Kiever Synagogue
| The First Russian Congregation of Rodfei Sholem Anshei Kiev | |
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Kiever Synagogue
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| Basic information | |
| Location | 25 Bellevue Avenue / 28 Denison Square, Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| Geographic coordinates | 43°39′14″N 79°24′11″W / 43.653837°N 79.402960°WCoordinates: 43°39′14″N 79°24′11″W / 43.653837°N 79.402960°W |
| Affiliation | Modern Orthodox Judaism |
| Rite | Nusach Ashkenaz |
| Status | Active |
| Leadership | President: David Pinkus |
| Website | kievershul |
| Architectural description | |
| Architect(s) | Benjamin Swartz |
| Architectural style | Byzantine Revival |
| Completed | 1927 |
| Specifications | |
| Direction of façade | South |
| Capacity | 400 |
| Dome(s) | 2 |
| Materials | red brick |
The Kiever Synagogue is a Modern Orthodox Jewish synagogue in Toronto, Canada. It was founded by Jewish immigrants from the Ukraine in 1912, and formally incorporated in 1914. The congregants were poor working-people, and services were led by members and held in their homes. Two houses were eventually purchased in the Kensington Market area, and in their place construction was completed on the current twin-domed Byzantine Revival building in 1927. The building was once the site of George Taylor Denison's home Bellevue.
Changing demographics led to a decline in membership in the 1950s and 1960s, and the synagogue building deteriorated. In 1973, the Canadian Jewish Congress decided to help preserve it, and in 1979, the Kiever Synagogue became the first building of Jewish significance to be designated a historical site by the province of Ontario. By 1982 sufficient funds had been raised to restore the building.
The congregation's first and longest-tenured rabbi was Solomon Langner, who served from around 1929 until his death in 1973. As of 2011[update], the synagogue president was David Pinkus.
The Kiever Synagogue, or Kiever Shul (formally The First Russian Congregation of Rodfei Sholem Anshei Kiev) dates to 1912 when a group of Jewish immigrants from the Ukraine who had settled in "The Ward"—the impoverished immigrant district of Toronto, Canada in which most Jews then lived—decided to found a synagogue. It was founded as a landsmanshaft by Jewish immigrants originally from the Kiev Governorate of the Russian Empire (now Ukraine). Some of the families had been members of Shaarei Tzedek, then on Centre Street, but had left in a dispute over burial rites and formed a new congregation, Chevra Rodfei Sholem.
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