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Original
cost:$5,000
Construction materials:Brick.
Original interior
details:
With seating for 400, there was more
than enough room for the 50 Jewish families that attended synagogue in
1911. The bimah (reader’s platform) stood in the middle of the main
floor, the area reserved for men only, with the ark in front. Two doors
on either side of the main exterior entrance led to the women’s
gallery.
Architectural style:
"Designed with traditional
orthodox features and classical lines." The number 5671 on the
façade referred to the Hebrew year of its founding.
Historical highlights:
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The
congregation was organized in 1907 and two years later purchased
two lots on 5th Avenue S.E. near Third Street. A small
one-storey frame structure, with seating for about two dozen
people, was built at the rear of the property to serve as
temporary quarters until funds were raised for a permanent
synagogue.
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The
Calgary Jewish community was incorporated in October 1909 as the
Congregation of the House of Jacob. The declared purposes of the
new congregation were " to purchase lands for, maintain, and
use a cemetery, to make donations to or otherwise assist any
public, charitable….or useful institution and to promote the
extension of the Hebrew faith." The first officers were Jacob
Diamond, president (who served seven terms as president before his
death in 1929); Jack Bercuson, vice-president, Harry J. Cooper,
secretary-treasurer; David Cohen, Kalmen Corrin (Koren) and Simon
Jacobson, trustees.
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Jacob
Diamond, pleased with the choice of name for the new congregation,
gave the first pledge for the synagogue. Henry Noah Sereth and his
brother Alexander, reportedly donated building materials from the
Riverside lumber yards. Jacob Woolfe, a carpenter and cabinet -
maker, is believed to have built the first bimah and torah ark.
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There
was "comic" confusion over the name House of Jacob when
the contractor submitted the plans for the new synagogue to
building inspector Dick Harrington in June 1911. "What in
thunder do you want to plaster the man’s name all over the plans
for?" he asked. "I don’t care whose house it is as
long as it complies with the building by-law." The contractor
couldn’t quite catch the drift of the conversation, but when he
glanced at the plans himself, it came to him that the inspector
had assumed the new synagogue was a house for somebody named
Jacob.
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Jacob
Diamond, laid the cornerstone during the summer of 1911. Calgary
lawyer R.B. Bennett (later Prime Minister) addressed the audience.
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The
synagogue quickly became a meeting place for many Jewish
organizations and a venue for a variety of Jewish celebrations and
events. In 1914, the Calgary Zionist Association held a meeting to
raise funds for Europe’s homeless Jews. Two smaller buildings at
the rear of the synagogue housed the Mikvah (ritual bath) and the
day chapel/meeting room/school room.
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When
the House of Jacob was demolished in the summer of 1968, local
journalist Tom Moore wrote, " to the early Jewish immigrants
to Calgary, the House of Jacob was more than a place of worship.
It was their "club."
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Rabbi
Shimon Smolensky served the Congregation from 1917 to 1935. He was
also the ritual slaughterer for kosher meat for the city’s
Jewish population. Rabbi David Well served from 1935 to 1938 and
Rabbi David Barenholtz from 1939 to 1968.
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The
synagogue was purchased by the city of Calgary as part of its
east-end urban re-development project. In January 1967, the House
of Jacob closed and the building was subsequently demolished. Bow
Valley College (formerly Alberta Vocational Centre) now occupies
the site.
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The
congregation moved to the former Moose Lodge building at 1212
Street S.W. where it remained until the almost inactive
congregation was revived around 1980. Three years later they
officially changed their name to Congregation House of Jacob –
Mikveh Israel.
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A
chandelier and some of the wooden furnishings from the original
House of Jacob are still in use at the new Congregation House of
Jacob Mikveh Israel synagogue on 92nd Avenue S.W. which
was dedicated in 1986.
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A model
of Calgary’s first permanent synagogue, recently built by Vance
Harris, a University of Calgary Architecture student, will be on
display at the House of Jacob Mikveh Israel during the
congregation’s 90th Anniversary celebration in 1999.
Thank you to the Jewish
Historical Society of Southern Alberta for providing a history of
the Congregation of the House of Jacob.
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