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The Beach Hebrew Institute (also known as Beth Jacob Congregation or in Hebrew as Beit Knesset Beit Ya'akov) is a :synagogue in The Beaches neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1919 as an Orthodox Jewish congregation, the members purchased their current building—a former church—in 1920, and renovated it in 1926. Following World War II the congregation declined. The members considered selling the building in the 1970s, but a campaign to save it led to its receiving much needed repairs, and the 1982 designation of the building as a site of historical importance by the City of Toronto. An influx of younger, more liberal families, led to the congregation becoming an unaffiliated egalitarian Conservative synagogue. ==Early history== The Beach Hebrew Institute was founded in 1919 by Jewish residents in The Beaches neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, which was then a largely Anglo-Saxon area in the east part of Toronto far removed from the Jewish neighbourhoods further to the west in The Ward and around Spadina Avenue.〔("A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE BEACH HEBREW INSTITUTE" ), Beach Hebrew Institute website. Accessed July 23, 2011.〕 The forty or so Jewish families living in The Beaches at the time tended to be more prosperous and had either been born in Canada or immigrated at an early age and so spoke English as their first language, compared to the Yiddish speaking, impoverished, recent immigrants who predominated in the city's main Jewish neighbourhoods. Many of them either owned local shops in the area or summer homes.〔("Beach Hebrew Institute – Early History" ), ''Toronto's First Synagogues'', Ontario Jewish Archives.〕 $1,500 (today $) was raised towards the purchase or construction of a synagogue building and, in 1920, the old Kenilworth Avenue Baptist Church, originally built in 1895, at 109 Kenilworth Avenue (at Queen Street) was acquired with a $4,500 (today $) mortgage.〔 In 1926, the synagogue was renovated; a new facade was added, electrical features were installed, an upstairs gallery was installed to serve as a school, and a new basement layout provided more space.〔〔 The red brick front facade was built to make the building look less like a church and more like a synagogue. It features a round top, a large Star of David, and five stained glass windows.〔("Beach Hebrew Institute – Architecture" ), ''Toronto's First Synagogues'', Ontario Jewish Archives.〕 The Beach Hebrew Institute was located in not only a largely Anglo-Saxon area, but also one that in the 1930s exhibited antisemitism with the creation of "Swastika Clubs" that organized anti-Jewish marches,〔 and signs on the Boardwalk reading "No Dogs or Jews Allowed".〔 It therefore tried to maintain a low, inconspicuous profile,〔 and its unconventional name, which avoided using the word "synagogue", was "due to the lack of Jews in the area, as well as the anti-Semitic atmosphere at some points."〔〔Lorraine O'Donnell Williams (2010). ''Memories of the Beach: Reflections on a Toronto Childhood'', Dundurn Press, p. 23. ISBN 978-1-55488-389-9〕〔("Jewish history on the beach" ), UJA Federation of Greater Toronto website. Accessed July 23, 2011.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Beach Hebrew Institute」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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