Learn a little of Toronto's history as told through its plaques.

First Jewish Congregation in Canada West

Photos by Alan L Brown - April 2004

This building, which some of you may recognize, is Holy Blossom Temple on Bathurst Street just south of Eglinton. An Ontario Heritage Trust plaque near the main entrance has this to say:

In 1849 the Trustees of the Toronto Hebrew Congregation purchased a site in Toronto from the Hon. John Beverley Robinson for the first Jewish cemetery west of Montreal. Regular religious services were not held in Canada West until 1856 when seventeen Jewish families from England and Continental Europe formed a congregation in Toronto. This group, after acquiring the cemetery in 1858, became known as the "Toronto Hebrew Congregation-Holy Blossom". They held services in a building on the south-east corner of Yonge and Richmond Streets until the construction of their first synagogue in 1876 at 25 Richmond Street East. In 1897 they moved to 115 Bond Street and in 1938 to the present site.

Plaque Location Co-ordinates: N 43 41.900 W 79 25.500

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