Narayever shul marks 100 years with JCC exhibit

A plaque from the exhibit that says

In the early decades of the 20th century Jewish immigrants from eastern Europe established a vibrant community in the College and Spadina area of Toronto that supported about two dozen Orthodox congregations.

Many moved north when the community migrated up the Bathurst Street corridor in the 1950s.

Three of the four remaining downtown synagogues – the Kiever, Minsker and Markham shuls – have continued on in the Orthodox tradition. But in the 1980s, the First Narayever Congregation evolved into an egalitarian congregation, with women and men participating equally in a traditional service.

The change in the synagogue’s direction was controversial 30 years ago, and it is documented in a new exhibition titled Traditions and Transitions: 100 Years of the First Narayever Congregation. The show runs until Oct. 30 at The Gallery at the J in the Jacobs Lounge of the Miles Nadal JCC (MNJCC).

The exhibit also includes the earlier history of the synagogue before its relocation to Brunswick Avenue, its home since 1943.

Sharoni Sibony, manager of the Jewish life department at the MNJCC and a member of the Narayever, curated the exhibit. “In honour of the centennial, we wanted to uncover some of the stories of the synagogue’s history,” Sibony told The CJN at the exhibition opening.

She said it took two years of research by a volunteer team to put the exhibit together. Some of the records were found in the Ontario Jewish Archives, in people’s homes, in the synagogue office and through online genealogy information. A translator helped with Yiddish minutes.

“We wanted to inform our own community and the wider community about our identity.”

Sibony pointed to minutes from a discussion when the younger egalitarian members considered changing the name of the congregation in the 1980s. At the time, they felt “like relics of the older community” and they thought the name, the Remains of Jacob, would better reflect this history, she said.

Old articles from The CJN about the congregation’s transition to egalitarianism are included in the exhibition. In a 1983 article, Jeff Rosen wrote: “The absence of a mechitzah makes this Orthodox synagogue unique. This 69-year-old synagogue has torn down the barriers separating men and women.”

Rabbi Ed Elkin, spiritual leader of the Narayever since 2000, spoke about the various transitions the synagogue has undergone, though he stressed that the there is a strong commonality in the congregation’s goals in 1914 and today.

“There are countless differences between today and when the congregation was founded, but the aspiration to have a meaningful Jewish community in downtown Toronto has not changed. There is a lot of continuity.”

He said the shul was founded by a landsmanschaft from Galicia who shared a common culture, but the congregation changed. “In time this group attracted people from other places. They became more diverse.”

He stressed that the shul’s membership has expanded and now includes people who are Jewish by birth and those who are Jewish by choice, as well as people of different races and diverse sexual orientations. “Who we are now would be unrecognizable to our founders.”

Descendants of some of the original members were also on hand at the exhibit’s opening. Max Heiber’s three grandchildren, Sheila Shore, Earl Heiber and Sharon Barron, and three great-grandchildren, Sari and Erin Heiber and Jacquelyn Barron, attended.

Heather Wohl represented her family. Her grandfather, Henry Young, was president of the congregation from 1950 until his death in 1976.

Both of Marcia Beck’s paternal great-grandfathers – Hirsch Petersaal and Nissan Beck – were also founding members of the shul. She said she discovered the Narayever in the 1990s when she was a social work student. “I was doing my master’s downtown and I was looking for a place to daven and a community. I found the Narayever,” she said.

“It just so happened to be the ‘terrible shul’ that my grandfather hated so much, because it had become egalitarian. The fact that it was egalitarian and that I could participate fully was exactly what drew me and kept me.”