Chevra Shaas

1920 - 1964
4170 St-Urbain

(Traduction à venir)

Historic outline

Established in 1899, the Chevra Shaas has occupied five locations within the Montreal areas of Jewish settlement. The congregation was first housed on Cadieux Street (now de Bullion) near today's Old Montreal. In 1900 the synagogue moved to 1110 St. Laurent and later to 108 de la Gauchetière O. where it remained until 1920. In 1920 the congregation moved to a more impressive building constructed at 4170 St. Urbain. The synagogue became referred to by some as the “Paperman shul”, since it was across the street from Paperman's funeral home, housed at 4081 St.Urbain from the 1920s to 50s. Around 1970, the congregation joined an amalgamation of synagogues at 5855 Lavoie, and became a part of what would be called the Chevra Shaas Adath Yeshurun Hadrath Kodesh Shevet Achim Chaverim Kol Israel d’Bet Avraham. In 2005 this congregation of former Eastern European immigrants merged with the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue (Shearith Israel), the oldest congregation in Montreal and in Canada.

Physical description

One of the larger synagogues of the area, the building at 4170 St. Urbain is a brick, symmetrical, Romanesque inspired structure, almost modern in its geometric simplicity. The name of the congregation is still visible on a concrete plaque above the door, and circular window above the entrance probably once held a stained glass magen david (Star of David). The circular tracing in the rear of the building indicates that there was also a similar window above the aron hakodesh (Holy Ark). The interior still contains the second level, which would have served as a women’s gallery, but there are no other apparent decorative or iconographic elements remaining from the synagogue. Today the building serves as the Associação Portuguesa Do Canadá.

Written by Sara Tauben

Links

Liens

The Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue
Traces of the Past

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 Sara Tauben.

Media

Media