With the rise in antisemitism in Canada, it is ever more important to remember Canada’s Jewish heritage.
In 2023, rounding the corner of Bruce and Water St., a two-and-a-half stories tall, Queen Ann revival building towers over passersby unaware that it would soon disappear “to accommodate the construction of an LRT station platform,” according to a report by WSP Canada, and with it, the stories of one of Cambridge’s oldest communities: the Jewish families behind the historic Sulphur Springs Hotel in Preston and more.
From the early 1940s until 1985, the building at 63 Water St. was home to “B’nai Israel,” a shul (Yiddish for synagogue), whose name means “children of Israel,” according to Leslie Lasky, Cambridge resident and former member of the B’nai Israel congregation in Cambridge, and whose father owned the late Lasky’s Furs shop in downtown Galt.
In 1985, a grief-stricken congregation took the difficult decision to sell it as they could no longer afford it. “It was a very, very sad day,” described Michael Grand of the day the synagogue closed. Grand is a renowned child psychologist, and professor emeritus at the University of Guelph, whose late father was one of the shul founders.
“It was one of the saddest days for so many of the families because they’d been married in the synagogue, their children were named there, and had had their Bar and Bat Mitzvahs there. It was the centre of the community. That day, the synagogue felt more like a house of mourning than it did anything else,” Grand recounted of the collective farewell, the taking apart of the main arc, where the Torahs are kept, and the plaque of the founders, including Lasky’s and Grand’s fathers, all of which items are safely treasured at Kitchener’s Beth Jacob congregation.
Based on testimonies from past B’nai Israel congregation members including Lasky and Grand, childhood friends who remain in touch to this day, and on records accessed from the Ontario Jewish Archives (OJA), B’nai Israel was also the only synagogue Cambridge has ever had.
“People belonged to the synagogue, whether religious or not,” added Grand.
After its sale, the building then housed many businesses – mostly hair salons, according to data supplied by the City of Cambridge Archives – and as time passed, the shul disappeared from Cambridge’s collective memory until a few years ago when an article by The Record alerted the public about buildings impacted by the ION LRT.
The Cambridge shul was one of them.
Since 2015, the City of Cambridge has been preparing to make space for the ION LRT to connect Kitchener and Cambridge. The project is ever-relevant to many Cambridge residents whose feelings of isolation from the rest of Ontario even drove them to vote in the city’s most recent municipal election.
As part of the preparation, a cultural heritage evaluation report (CHER) on the LRT-impacted properties, including 63 Water St. S, was conducted by WSP Canada for the Region of Waterloo. Their CHER revealed little else except that “little could be found” on the synagogue, adding that “The City Directories identify a Jewish Congregation, B’nai Israel at the subject property between 1950 and 1983,” dates which do not accurately represent the period of existence of the congregation.
After multiple unsuccessful attempts to enlist the help of the City archives in unearthing more about the synagogue (at the time, a film about the Titanic was underway, and required the help of the archives), the OJA, generously allotted time to access several records as part of The Shuls Project, showcasing a rich interlinked history of the synagogue and Cambridge, including one of the first surveys on the Jewish populations in Canada to be conducted by the Canadian Jewish Congress in Cambridge, Ontario.
How the history of the only Cambridge synagogue was preserved
THE SHULS PROJECT AND B’NAI ISRAEL
In the late 1970s, three architectural students – Sidney Tenenbaum, Lynn Milstone, and Sheldon Levitt – traveled from St. John’s, New Foundland, to Victoria, British Columbia to document every building in Canada that had been used as a synagogue, from their façades to interiors. Their efforts became the “most complete and robust documentary collection on Canadian synagogues ever produced,” as stated by the OJA.
Tenenbaum, Milestone, and Levitt retrieved information from 250 shuls across the country, including 111 in Ontario, preserved in the book “Treasures of a People: The synagogues of Canada,” which can be accessed at OJA. At the time of the Shul Project, Cambridge’s B’nai Israel was a vibrant community and at the peak of its congregation.
Recalling that time, Lin Matlow, a past B’nai Israel congregation member, and wife to Myron Matlow, lawyer and co-founding partner of the downtown Cambridge practice Matlow, Miller, Cummins and Thrasher, said, “there were about 75 families with a rabbi who came in from Toronto a few times a week to teach the kids ‘Hader’ or Hebrew school.”
Both Grand and Lasky attended Hader together at B’nai Israel, on the second floor of the building. Hadar took place on Sundays, and on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday for an hour and a half after regular school, according to Lasky.
LACK OF RECORDS WITHIN MUNICIPAL AND PROVINCIAL ORGANIZATIONS REFLECT A COLLECTIVE OBLIVION
Communications with the City archives only revealed City directory records on whether the synagogue was active, but no further information. During email correspondence, the City was also unable to confirm the presence of a Jewish cemetery in Galt, corroborated by both Matlow’s testimonial account and OJA records with photographs showing people visiting the site, which is located within Mount View cemetery.
“(The Galt Jewish Cemetery) is part of Mount View cemetery. It has got its own section,” stated Lin Matlow, former congregation member of B’nai Israel, adding that one of the first priorities for Jewish settlers in Cambridge was establishing a synagogue and a cemetery.
“We have indexes for most of the cemeteries in Cambridge and while it may have existed at one point as part of a larger cemetery, we are unable to confirm a Jewish cemetery in Galt,” read an email from Allison Jones, Supervisor of Communications for the City of Cambridge.
“It is important to note that Max Saltsman, former MP and member of the Cambridge Hall of Fame and probably the most significant and well-known Jewish figure in Cambridge’s history, is buried in Mount View, the main public cemetery in Galt,” wrote Jones.
Despite it being common knowledge in Cambridge, the Cambridge Hall of Fame does not include any information on Saltsman’s faith or ethnicity. Many other prominent members of the Cambridge Hall of Fame do include their religious affiliation and cultural background.
When asked whether the congregation ever experienced antisemitism, Lasky mentioned a black swastika was painted on the front door, late in the evening. "The Police notified several members, one being our family, when the marking was brought to their attention, during patrol. We joined together to clean the door and insure no other damage," Lasky mentioned.
Aside from that instance, all interviewed agreed there were no blatant acts of antisemitism expressed in Cambridge, and yet there are very little records of their congregation in the city's archives, despite members of the congregation being active members in the community.
When the Times went to take pictures of B’nai Israel’s founder plaques at Beth Jacob, the Kitchener synagogue cautioned against printing names present in the plaque. In 2018, Raelph Boeck, a Kitchener man part of a white supremacy group in Canada, found out the names of members of the congregation at Beth Jacob and began sending email threats. The photos accompanying this article that showcase names of congregation members have been blurred for this reason.
Presently, antisemitism is an all-time high in Canada. After the October 7 attack by militant group Hamas, incidents of "verbal abuse, vandalism and intimation" toward the Jewish community groups have spiked, Global News reported late October, 2023.
HAVE OTHER SYNAGOGUES IN ONTARIO FACED SIMILAR OBLIVION TO CAMBRIDGE’S B’NAI ISRAEL?
The book “Treasures of a People: The synagogues of Canada” features the impressing architecture of a synagogue at St. Catharines, which is also named B’nai Israel. St. Catharine’s B’nai Israel is one of the oldest synagogues in Canada, and the “first Jewish congregation in Canada West,” according to the Ontario Heritage Trust’s Places of Worship Inventory, which unfortunately does not have records of Cambridge’s own B’nai Israel.
The Ontario Heritage Trust is the organization responsible for uplifting the Ontario Heritage Act, and protecting buildings and structures of cultural and historical importance for the people of Ontario. Neither B’nai Israel synagogue is protected under the Ontario Heritage Act, despite multiple churches being safeguarded by the Act in both cities, and Ontario.
Of the 5,766 records open to the public by the Places of Worship Inventory, only 17 per cent (1,005) are protected under the Act. Of those protected, 98.7 per cent represent records of religious centres where a denomination of the Christian faith is practiced (e.g., Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Methodist, Presbyterian, Baptist, Mennonite, and many others).
The Places of Worship Inventory only accounts for 62 of the 111 synagogues catalogued by the Shul Project in the 1970s. Half of those protected can be found in Toronto.
Only ten records correspond to protected synagogues; even fewer (three: Jainism, Hinduism, and Islam) belong to protected centres where other faiths are practiced.
According to Canada’s 2022 Census, Christianity remains the top religion practiced in Ontario. Demographically, there would likely be more records attributed to Christian faiths.
The Ontario Heritage Trust’s Places of Worship Inventory was also established not long ago – in 2009 – to document the architecture and history of Ontario’s religious and spiritual centres, according to the Places of Worship inventory introductory site.
But given that the inventory does not reflect the total number of Ontario synagogues recorded by the Shuls Project in the 1970s, and that other religions, also accounted by the inventory, having been practiced in Canada since the 1850s, is it time the Ontario Heritage Trust inclusivity statement (“the inventory is inclusive as possible”)?
THE BURDEN OF REMEMBRANCE OF HERITAGE BUILDINGS
Based on the lack of records at OHT, and at Cambridge’s City archives, had the Shuls Project been conducted in the late 1980s, after the building ceased to be a synagogue, would we know of the Jewish families that once populated Cambridge?
The Ontario Heritage Trust credits a “variety of public sources, including: municipal, provincial and federal heritage inventories; local histories and architectural publications…fieldwork and photography (by the Trust)” with populating the inventory, but concludes that “the Ontario’s Places of Worship Inventory is a work in progress. It is designed to be participatory.”
In other words, it’s up to Ontario residents to remember and record their history.
With new mayoral powers granted by the Province to expedite housing construction ambitions, it’s difficult to say what will become of 63 Water St. S. The building is not protected, and despite several requests from the Times to view the Heritage Impact Assessment or HIA made on the building that would provide an answer on its conservation status, the City did not respond.
Karen Scott Booth, a representative with the Architectural Conservancy in Ontario noted that though she did not see the HIA, the building did meet the criteria for designation, and once designated, it should be protected. “Designation is still at the will of the current Council. One would hope that education and awareness would protect buildings in our community that are designated,” stated Booth.
In the past, the City has bypassed HIAs or delayed decision-making resulting in many years passing by while a heritage designated building deteriorated. These two outcomes respectively happened to heritage sites Southworks, now minted as the Gaslight District, and Preston Springs Hotel, two well-known Cambridge hallmarks, and two examples which highlight what may seem like an unfortunate track record as reported through several articles by the Times.
When asked if she thought it could be turned into a museum, an unsure Matlow said, “a museum of the history of Cambridge has long been overdue.” Alluding to remembrance, Lasky referenced the subtext that accompanies the memorial plaque for founders and members of the congregation B’nai Israel: “If you don’t know where you come from, you really don’t know where you are going to go.”
For now the building still stands two-storeys tall at the corner of Bruce and Water, where Salvation Army has taken residence and will remain in the building for another year. The latest ION LRT preferred route spares the old shul building from impact.
Footnote
Like Cambridge, the OJA is celebrating its 50th anniversary; to commemorate its origins, the organization has set up a website recounting powerful stories – like that of the three architectural students retold in the above video – of the Jewish peoples and communities that have made impactful contributions to the province, cities, and residents of Ontario. You can learn more at oja50.org.
When researching the different faiths and cultures in Cambridge, I found that there was no synagogue in Cambridge. Further investigation revealed a longer, richer story that shed light on the thriving world of Cambridge's Jewish community.
Major thanks to Faye Blum, archivist and outreach at the Ontario Jewish Archives, the Blankenstein Family Heritage Centre, and the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto, for her assistance in finding records pertaining to the Jewish community in Cambridge, Ontario, as well as Sid Tenenbaum, who graciously permitted the use of photos from The Shul Project for this article, those interviewed, Michael Grand, Leslie Lasky, and Lin Matlow for sharing their memories and keeping Cambridge Jewry history alive, and the Guelph and Kitchener congregations Rabbis for their kind assistance with this project.