B'nai Jacob

1919 - 1956
172 Fairmount O.

Historic outline

Originally named the Sons of Benjamin, the congregation took on the name B’nai Jacob in honour of a major benefactor, Jacob Gelber. This was a rather common practice at the time. Synagogue names that appear to refer to Biblical figures were more likely those of a prominent patron, providing a double honour in recognizing the significant contribution while linking the benefactor to an important religious personage. The congregation was established in 1886 and in the same year acquired the former Shaar Hashomayim synagogue building at 41 St. Constant (now de Bullion).

In taking over the former building of the Shaar Hashomayim, the B’nai Jacob also subsumed its communal role within the neighborhood. “Between her walls,” historian B.G. Sack wrote, “the most important Jewish gatherings in Montreal used to take place.” Sack recounts such landmark meetings as a discussion in 1876 (when it was still the English, German and Polish congregation) around the proposal of a Jewish school system. This proposal, forwarded by the Shaar Hashomayim, was defeated by the “Sephardim” (Shearith Israel). Later, in 1896, Rabbi Ashinsky of the B’nai Jacob founded the city’s first Talmud Torah and a year later helped to establish the Canadian Zionist organization, all housed in the B’nai Jacob building. The B’nai Jacob established itself not only as a place of assembly for formal gatherings, but also as a social and religious center for the community.

In 1919, the B’nai Jacob was relocated further north to 172 Fairmount W. in Mile End. It amalgamated with the Chevra Kadisha congregation in 1956, and then moved to its present location at 5237 Clanranald in Snowdon. The Orthodox B’nai Jacob congregation has maintained an important historic and cultural role in the Montreal Jewish community.

Witness to history

The original 1886 constitution of the B’nai Jacob still exists. It is a proper constitution and set of by-laws following the content and structure of any formally constituted organization. It outlines the roles and responsibilities of the officers as well as of the traditional synagogue officials, the parnass (lay leader of ritual), shamash (person in charge of the building, maintenance and sometimes ritual objects), and gabbai (person who assists with the Torah reading service). It stipulates the conditions and benefits of membership. Expected conduct and attendance of members and officers in shul and at meetings are clearly indicated, as are fines for transgressions. While ultimate authority resides in the president, (though sometimes in consultation with the parnass, which, in other congregations, is a position sometimes melded with that of the president,) the general principle of behaviour is expressed in the article of the constitution entitled Achdut (unity or solidarity): “Every member is responsible for respecting the other. Every member is responsible for seeing that in the association there is peace and not division.”

The language of the constitution bears comment. Despite the fact that Article 2 stipulates that “the language of business will be English” the constitution is written in Yiddish. The Yiddish, however, is heavily Anglicized. This is surprising for such an early document representing a congregation of recent immigrants. One explanation for this may be that the founding members of the B’nai Jacob could have included former members of the Shaar Hashomayim congregation, English, German and Polish Jews who were better integrated into the general English community. The document contains not only individual English words inherent in organizational vocabulary, such as "regular", "special", and "general meeting", but utilizes English verbs conjugated into Yiddish, such as attendn or instructn, and idiomatic expressions translated directly into Yiddish, such as “call to order.”

Physical description - 172 Fairmount O.

With the construction of a new building at 172 Fairmount O., the B’nai Jacob became the first congregation above Mont-Royal, thus responding to the northward movement of the community. This synagogue became Montreal’s “Carnegie Hall” of Hazzanut (Jewish sacred music) and hosted world famous cantors throughout its history. It was the most prominent, and along with possibly the Beth David, the largest of the synagogues in the immigrant community, and it remained so until its move to Snowdon in 1956, where it was amalgamated with the Chevra Kadisha congregation. Its basic Romanesque inspiration was reflected in rows of arched windows. The barrel shaped roof, the massive arch on the façade, and a circular window featuring a magen david (Star of David) topped by tablets of the Ten Commandments, mark it unabashedly as a synagogue. Large and obvious as it was, it was nevertheless dwarfed by nearby St. Michael’s Church, built in 1914-15, which, still intact, is also dominated by a massive arch over its façade and lateral wall. Rare professional photographs of the interior of the synagogue attest to its acknowledged architectural importance. The interior had the elements of a traditional Orthodox synagogue. The main level featured a large central bimah with two rows of benches in front, which were generally reserved for kohanim (priests). An ornate aron hakodesh (Holy Ark) was topped by a large circular window with a magen david mirroring the window on the façade. Flanking the arch were the traditional mizrach (eastern) seats reserved for the officers. The women’s section was set up in the traditional “U” shape, on an upper gallery. The balustrade of the gallery was decorated with plaster relief depictions of the signs of the Zodiac sculpted by Harry Rappoport, a professional sculpture who later went on to sculpt interior decorative elements for movie theatres in New York and Los Angeles.

The building was eventually sold in the 1960s to the Collège Français. Its interior has been entirely gutted and the façade obliterated by a modernist extension, which contains a multilevel staircase. The inscription in the arch of the façade is partially visible. The lateral views still remain intact while the rear of the building reveals a tracing of the former circular window.

Written by Sara Tauben

Links

Liens

Canadian Jewish Heritage Network – Chevra Kadisha B’nai Jacob Congregation
Chevra Kadisha B'nai Jacob
Traces of the Past

Sources

Sack, B.G. “A Shul that Reminds us of the Pioneers of Yesterday: Our own B’nai Jacob Shul, a Chapter of the Jewish Past.” Keneder Adler [Montreal] 9 Sept. 1951.

Sack, B.G. “Our Old Orthodox Shuls: What will become of years of progress of these shuls, monuments of our past that are now disappearing.” Keneder Adler [Montreal] 19 Oct. 1958.

Bernard Figler. “The Story of Two Congregations-Chevra Kadisha and Benai Jacob”, P97/02:Photocopy of typescript of synagogue history, Canadian Jewish Congress Charities Committee Archives. (c. 1960).

Tauben, Sara Ferdman. "Aspirations and Adaptations: Immigrant Synagogues of Montreal, 1880s-1945." Masters Thesis. Concordia University, 2004.

Tauben, Sara Ferdman. Traces of the Past: Montreal's Early Synagogues. Montréal: Véhicule Press, 2011.

*Images courtesy of Canadian Jewish Congress Charities Committee National Archives, Sara Tauben and IMJM.

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