Synagogue with story to tell

SHOSHANA LITMAN

Vancouver-based architectural historian Harold Kalman and Rabbi Harry Brechner of Victoria enthralled a packed crowd at Congregation Emanu-El on March 10 with the remarkable story of Canada’s oldest surviving synagogue.

Their descriptions of the synagogue’s architectural and ritual history were punctuated by the dedication of a stunning new chuppah (wedding canopy) created by 15 fabric artists to mark the congregation’s 150th anniversary.

Kalman started his talk by describing the city’s first Jewish arrivals in 1858. Unlike most of the 30,000 prospectors who passed through Victoria during the Fraser Valley Gold Rush, Jewish pioneers were mostly merchants who came to stay. He noted that Victoria’s first Jews were, for the most part, “well educated, well connected and reasonably well off. Most did not come here to mine. They came here to supply the miners.”

The synagogue they completed in November 1863 was one of the first generation of brick buildings in a city dominated by wood. Like many shuls of its vintage, Emanu-El showed how “Jews looking for a distinctive design found it in the Romanesque Revival style, with its round arches and circular, rose windows that contrast with the Gothic Revival, which had been appropriated for Christian churches.”

He explained, “Romanesque came first by a century and this is the key: Romanesque preceded Gothic and Judaism preceded Christianity. If we use Romanesque, we are making the statement that we came first.”

The synagogue’s Romanesque features, such as corbelled bricks and round arches, provided “a signature that people could read and understand and which spread from Europe to North America,” said Kalman.

He added, “Romanesque Revival was not the only choice for a synagogue, but it was the most popular. The Central Synagogue in New York used an Oriental or Moorish Revival style, with its mix of Islamic and Christian influences from Spain.”

Though the synagogue was built to hold more than 250 people, “the congregation’s membership peaked at 150 members around 1900 [before] the synagogue’s population dwindled in the first 50 years of the century. By the 1940s, there were only seven active families. The synagogue’s constitution stated that if they can’t make a minyan [quorum of 10 men], the building would revert to the city.

“The congregation was desperate. Rather than worry about repairing the brick, which was in bad shape, or the potential collapse of the balcony, they decided to invest. Radically. The word they used was ‘modernized.’ They covered the building in stucco like a cocoon…. You could say this was a shame but it was very pragmatic. They kept the building standing. They also installed a false ceiling inside to hide the balcony and reduce heating costs.”

The structure may have looked modern in 1948, but by the time the synagogue’s population began to rise in the 1960s and 1970s, tastes had changed. “The congregation considered selling the land and moving to the suburbs as many other congregations did. Instead, they made the decision to renovate, which was also in keeping with the times…. Again, they aimed high by hiring the late architect Nick Bawlf. It was an enormous task to remove the stucco, restore the building, doors and windows, remove the false ceiling, restore the ark and bimah, and provide new seating which is, even if uncomfortable, better than before.”

Brechner, who spoke about the synagogue’s unique ritual objects, noted that “up to 2003, we were a one-room schoolhouse. We could have up to 60 children all around here learning. We’ve had wedding meals here. We’ve turned this room into a disco on more than one occasion. It really is in a certain way a beit am, a house for the people. That’s the role for a synagogue. A place of living.”

With the completion of the education centre expansion next door in 2003, Kalman said, “Dayenu! It would have been enough! But then people started noticing the cracks.” Pointing to the deep diagonal fracture slicing a wall above the ark, Kalman explained that “with horizontal and vertical cracks, we don’t have to worry but diagonal cracks can be serious if left unattended.”

Using photos featuring retired general Ed Fitch, who initiated the current effort to fix the faulty roof, perched among the roof trusses, Kalman explained how water leaking through the roof had rotted the wood where it met the wall, causing the beams to settle. “As the trusses go down, the walls spread and as they spread, the cracks get worse.”

Kalman assured those listening that they were safe at the moment, however, “the congregation needs money and is soliciting funds to help pay for the work to make sure the water is kept out, the building is safer and the heat is retained.”

Brechner, pointing to two shadows hovering like angels over the Ten Commandments above the ark containing three Torah scrolls, remarked, “It says in the Torah that when the angels [over the ark] faced each other there was shalom.

“If we want to keep them facing each other (and we are half way to fixing that crack having raised $400,000) we will need some DI (divine intervention) and to pray that the federal government will help us out. We have no sugar daddy or momma.”

Shoshana Litman is Canada’s first ordained maggidah (female Jewish storyteller), an administrator for the Mussar Institute of Vancouver and a tour guide for Congregation Emanu-El.

^TOP