the neighbourhood. By 1914, the community began to creep west to Spadina Avenue and the streets behind it. Four years later, Kensington Market had several synagogues and an outdoor market. As the decades past, the Jewish community moved west and north along Bathurst St.
The diaspora along the Bathurst Corridor happened and most of the Jews left to be replaced by migrants of any number of nationalities, and most of their religious institutions closed down, but at least two didn't and remain active.
I've blogged in the past about Anshei Minsk Synagogue at 10 St. Andrew's Street, its name suggesting the congregation's origins in migrants from today's Belarus. The synagogue's website goes into more detail, also establishing the congregation as orthodox.
I haven't blogged in the past about the Kiever Synagogue at 25 Bellevue Avenue, though I made an informed guess that the shul was founded (in 1914, as it happens) by migrants from the area of Kyiv. In fact, the congregation was founded in 1914 Ukrainian migrants, but only in 1927 was the modern synagogue opened up. This building was declared a historic site in 1979.
