By Lisa Terech, Community Engagement
Research is well underway for the 2024 publication on Oshawa’s unwritten history. This book will examine aspects of Oshawa’s history that have not been written about in other history books, including stories of diverse community groups. Recently, the Oshawa Public Library digitized newspapers from the 1920s to 1940s, and this has helped with researching the early Jewish community, who were a vibrant and thriving community group in Oshawa by the 1920s.
While looking for information to share about Passover, which started on Wednesday, April 5 at sundown, I came across an article from 1926 about this holiday, saying, “Services in the synagogue and a family service, called the seder, mark its opening. The service in this city will take place in Engel’s Hall.” Engel’s Hall was an important community gathering place for the Jewish community, but it also was a gathering place for the local community as a whole.
Hyman Engel came to Oshawa around 1905 where he started his successful clothing business. Born in Austria, Engel immigrated in the late 1890s and settled in Toronto before moving east to Oshawa. It was fairly common for many early Jewish immigrants to settle in cities where larger Jewish communities were already established upon first arriving in Canada.
Engel was married to a woman named Annie, and together, they had seven children and an adopted daughter. The family became very important to the foundation of the Oshawa Hebrew Congregation. Engel was not only the first President of the Oshawa Hebrew Congregation but was a member of many organizations, such as the Independent Order of the B’nai B’rith, the Maccabees, and the Phoenix Lodge No. 22 of the IOOF. As well, they were extremely generous with their wealth, and often gave money to different causes affecting the Jewish community, including funding Jewish immigrants’ entry into the country.
The building at 16 Simcoe Street North features a date stone reading ‘H. Engel 1921.’ This is where Engel had his storefront and hall. Before the Jewish community were able to purchase a property on Albert Street to serve as their synagogue, services were held in Engel’s Hall. In 1928, the community was able to acquire the house at 45 Albert Street which they used as their synagogue until 1948 when they acquired 138 King Street East, Llewellyn Hall.
Engel’s Hall not only served as a gathering place for the local Jewish community, but it appears to have been available for other groups to rent and use, as newspapers from the 1920s frequently advertized dances, lectures, and Pentecostal services being held in the hall. Samuel Collis, another prominent member of the early Jewish community, offered violin lessons from the Hall. Fundraising initiatives supporting Jewish immigrants also met at Engel’s Hall, and on June 28, 1926, a meeting was held here which saw the formation of the Oshawa Hebrew Congregation.
After having a stroke, Hyman Engel died on July 30, 1930. He is buried at the Jones Avenue Cemetery, the second oldest Jewish cemetery in Toronto.
Sources:
Canadian Jewish Review, 15 Aug, 1930, page 21.
Jewish Gen Online, Jones Avenue Cemetery, accessed from: https://www.jewishgen.org/databases/cemetery/jowbrshow.php?ID=CAN-01542
“Jewish Feast of Passover Tuesday,” Oshawa Daily Reformer, 29 Mar 1926, page 3.
Canadian Census Records, 1911, 1921.
Oshawa Museum Blog 