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) The Synagogue Shaarei Zedek |
In 1919 it became clear that Saint John's Jews could put aside any differences and form a single congregation. The congregations pooled their resources and bought a building, the Calvin Church on the corner of Wellington Row and Carleton Street, and renamed it the Shaarei Zedek, the Gates of Righteousness. The original Ahavith Achim synagogue became the Talmud Torah, housing the Hebrew School, a gymnasium, a library, and a mikvah, a ritual purification bath. |
Shocking true story! |
| In 1953, a butcher began selling
meat falsely labelled as kosher! Since the process of butchering meat for kosher is strictly regulated, it would be more expensive than ordinarily butchered meat; presumably the butcher was selling treyf meat at kosher prices and pocketing the difference. Orthodox Jews would no sooner eat non-kosher beef than they'd eat pork. Something had to be done. The congregation of the Shaarei Zedek presented to the Saint John Common Council a by-law declaring that no-one not certified by the congregation should be allowed to sell kosher meat. |
) The amalgamated congregation, 1929 |
Records show that the new synagogue had about two hundred male members. Since the average family at the time had five children, there were likely about fourteen hundred Jews in Saint John in 1920. |
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