jerryfaust (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} jerryfaust) wrote,@ 2009-07-01 21:04:00 |
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"Open the Doors to History" @ Emanu-el Synagogue
John and I accompanied our friends David and Kelvin to "Open the Doors to History", a Canada Day program featuring guided tours and lectures and various sites in downtown Victoria. We opted to visit a place that we had never been inside: Congregation Emanu-el, the oldest continually-operated synagogue in Canada (and the oldest house of worship of any kind in British Columbia). Donning yarmulkes, we stepped into the Conservative-affiliated synagogue that was built in the Romanesque Revival style in 1863, just five years after Victoria was incorporated as a city.
I was fascinated by many things in the lecture, but I was most impressed at an overriding 'secondary' theme that emerged in Lynn Greenhough's talk: the tolerance (and support) that Victoria Jews have historically received from the wider community. Consider:
* Victoria voters elected a Jewish auction house owner to represent them in the colonial legislature in 1859.
* The second mayor of Victoria, who took office in 1865, was Jewish.
* Christians donated some of the funds needed to build Congregation Emanu-El in 1863; its completion was celebrated with a community-wide parade as it was the first brick religious building to be erected in the young city.
* Non-Jews also contributed to the restoration of the synagogue in the 1970s and 1980s.
Multiculturalism and respect for minorities (of all kinds) is a major part of Canadian identity, so learning about the long history of non-discrimination and welcome accorded to our city's small (by national standards) Jewish community seemed like a perfect way to spend Canada Day. :)
John and I accompanied our friends David and Kelvin to "Open the Doors to History", a Canada Day program featuring guided tours and lectures and various sites in downtown Victoria. We opted to visit a place that we had never been inside: Congregation Emanu-el, the oldest continually-operated synagogue in Canada (and the oldest house of worship of any kind in British Columbia). Donning yarmulkes, we stepped into the Conservative-affiliated synagogue that was built in the Romanesque Revival style in 1863, just five years after Victoria was incorporated as a city.
I was fascinated by many things in the lecture, but I was most impressed at an overriding 'secondary' theme that emerged in Lynn Greenhough's talk: the tolerance (and support) that Victoria Jews have historically received from the wider community. Consider:
* Victoria voters elected a Jewish auction house owner to represent them in the colonial legislature in 1859.
* The second mayor of Victoria, who took office in 1865, was Jewish.
* Christians donated some of the funds needed to build Congregation Emanu-El in 1863; its completion was celebrated with a community-wide parade as it was the first brick religious building to be erected in the young city.
* Non-Jews also contributed to the restoration of the synagogue in the 1970s and 1980s.
Multiculturalism and respect for minorities (of all kinds) is a major part of Canadian identity, so learning about the long history of non-discrimination and welcome accorded to our city's small (by national standards) Jewish community seemed like a perfect way to spend Canada Day. :)
