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Aron Hakodesh, Adath Israel Synagogue
1950
Adath Israel Synagogue, Kirkland Lake, Ontario, Canada

Credits:
Museum of Northern History Collection

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Aron Hakodesh

One of the features of note in the Synagogue was its ark of the covenant, known as the Aron Hakodesh. The centre of worship of any temple, the Aron Hakodesh is set against the eastern wall of the synagogue and holds the Torahs or sacred texts of the congregation. The Aron Hakodesh placed in the synagogue in Kirkland Lake was brought from Montreal from the Romanian Synagogue that was merging with another local synagogue.

The Aron Hakodesh was brought by Mr. Alter Scott, then President of the Congregation, and installed in the Synagogue in 1927. It was enhanced by donations of torahs by members of the congregation and others. The Aron Hakodesh remained in the synagogue until the synagogue's closure in 1980.

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Kirkland Lake receives an Aron Hakodesh
3 July 2003
Adath Israel Synagogue, Kirkland Lake, Ontario, Canada

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The thing that is interesting about the synagogue actually was the Aron Hakodesh. Now every synagogue has to have a sort of a cupboard really, is all it is, to contain the scrolls of the law. Now because we didn't have one and knew we would, and usually this is built as sort of an elaborate cupboard, even though it may be a very simple one. It has a nice door on it or will have nice curtains on it. There's something that make(s) you think that this is a very special thing as described in the Bible. How the children of Israel carried the, this Aron Hakodesh, this whatever it was, it contained the scrolls of the law and they carried it on their shoulders all through the deserts for many years.

So Mr. Scott comes up with the idea, he says, "You know," he says, "I have a friend in Montreal who is the secretary of a Romanian synagogue and that synagogue is being amalgamated with another synagogue and they don't know what to do with all the things that are in that synagogue." He says, "If you authorize me to hire a truck, and one thing and another, we can go to the synagogue and to Montreal and I'm pretty sure," he says, "they will be glad to give me some of those things rather than us having to, having to buy them." Well he went to Montreal. He took a big truck and he brought back this Aron Hakodesh, which was installed in our synagogue and it came out of a much larger building and it took up virtually half the space.

Now this Aron Hakodesh, I don't know who made it. Nobody really knows. But it was a work of art by the carpenters who had built it actually. And it was high. It went right to the top of our ceiling. We had a high ceiling fortunately and we could accommodate it. And there were the Ten Commandments, and there were the Two Lions of Judah supporting the Ten Commandments. And we didn't perhaps realize what a gem we had until finally we had a visitor one day from the Canadian Jewish Congress who was in charge of Jewish archives in Toronto. And he then declared it to be the finest example of a, of an Aron Hakodesh in the country, that any others that were left had been destroyed or weren't, but this was the only one that was still left "intact" of that particular era. So we then knew that we had a gem and we, we took good care of it.

So Mr. Scott brought back this beautiful Aron Hakodesh and he brought back chairs, theatre-type seats, and he brought back the bima, which had wrought iron decorations going all around it. They were actually, they were typical of actually the uh, the decorations around the bima, I, were typical of a lot of the railings that we would see on some of the balconies in Montreal going up to the old homes, probably came from the same ironworks, you know. But it was a very beautiful thing and it was installed and there were seats put around it, you know. And we, we used it.

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Bar Mitzvah speech of Sammy Mallin at the Synagogue in Kirkland Lake
1950
Adath Israel Synagogue, Kirkland Lake, Ontario, Canada

Credits:
Photograph courtesy of Eddie Duke

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Well that's Sammy Mallin uh, delivering his Bar Mitzvah speech. It's usually customary for the boys to make a little speech.

And what is some interesting things about the Aron Hakodesh here, one of the reasons that I included this picture, is the fact that these lamps that you see with the, the candelabra, I believe they were donated to the synagogue by Harry Atkins on some occasion that he wanted to donate something to the synagogue. And uh, up above, you can just see it sticking out is what we call the "eternal light," which was a light that was never supposed to be turned off. And uh, you can't quite see it there but every synagogue has one and that was also donated by somebody in memory and I, I think actually again it was Harry Atkins but I am not sure. And uh, I think what's, of course anybody looking at these pictures that is Jewish will know, but the writing that says across the top is Hebrew and it says, " ...," which means translated, "Know before whom you are standing."

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The Aron Hakodesh was transported to the Beth Tikvah Synagogue through an arrangement between congregants both past and present.

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Collection of Joe Atkins
1980
Beth Tikvah Synagogue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

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Movement of Aron Hakodesh
26 September 2003

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B. Scheaffer: The synagogue in Kirkland Lake was something that was very close to my heart and I am sure Joe's also. And when, the community could no longer afford to keep a Rabbi to keep the services going and keep the community together, the synagogue sort of fell into disrepair. So much so, that on the most sacred holiday in the Jewish year, which is 10 days in October called Yom Kippur, they could not afford anyone to come and lead the services. And the scholarship, the Jewish scholarship of the community by that time, had filtered down and deteriorated. There were very few who could carry on a service or conduct a service.

So for the holiest day of the Jewish year, which is the evening before Yom Kippur they had a record and their phonograph to play a very famous song called Nidra and that really showed to me that this was of limited time.

We had suggested that perhaps that they demolish and we would be very happy to buy the furnishings and take it, put it in a loving home, a loving synagogue. And the offer was turned down and then about six months later my mother phoned and they had a terrible problem with the synagogue. Part of the roof was collapsing because of the snow, so at that point we decided we would make them another offer which they did not refuse. And what happened was that Fred went up there with a couple of Jewish carpenters to demolish the furnishings of the synagogue. There is a very lovely . . .

F. Scheaffer: We did not demolish them.

B. Scheaffer: Well, the piece of furniture which holds the holy ark. What we call the Torah. There were several Torahs there and we took that to Toronto and the benches, the pews all the furnishing from the Synagogue came to Toronto and was installed in our synagogue.

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The selling of the Aron Hakodesh
6 July 2003
Adath Israel Synagogue, Kirkland Lake, Ontario, Canada

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The fact that the synagogue had to close and out of the blue uh, Beverly and her husband came up with the idea that they would like to donate this aron kodesh, which had by then been declared a work of art by the archivist of the Canadian Jewish Congress. It was a, they had, they had these facts and they asked us if we would sell them the, the aron kodesh and they would donate it to the Beth Tikvah Synagogue to be installed in the chapel that was being built at Beth Tikvah. And actually they did buy it. That money was put in a trust fund to maintain the Hebrew Cemetery at Krugerdorf so that it would not run out of funds. And that money, that's what that money is being used for to this day.