Jewish History in Toronto
This Jewish community center, established in 1957, has served as a hub for Toronto's Jewish population, offering educational and cultural
What is the Miles Nadal Jewish Community Centre?
These potato pancakes are often served with applesauce or sour cream.
What are latkes?
This neighborhood, known as Toronto's "Jewish quarter," was home to the city's first Jewish families and still houses many Jewish businesses today.
What is Kensington Market?
This local philanthropist owns the Toronto Maple Leafs and Toronto Raptors.
Who is Larry Tanenbaum?
The 19th-century movement to establish a Jewish homeland in Palestine was sparked by this political thinker and leader.
Who is Theodor Herzl?
In the 1920s, Toronto's Jewish community saw a massive wave of immigrants from this European country, contributing to the growth of the city's Jewish population.
What is Poland?
These sweet, jelly-filled pastries are a traditional dessert during Chanukah.
What are sufganiyot?
This street was known as the upper boundary for the city of Toronto for many decades.
What is Bloor street?
This CHAT grad, and current Edmonton Oiler, played his first 5 seasons with the Toronto Maple Leafs. He is the first and only Jewish player to score 50 goals in a season.
Who is Zach Hyman?
The Jewish community in this country flourished during a Golden Age, as it became a center for Jewish philosophy, science, and poetry in the 10th-12th centuries.
What is Spain?
Founded in 1856, this is the city of toronto’s oldest Jewish Congregation.
What is Holy Blossom Temple?
A type of fried doughnut common in Sephardic celebrations of Chanukah is often served with powdered sugar.
What is sfinge?
This Toronto neighbourhood served as one of the original suburbs for Toronto Jewish families moving North in the 1960s.
What is Bathurst manor?
Home to the Intercounty Baseball League’s Toronto Maple Leafs, this location in Toronto was host to a notable riot in local Jewish history in 1933.
What is Christie Pits?
This event in the 6th century BCE marked the forcible depopulation of the Israelite Kingdom of Judah for captivity in a foreign land and also is closely tied to a shift in history terming the descendants of those exiled as Jews rather than Israelites.
What is the Babylonian Exile?
Prompted by a monetary crisis brought on by pre-war immigration and a recession, this organization is founded in 1917 by community leaders Ida Siegel, Edmund Scheuer, and Abraham Cohen, coinciding with the signing of the Balfour Declaration.
What is the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of Toronto (FJPT)?
An edible food symbolizing a chanukah tradition which some scholars believe dates back to the Maccabees, who distributed spoils of war to orphans, soldiers, and widows after defeating the Syrian Greeks.
What is chocolate gelt?
This often mispronounced street name was the heart of Jewish Toronto life in the early 20th century.
What is Spadina Ave?
In 2001, this former Toronto Blue Jay made headlines by refusing to play on Yom Kippur in the middle of a playoff race. In November 2023, he would make history again, speaking at our very own Sports Against Antisemitism event.
Who is Shawn Green?
The name of a region of the former Russian Empire known for its large Jewish population and as a major center of Jewish life in Eastern Europe in the 18th and 20th centuries. It included all of modern-day Belarus and Moldova, much of Lithuania, Ukraine and Poland.
What is the Pale of Settlement?
In 1832, the first permanent Jewish presence in Toronto (then known as York) was established, with the arrival of a member of this family, which at the time was among the most established Jewish families within British North America.
Who is Arthur Wellington Hart (Hart Family)?
A popular Greek fried-dough pastry, made from deep fried dough coated in honey syrup is made by Greek Jews to celebrate chanukah.
What are Loukoumades?
This downtown Toronto street is named for a 19th century Canadian institution built on it which was torched by arsonists and never rebuilt.
What is Parliament Street?
Born in 1912 in Toronto, this outfielder is known as the first Jewish Canadian to play Major League Baseball, having a Hall of Fame career with the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants.
Who is Goody Rosen?
This city nicknamed la madre de Israel (mother of Israel) was the only Jewish majority city in Europe from the 16th to the 20th century.
What is Thessaloniki?