Statuts de la Province du Canada.

(CANADA).

Debarats & Cameron

Quebec

1863

Includes: “Acte pour Incorporer la Congregation Juive de Hamilton” (pp. 95-6).

By an Act of Government, the incorporation of Anshe-Sholem, the first Reform synagogue in Canada. In 1853, a small group of German-Jewish families recently settled in the city of Hamilton, Ontario, banded together to form the Hebrew Benevolent Society Anshe-Sholom of Hamilton. Religious services began in 1856 and in the next year, a half-acre plot was purchased as a cemetery site. On May 5th, 1863, a “Body Corporate and Politic under the name of the Jewish Congregation Anshe-Sholom of Hamilton” was formed listing 19 founding members. Early meetings were held in members’ homes, with religious services, at first, largely restricted to the High Holy days. In 1866, a room was rented above a leather goods shop in downtown Hamilton; this was the first formal synagogue location for Temple Anshe Sholom.