Tifereth Beth David Jerusalem (TBDJ)

1964 - present
6519 Baily Road, Côte Saint-Luc

(Traduction à venir)

Historic outline

One of the oldest of the Eastern European congregations, the Beth David was established in 1888 and named after David Elimelech Pinsler, the father of the first president. In 1890 the congregation took over the Cheneville Street synagogue which had been built by the Spanish and Portuguese congregation (Shearith Israel) in 1838. Originally established by Romanian immigrants it continued to be known as the Rumanishe Shul. Despite a resolution of 1893 ensuring “equal status to all regardless of land of origin,” the congregation seems to have retained a connection to Romanian origin at least through the 1940s.

The last of the major congregations to move out of the original neighborhood below Sherbrooke, it established the first synagogue in Outremont proper when a former church (422 St. Joseph) was purchased in 1929. In this location it served a relatively prosperous community. Unlike most of the smaller congregations they employed their own rabbi and cantor. By the 1930s the congregation had a sisterhood, a junior congregation and educational programs consisting of public lectures and a Sunday school. Along with some of the other large synagogues, the B’nai Jacob, and the Beth Yehuda, it was known for its choir and cantorial concerts. These were also the sites of the larger weddings and Bar Mitzvahs in the "downtown” immigrant community. The building at 422 St. Joseph was sold in 1965 to the St. Nicolas Russian Orthodox Church, which, despite a fire in 1998, remains standing.

Today the Tifereth Beth David Jerusalem is located in a modern building at 6519 Baily Road in Côte-St-Luc. While this congregation represents an amalgamation of four congregations from the old neighbourhoods (Beth David, Tifereth Jerusalem, Beth Itzchak, Kehal Yeshurun), the immigrant roots are now resigned to history as today’s synagogue is a leading Modern Orthodox congregation in Montreal.

Written by Sara Tauben

Links

Liens

Congregation Tifereth Beth David Jerusalem

Sources

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 Montreal Daily Witness and Sara Tauben.

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