Holy Blossom Temple

Holy Blossom Temple
The current home of Toronto Hebrew Congregation - Holy Blossom Temple
Basic information
Location	1950 Bathurst Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Geographic coordinates	43°41′54″N 79°25′30.50″W / 43.69833°N 79.4251389°W / 43.69833; -79.4251389
Affiliation	Union for Reform Judaism
Country	Canada
Status	Active
Leadership	Dow Marmur (emeritus) John Moscowitz (emeritus) Yael Splansky (Senior Rabbi)
Website	holyblossom.org
Architectural description
Architect(s)	Chapman and Oxley, Maurice D. Klein
Architectural style	Late Romanesque Revival
Completed	1938

The Holy Blossom Temple is a Reform synagogue located at 1950 Bathurst Street in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the oldest Jewish congregation in Toronto. Founded in 1856, it has more than 7,000 members. W. Gunther Plaut, who died on 8 February 2012 at the age of 99, was a long time Senior Rabbi for this synagogue. Notable members and supporters include Heather Reisman and Gerald Schwartz who made donations to create the Gerald Schwartz/Heather Reisman Centre for Jewish Learning at Holy Blossom Temple.

Holy Blossom Temple was the merger of two congregations. The Toronto Hebrew Congregation was formed in 1849 by members from Germany (including Bavaria, Bohemia, and Alsace), Great Britain, the United States, Russia, Galicia, and Lithuania. The Congregation conducted services in members' homes and founded the Pape Avenue Cemetery, Toronto's first Jewish cemetery. The congregation was known as the Daytshishe Shul because of its modern services. In 1856, Lewis Samuel, a Jewish immigrant from York, England arrived in Toronto along with 17 Jewish families from England and Europe and helped them organize the Sons of Israel Congregation. In 1858, the two congregations merged to form the Toronto Hebrew Congregation-Holy Blossom Temple. The Ontario Heritage Foundation lists Holy Blossom as the first Jewish congregation in Canada, west of the Ontario/Quebec border. The first Holy Blossom Synagogue (1897) of Toronto was a new Judeo-Egyptian style templelike building with a front of cut stone, and adorned with a portico with two columns combining intricately detailed stone craftsmanship with Byzantine influences.

For the first 20 years of the Temple's existence, services, conducted in the traditional Orthodox manner, were held in a rented room over Coombe's Drugstore on the southeast corner of Yonge and Richmond streets. In 1876, the congregation built its first synagogue a block east to Victoria and Richmond Street.

By the 1890s, the congregation had outgrown the Richmond Street Synagogue and made plans for a new one. The dedication of the Bond Street Synagogue on September 15, 1897 attracted much media attention. By that time, Temple membership had grown to 119 families.