Remembrances of celebrations past, and tears marking the end of a special era will be on the menu with the schnapps and herring at special ceremonies today.

The Cote des Neiges synagogue with the longest name in the directory of 59 Montreal-area congregations is closing after 45 years at the corner of Lavoie and Bourret Aves.

It's known officially as Congregation Chevra Shaas, Adath Jeshurun, Hadrath Kodesh, Shevet Achim, Chaverim Kol Yisrael d'bet Abraham.

That name is the product of years of mergers among smaller congregations, each of which was once a house of worship in the older Jewish neighbourhoods. As immigrants poured in, the community and its congregations moved westward, from the east end and downtown to the St. Urbain St. area made famous by Mordecai Richler and then to Cote des Neiges and Snowdon.

But the area is changing. Jewish families have moved, leaving only about 150 members in the synagogue with an average age over 70.

With the sale of the building and today's closing ceremonies, the 10 Torah (holy scripture) scrolls will be carried to the Spanish and Portuguese Congregation on nearby St. Kevin Ave. Most congregants from the closed synagogue will will become members at the Spanish and Portuguese Congregation and run their own services in the Ashkenazic (European) style in a separate sanctuary being readied for Passover services in April.

Said Morris Zimelstern, the shul's (synagogue's) chairperson:

"It's extremely sad, but we have to move on. We cannot hold on to a dream forever, we have to let go sometimes."

The building opened in 1961 and major components were the Chevra Shaas and Adath Jeshurun Hadrath Kodesh synagogues, which were on St. Urbain south and north of Rachel St. The Shevet Achim was last on Cote des Neiges Rd.

It had 400 members at its height, but with changing demographics and little chance of renewal, closing appeared the only alternative. The core group remains strong, but its numbers are diminishing.

"We have (at Chevra Shaas) a minyan - 10 or more men - for morning and evening prayers 365 days a year, but we are suffering from attrition," Zimelstern said last week. "The majority of our members are on fixed incomes and cannot afford to pay what it costs to run the synagogue."

By contrast, Zimelstern recalls the old Adath Jeshurun on St. Urbain as a thriving congregation in the late 1940s, with many Second World War survivors when he had his bar mitzvah (religious initiation ceremony) there in 1953.

"They (congregants) were mostly of Polish and Russian background," Zimelstern recalled, noting his own parents had escaped from Poland into Russia during the war when he was born.

"We lived on Clark St., right behind Baron Byng High School (the building now occupied by the Sun Youth organization). Then we moved among the 'high windows' - to Jeanne Mance St. near Bernard Ave,'' he said.

When his father died about nine years ago, Zimelstern started regular attendance at the Lavoie and Bourret synagogue to continue the tradition.

"I remembered the history of the shul going back to St. Urbain. My parents were always here because they lived on Bourret. A magnet just drew me here."

Lawyer Stanley Goldstein can trace his grandparents' connection on both sides of the family - Chevre Shas from the paternal branch and Shevet Achim from the maternal.

"I had been an active member here since 1989. All these names on the walls here represent a big slice of those who started what became the great Jewish community of Montreal.

"They built the synagogues, the schools, the Jewish theatre, the newspapers and the Jewish hospitals."

They were mainly Jews from Europe, but the community has changed, with much of the dynamic now coming from those with roots in North Africa who follow the Sephardic tradition.

"It's now a partnership between the Ashkenazi and Sephardic communities," he said.

The building that has functioned as a synagogue was actually designed as a reception hall for weddings and bar mitzvahs. But the money to build the main sanctuary never materialized, so it filled both functions.

It will become the Friendship Centre, a school for intellectually handicapped children operated by the rapidly growing Chabad Lubavitch Hasidic movement.

Fred Erdstein, a civil and structural engineer who was born in Vienna, escaped to Ecuador before the Second World War and immigrated here in 1956. He has been coming to the synagogue since the 1960s.

During the High Holidays in the fall (for the Jewish New Year and Day of Atonement), he recalled there were three alternate services to accommodate the large number of worshippers.

"We have to face reality. We cannot keep on. Many have moved away, and there are very few who live in the area," Erdstein said.

The congregation will continue to maintain its two cemeteries, where more than 5,000 members are buried.

iblock@thegazette.canwest.com

© The Gazette (Montreal) 2006