Affiliation Conservative Judaism Website adathisrael.com Opened 1957 Phone +1 416-635-5340 | Status Active Completed 1957 Province Ontario | |
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Location 37 Southbourne Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada Leadership Rabbis: David Seed, Moshe Meirovich
Rabbi emeritus: Erwin Schild
Senior cantor: Alex Stein Address 37 Southbourne Ave, North York, ON M3H 1A4, Canada Similar Beth Tzedec Congregation, Holy Blossom Temple, Anshei Minsk, Congregation Habonim Toronto, Shaarei Shomayim | ||
Adath Israel Congregation is a Conservative synagogue located at 37 Southbourne Avenue in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It has over 1800 member families.
It was founded in 1903 by Jewish immigrants from Romania as the First Roumanian Hebrew Congregation Adath Israel. The formal name was shortened in the 1950s. There are three rabbis at the Adath Israel Congregation, Rabbi David Seed, Rabbi Moshe Meirovich and rabbi emeritus Rabbi Erwin Schild. The synagogue has approximately 1800 families and provides many daily programs for all ages, including a daily minyan. Alex Stein from Sydney Australia, serves as senior cantor.
Originally known as the "Roumainshe Shul", Adath Israel started when new immigrants from Roumania gathered together in a rental space, eventually moving to its first permanent home on Centre Avenue. In 1911 the synagogue dedicated a new building on Bathurst Street near Dundas, where for 30 years the First Roumanian Hebrew Congregation Adath Israel grew under the leadership of Rabbi Abraham Kelman.
In 1947, Rabbi Erwin Schild, freshly ordained by the Yeshivah Torath Chaim of Toronto, became the new rabbi of the Congregation. The next few years at the synagogue were marked by tremendous growth in membership and activities to the point where, coupled with the shifting demographics of the Jewish community, a new building was constructed in its current location in North York. In 1957 the new building was officially dedicated.
As a traditionalist Conservative Congregation, Adath Israel prohibits intermarried families, including the Jewish member, from membership. This policy has been called "an anomaly in the Conservative movement". Adath Israel, unlike most United States Conservative Synagogues but like the majority of Conservative synagogues in the Toronto area, has not adopted egalitarianism.
In the mid-2000s, Steven Saltzman, Adath Israel rabbi at the time, proposed the establishment of a Canadian "sovereignty association" within the Conservative movement that would support synagogues following traditionalist polices. Rabbi Saltzman's suggestion came on the heels of the Conservative biennial convention in Boston, where Rabbi Menachem Creditor of Sharon, Massachusetts, challenged the philosophy of halakhic pluralism—an approach affirmed by movement leaders—when he argued against continuing to permit non-egalitarian synagogues from being a part of the Conservative movement.
In 2008, the congregation seceded from the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism and affiliated with the Canadian Council of Conservative Synagogues.