Over 70 people signed-up for our Jane's Walk, so we split into three groups led by Stephanie Schwartz (left), Sara Tauben (centre) & Zev Moses, standing here in front of the entrance to the Bagg Street Shul

We discovered former synagogues and Jewish insititutions along the way, nearly forgotten until Sara and the IMJM’s Zev Moses started their pavement pounding research.

The tour culminating with a special visit to the historic Temple Solomon, more commonly known as The Bagg Street Shul.

Sara's group stops at the corner of Prince-Arthur and St. Dominique

Today’s pedestrian mall on Prince Arthur Street, a popular summertime destination for outdoor dining and street performances, was once a hub of the needle trade, which was considered a largely “Jewish” business.  This was the cause of considerable conflict and bitterness within the community as Jewish employers and workers faced each other across the picket line of multiple labour strikes that marked the industry in the early part of the century. Many of the buildings held several floors of clothing manufacturing including the building in front of which the group is standing which was the first address of the Tauben family “shmata” business when it started in the 1950s.

Zev Moses with his Jane's Walk group

118-120 Duluth Street East was once the Peretz Shule, which emerged out of the National Radical School, the first Jewish secular school in Montreal.

Sara holds up a photo of a group of students & teachers at one of the locations of the National Radical School.

Renamed after the Yiddish writer I.L. Peretz in 1923, it became a full-day school in 1942 when it moved into this renovated factory.  Dedicated to Yiddish language and culture and the liberal national ideals of Labour-Zionism, the school merged with the similarly oriented Jewish People’s School in 1971.  Yiddish continues to be taught as a mandatory subject from grade three through high school at JPPS-Bialik.

A former student at the Peretz Shule, Nina Miller, reads from the memoirs of the school’s principal, Yaacov Zipper.

Sara finds a raised perch on a stoop - a perfect spot to address the group.

Back at the Bagg Street, Sara talks about the architectural features of the shul.

Listening to Sara's "tour" of the sanctuary while seated in the women's balcony. The murals on the balcony illustrate the zodiac.

The interior of the Bagg Street Shul at 3919 Clark Street. Photo: David Kaufman, 2000

Temple Solomon (or Beis Shloime) is popularly known as The Bagg Street Shul. It is the only pre-war synagogue still functioning in the former immigrant neighbourhoods of the Plateau Mont Royal. The shul was kept open through some four difficult decades by Joseph Brick, who lived next door and cared for it devotedly. Joe passed away in 2009. Today, perhaps improbably, the shul finds itself undergoing a remarkable renewal, as suggested by the following letter from November 2011:

Dear Ms. Tauben,

The shul is prospering.  For the first time in its history it is sparkling clean, complies with all municipal codes, and sports a garden in front that at the height of the season just lifts the heart. There are morning services every shabbos and yom tov, and evening services for Kol Nidre and Purim, and a nice kiddush after every service, even on Rosh Hashana. Best of all, everything at Bagg Street is free of charge, including High Holiday seats. Membership is acquired by coming on shabbos, choosing a seat, and shabbos after shabbos keeping that seat warm.

I am telling you this to make the point that while the shul is perhaps something of an historical monument, it is also very much alive in every possible way.

Sincerely,

Michael Kaplan

Before beginning a decade-long research project on Montreal’s early synagogues, Sara had a full career in design – first in fashion design and later in interior design.

Here she responds to an article in the Jerusalem Report on the Israeli fashion company, ATA, where Sara worked in the 70s.

Click here for her skirt story - and an unexpected run in with the son of David Ben Gurion!

Sara was invited to contribute an article detailing the history of the six immigrant congregations that merged to form the current Shomrim Laboker congregation, which celebrated its 100^th anniversary in 2001.

Click here to read the full article about Shomrim Laboker’s Anniversary

The building was sold in 1950 to Royal Products, an egg & dairy distribution business (Photo: David Kaufman, 2000)

For more information on Congregation Shomrim Laboker today, click here

Chapbook No. 3 in the Concordia Institute for Canadian Jewish Studies Chapbook Series

$10.00 CAN / US

This chapbook focuses on a range of subjects, which include synagogue architecture, the development of Montreal’s communal infrastructure, as well as the changes that affected devotional life in the city leading up to and after World War Two.

Sara Tauben uses as her focal point three anniversary booklets published by downtown synagogues in order to see how the institutions viewed themselves at particular times in their history.  To do so, she pays attention to contributions by leading rabbis, to strategies for survival, some of which are portrayed in Yiddish texts, which she has translated herself.

The outcome is a document that increases our awareness of the shifts that took place as communal life broke along old world / new world lines.

For details and to order click here.

“Dos Yidishe Kol”: Sara Ferdman Tauben Vegn Montrealer Shuln, dem 28stn Marts 2012,, vet di radio-program ”Dos Yidishe Kol” (WUNR 1600-AM, Boston) prezentirn in intervyu mit Sara Ferdman Tauben, oytorin funem nayem bukh “Traces of the Past: Montreal’s Early Synagogues” (“Shpurn Fun Der Fargangenhayt: Montreals Friike Shuln”).

For more information on The Yiddish Voice, visit their web site: http://www.yiddishvoice.com

B'nai Jacob, 172 Fairmount Avenue, built in 1918

Most of the historic synagogues of Montreal were converted to other purposes as the community moved to post-war neighbourhoods.  Built in 1918, the B’nai Jacob was sold to the College Français in the 1950s.

Today the B'nai Jacob building is the College Francais (Photo: David Kaufmam)

Much of the original exterior remains as it was, except for the façade, which has been layered over by a modern extension housing the stairwell of this Catholic high school. Strangely, a segment of the Hebrew script can still be discerned in the arch.  An impressive mosaic mural covers the frontal wall. Is the prominent image of a sunburst in the mural inspired by the large Star of David that was once inscribed in a circular stained glass window, identifying this building as a synagogue?  The same feature once marked the rear elevation.

A walk around the corner of the building, into the alleyway reveals a circular tracing in the brick on the rear elevation. Such “traces of the past” on many buildings that once served as synagogues in the old Jewish neighborhoods of Montreal silently recall the windows that illuminated the space above the Torah Ark. 

Today only historic photos reveal former synagogues under layers of contemporary transformations.  Discover these traces by taking yourself on the two walking tours found at the back of the book, Traces of the Past.