Shaar Hashomayim Building Extension Campaign, Progress Through Expansion

The pamphlet distributed for the building extension campaign when it was first launched in 1965 with the aims of raising the necessary funds to begin construction.

Transcription:

Building Extension Campaign

Progress through Expansion

This is None other than the House of God and This is the Gate of Heaven

Our forebearers chose well when they selected this verse for both the motto and the name of Shaar Hashomayim. The use of the terms “House” and “Gate” give evidence of their conviction that the Synagogue has to be a home, with all the connotations of love and fellowship that the term invokes. It must also be a gateway leading the worshipper and member to a broader and deeper view of the world and humanity.

This was the motivation which inspired a handful of men to found this Congregation in a rented room on Great St James Street and St. Gabriel Street in 1846. This was the point of view that impelled them to build their first Synagogue on St. Constant Street in 1859.

This was the philosophy that motivated the subsequent moves of the Congregation in following the trend of the population westward the McGill College Avenue Synagogue in 1885 and the beautiful Cote St. Antoine Road edifice which was dedicated in 1922 and in which we worship today.

That this conception of a synagogue met the needs and yearnings of our congregation is evidenced by the many who have affiliated with our Synagogue making a physical expansion mandatory. In 1948 with a membership of over a thousand the great need to enlarge our Synagogue was deeply felt. The Rabbi Herman Abramowitz Building which was erected at that time was intended to be only the first unit in a larger complex. The complete plan did not materialize however due to a zoning restriction.

In 1965, with a membership grown to seventeen hundred and fifty families, the problem of our physical expansion can no longer be ignored. We have to accept the challenge as we are called upon to fulfill the urgings of Isaiah

“Lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes.”

OBJECTIVE: $1,875,950 | JUNE 8-28 1965