"A numerous congregation had assembled, the ladies being in the gallery and the gentlemen in the body of the synagogue."
- Gazette, Tuesday, Feb. 25, 1868
It was a solemn yet joyful day at the English, German, and Polish Synagogue. A new torah, or scroll of the law, was being presented by the synagogue's president, Solomon Silverman.
The Gazette described the ceremonies in lavish detail. We said they were "seldom witnessed," presumably by Gentiles, though later we noted that "even few of the congregation had before witnessed" them.
The ritual began when Rabbi M.R. Cohen opened the ark and extracted four existing scrolls, wrapped in crimson and yellow silk. He handed them to four elders. Then, reading a psalm, he led a procession of the elders and "others of the congregation wearing shawls or fringed garments thrown over the shoulders" to the synagogue's main door where a canopy of white silk had been set up.
There was a knock on the door which, being opened, admitted Silverman with the new scroll. He moved under the canopy and was joined there by Rabbi Cohen and the elders. They then proceeded to circle the synagogue's interior seven times, Cohen reading psalms all the while. At last they arrived back at the ark where the rabbi offered the prayer "Hear, O Israel."
The procession then made its way to the centre of the synagogue where the new scroll was partly unrolled and various passages read. Prayers were offered, including one for the royal family. Finally, they deposited all five scrolls in the ark. The ritual was concluded with a sermon by Rabbi Cohen, delivered without notes, in which he contrasted the perfection of God's law with the fallibility of man's. After a final psalm, the congregation dispersed.
The synagogue, predecessor of Shaar Hashomayim in Westmount, stood on St. Constant St., today's du Bullion, just below de La Gauchetière. It was the first Ashkenazic synagogue in British North America.
Efforts had been made as early as 1846 to hive off such a congregation from the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue on Chenneville St., which was Montreal's first synagogue and Sephardic in character. But they were fitful and didn't really succeed until May 1859 when the cornerstone for the St. Constant St. structure was laid. A year later to the day, the new synagogue was consecrated.
Two old photographs indicate that the interior was warmer than its austere façade might suggest.
"The interior, though not large, has a handsome appearance," The Gazette reported, "the ceiling being supported by four pillars, the centre portion being raised so as to admit of windows being introduced by which alone the building is lighted. In the centre of the building is a large reading desk, and at the further extremity, in a recess, is the ark, with a curtain of white silk with a gold pattern suspended before it, the approach being by one or two steps, and the dais enclosed with a low iron railing."
It was Silverman's 25th wedding anniversary in 1868, and he considered it his duty, a mitzvah, to present the new scroll. That evening, there was a large gathering at the couple's home at which the synagogue's trustees presented him with a testimonial address, engraved on vellum. "After the presentation," we reported, "the company sat down to a fine collation, at which the health of the happy pair was drunk with the greatest heartiness."
The St. Constant St. building served the congregation until 1886 when, in response to a growing membership, a new synagogue was consecrated on McGill College Ave. It was a more ornate structure, even a flamboyant one, and was renamed Congregation Shaar Hashomayim.
John Moss, a successor to Silverman, described how the new synagogue was once simply a dream: "It was not unlike the vision of our Father Jacob who saw a ladder the summit of which reached the Gate of Heaven. So we in our fond dream have been permitted to create the ladder of progress which will bring us up to the House of God which, by the way, will be designated Shaar Hashomayim, the Gate of Heaven."
By then, Rabbi Cohen was long gone. In his history of the congregation, Rabbi Emeritus Wilfred Shuchat describes what happened, just a couple of years after Silverman's scroll was presented:
"Charges were levelled against him that he had eaten traif (unkosher food) on a cruise ship. While these charges were never proven, they persisted. The congregation and Cohen agreed that he should tender his resignation and receive an honourable discharge."
lisnaskea@xplornet.com
© Montreal Gazette 2010
