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The Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue.

https://www.cjhn.ca/link/cjhn45892
Collection
The Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue.
Description Level
Fonds
Physical Description
Env. 14 metres of textual records. - 149 sound elements. - Env. 440 photographs. - 1 video. - 1 film. - 2 compact discs (DVD-ROM) (movie). - Env. 3 artefacts.
Fonds No.
SP-01
Date
1791-2008.
Scope and Content
The Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue Archives contains the following catalogued series of documents: Architectural Plans for the Lemieux Street building (dating from 1940 and onwards), Synagogue Bulletins and other serial publications of the synagogue (1931-2008), legal documents and membership app…
Collection
The Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue.
Description Level
Fonds
Physical Description
Env. 14 metres of textual records. - 149 sound elements. - Env. 440 photographs. - 1 video. - 1 film. - 2 compact discs (DVD-ROM) (movie). - Env. 3 artefacts.
Scope and Content
The Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue Archives contains the following catalogued series of documents: Architectural Plans for the Lemieux Street building (dating from 1940 and onwards), Synagogue Bulletins and other serial publications of the synagogue (1931-2008), legal documents and membership application files (mostly restricted, due to their personal name information), liturgical music scores, Sisterhood papers, general Synagogue subject files (mostly pre-1995), photographs and audiovisual materials, and an inventoried cabinet housing life cycle record books (1919-1994), minute books (1832-1970), and other bound record books. The collection also includes an unprocessed series consisting of four boxes of recent minutes (for various boards and committees, on paper and on audiocassette) and three boxes of Synagogue Administration documents. These recent, unprocessed documents almost all date from post 1995. The Synagogue Archives also houses several dozen framed photographs and framed documents. Furthermore, many of the congregation's older Jewish ceremonial objects, as well as other historic artifacts and antique books, are considered by the Synagogue to be part of the Archives' collection, although they are not housed in the Archives space. Although not described in the present catalogue, the majority of these items were described in a previous catalogue prepared in 2009 by volunteers belonging to the Sisterhood.
Date
1791-2008.
Fonds No.
SP-01
History / Biographical
The Corporation of Spanish and Portuguese Jews is the oldest Jewish institution in Montreal, in Quebec and in Canada, tracing its history back to the first Jewish settlers who began to arrive in 1760. The few families met for prayer in private homes until the Congregation was formally established in 1768. The first Synagogue building was located in Old Montreal and was the first non-Catholic house of worship built in the city. In 1838 the Congregation moved to Chenneville Street and in 1890 to a beautiful edifice on Stanley Street. Although these building were not preserved, the Congregation has carried with it many of the principal furnishings and artifacts from the early edifices. It has been housed in its fourth premises, in the Snowdon-Cotes des Neiges area of Montreal, since 1947. The Spanish-Portuguese tradition follows the rites and customs of those Jews expelled from Spain and Portugal beginning in 1492 who sought refuge in European lands. Other Sephardi (Spanish or Iberian) Jews left for Mediterranean, mostly Moslem, lands, becoming known as the Sephardi Oriental Jews. During the past fifty years many hundreds of families from these latter communities have come to Montreal and have joined the Congregation, reconnecting with their kin from whom they had been separated 500 years ago. Until the early 1960s the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue was the only Sephardi congregation in Montreal and in Canada. The Congregation today serves over 700 families who come from almost every country in the world in which Jews have ever lived. Four parallel services must be held in order to accommodate the two thousand people who wish to pray on the High Holydays. It is a multicultural community reflecting Montreal life and Canadian pluralism. Although established mainly by English speaking Jews, it has now become a bilingual community due to the arrival of numerous French-speaking families from North Africa and the Middle East. Through its attention to the present and to the past, the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue demonstrates its commitment to be not only an active Jewish congregation but also an historic monument to Canadian and Quebec and Jewish life. (Adapted from a history written by Rabbi Howard S. Joseph. The full text is online at http://www.thespanish.org/about-us/.)
Custodial History
In the 1970s, recognizing the historical significance of the Congregation, the Public Archives of Canada (now Library and Archives Canada) requested that all the early documents and minute books be donated there. This was done in 1977. The Congregation presented its first Torah Scroll to the National Archives as well. The Archives collection currently housed at the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue therefore consists primarily of documents dating from 1930 and later.
Archival / Genealogical
Archival Descriptions
Repository
The Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue
Images
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