When Wendy Rapps first stepped into Congregation Shaare Zion (today Shaare Zion Beth-El), it was for High Holidays, and she was more likely carried in, still in diapers.
Today, the 68-year-old chairs the synagogue’s 100th anniversary gala, which on May 27 will unite three of Montreal’s most storied cantorial voices in a concert celebrating a century of tradition.
Her grandfather was a founding member, and her earliest memory is sitting in what was then the women’s section, decades before the congregation adopted mixed seating. “I clearly remember sitting on the right side with my mother and grandmother. My father, grandfather, and brother sat in the first row of the men’s section, so our sightlines were perfect. My father was a very jovial kind of guy and would blow kisses at me and wink at me. I’d wave back at him and blush.”
From its rebirth in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce (NDG) following a move from its original Westmount location, the growth of Shaare Zion and its evolution toward mixed seating, egalitarian practice, and merger with Beth-El Congregation, has been interwoven with Rapps’ life.
The synagogue, known as SZBE, has been a cornerstone of Montreal’s Jewish community, located in NDG but bordering the towns of Côte Saint-Luc and Hampstead, from where much of its membership hails, and more so since its merger with Beth-El.
Rabbi Adam Rubin’s chapter has been a short one in the SZBE life story, almost three years, but the Los Angeles native remains struck by how deeply rooted the community is. “It feels very anchored in the city’s history and the larger Montreal Jewish community,” he told The CJN. “In L.A., people come and go, it’s transient in a way, but Montreal seems different. Many of my congregants have been here for their entire lives, or their families have been here for a long time. Many of their children have remained, not all, but many.”
Incorporated in 1926, Shaare Zion’s earliest members gathered in homes for two years before establishing a synagogue in a converted Westmount church that was destroyed by fire in 1939. The congregation later built on Côte Saint-Luc Road in Montreal, opening in 1947, and consisting of one room and a social hall, as decades of expansion transformed it into today’s synagogue overlooking the busy artery four blocks from the Décarie expressway cleaving Montreal’s west end.
Beth-El Congregation was founded in 1954 in neighbouring Town of Mount Royal, where it embraced openness and mixed seating from its inception. After years of declining membership and attendance, the congregation closed and sold its building to developers, merging with Shaare Zion in 2021.
Rabbi Emeritus Lionel Moses served as Shaare Zion’s rabbi from 1995 to 2018, and remains active, including teaching conversion classes – some 150 couples to date, or “two filing cabinets’ worth, you tell me how many.” After pulpits in New York City and Sacramento, the Toronto native arrived in Montreal in August 1995, two months before Quebec’s second sovereignty referendum when the ‘No’ side’s razor-thin victory rattled Montreal Jews – as it did most Quebec minority communities.
Within Shaare Zion’s walls, however, the greater milestone was the egalitarian shift. There was no specific mandate, he recalls, “but a sense that at American Conservative synagogues which members had visited, women had a comparably equal role to men, so during my interviews they asked if I was open to equality in the congregation. I said yes. It’s what I was used to in California.”
‘Walkies not talkies’
That began the process of shedding the tradition of “only walkies, not talkies,” where women could ascend the bimah to open and close the Ark but not recite blessings or read from the Torah.
Mixed seating already reigned, but women didn’t count toward the minyan and wrangling “ten mobile men” for daily minyans, especially evenings, remained difficult. “We had a few very stalwart people who came every day and pulled it together, but it was a real struggle. Once we started counting women toward the minyan, they started coming.” By 2000, it was a fait accompli he told The CJN, noting it was on Shavuot, 26 years ago, that Shaare Zion first gave an aliyah to a woman, then-president Carol Liverman.
The synagogue also introduced child-friendly “No Shushing Shabbats,” in addition to new adult education courses, regular lunch-and-learns, and weekly evening classes.
Rabbi Moses’ predecessor Rabbi Maurice Cohen served for 44 years and remained active as Rabbi Emeritus, dying in 2012 at age 92. A Kohen known for standing outside Paperman & Sons for every congregant funeral in freezing or sweltering temperatures (Kohens are not permitted to come in contact with the dead), Rabbi Moses’ first impression of him was “scary. He was such a powerful intellect, a Harvard grad from a poor Boston-area family, and he stood 6’1” bending down.”
In the late ‘40s, Rabbi Cohen envisioned a school that would be “more Conservative, more connected” than existing (JPPS and Talmud Torah) choices says Rabbi Moses. Rabbi Cohen convinced parents and community members to establish a day school where he could send his own kids, and in 1951 Shaare Zion Academy was born, becoming Solomon Schechter Academy (SSA) in 1969. Wendy Rapps attended the one-class-per-grade SZA. “We were like a family. There were 20 of us who stayed together from nursery to grade 7, some of whom I still see today.”
Through the years and decades, from traditional to egalitarian, SZBE’s strong liturgical and musical traditions endured. It’s no coincidence the centennial is anchored by a cantorial concert, which Rapps calls a “powerful full-circle moment. Music has always been central to who we are. This evening reflects not only our history, but our vision for the future, rooted in connection, creativity, and a deep sense of belonging.”
Acclaimed cantors serving SZBE include Solomon Gisser (1952 to 1995), his successor Eric Moses who arrived after training in Israel, then the three performing at the gala: Gideon Zelermyer, Boaz Davidoff and current cantor, Adam Stotland.
Behind all those talents was the Shaare Zion Beth-El Choir, a professional troupe launched in the synagogue’s early days, enhancing the Shabbat and High Holiday atmosphere.
It was that music that drew Jack Trottenberg to Shaare Zion’s doors in 1994, following a stint as first tenor at the Orthodox Beth Ora Synagogue and a meeting with former Shaare Zion choirmaster Lou Burko. Both liked what they heard. “He said ‘I could use your voice’,” Trottenberg fondly recalls, quickly earning a spot in the 18-member choir and becoming part of a congregation where he spent years – until 2018 – singing, davening, and launching fundraising drives.
Now 85, his warm and resonant tenor has lost none of the charm that helped shape those High Holiday soundtracks with Eric Moses. “All the songs and prayers are beautiful,” he told The CJN, “but L’dor V’dor, with Moses or Zelermyer, to sing to someone’s heart,” was a privilege he says. “There was nothing like it.”
Another 100 years
The 2021 merger with Congregation Beth-El strengthened the community and was largely seen as a seamless integration. Rabbi Rubin described Beth-El as “a community that inspired a lot of loyalty and love, and I feel like they brought those qualities here. We’re really one community now.” That merger went very smoothly because there were no conflicts over leadership roles, and Beth-El had always had mixed seating. SZBE Rabbi Emeritus Ronnie Cahana served as rabbi for a decade before suffering a severe brain stem stroke in 2011 and now resides in Côte Saint-Luc, where he writes Torah lessons and poetry, and continues to teach and inspire.
Beth-El’s final services in its own space were on Yom Kippur in 2019 before entering a two-year trial “association” with Shaare Zion. About 90 of its remaining families accompanied the merger in 2021 to form Shaare Zion Beth-El Congregation, which today counts some 750 families. “It’s a win-win” says Reverend Asher Tannenbaum, who has served as SZBE ritual director and hazzan sheini (second cantor) since 2004. He says most current members are over 70, “but we want to stick around another hundred years, so we do everything we can to attract younger families.” There is proximity and some agreements on spaces, but no official affiliation with the adjacent SSA. Rapps agrees it’s a challenge. “It’s not the youngest community, but we have younger families too.”
Tannenbaum says the celebration “is not just our synagogue event, it’s really a Montreal event,” reflecting the community’s longstanding impact on the city, and ability to sustain itself while remaining active in civic life. He says much of Montreal and Quebec’s political class has been invited to the gala, expected to draw some 500 people (along with an acknowledgement and polite decline from King Charles.)
While the 1990s saw a full evolution to egalitarian practices, the decades-old family seating was always a major draw. “When families come from Orthodox synagogues, this is the big feature, sitting together, even though our service is not really any different than where they came from in terms of liturgy. It fits us somewhere in the middle between Orthodox and Reform, a really good niche: open to everybody with many different ways people can enter. But we can’t sit and wait for people to come…. It’s a tough market out there,” he says.
The centennial also includes a $5 million capital campaign, partly to support renovations. “The building is beautiful but dates back to the 1940s and needs updating,” says Rabbi Rubin. “People love the sanctuary, but it was designed for a different era, holding over 1,100 people and intended especially for High Holidays. On an average Shabbat, we’re not going to have 1,100 people, so we plan to increase the sense of intimacy and closeness in part of it.” Even if the room feels large, Tannenbaum told The CJN, people still find a corner or side seat, “and just have their moment to sit down and reflect. It’s a place to find your place.”
What happens inside
More intimacy in large spaces doesn’t mean radical redesign, but maybe dividers, lowering some visual elements, or replacing some pews with chairs, Rabbi Rubin adding, “as important as it is for the building to be beautiful and welcoming, we want what happens inside to matter most.”
He has seen the increased post-October 7 desire among many Jews across North America to connect. “There’s a feeling of dismay, increased antisemitism, and in times of hostility there’s a turning toward Jewish community and a feeling of wanting to be together. But it’s not about hunkering down, it’s much more positive than that.”
That means supporting more innovative programming, including guest speakers, though SZBE actually prefers fewer “one-offs,” that is, bringing in high-profile speakers at great expense that typically attract large audiences to exciting events, particularly since October 2023. “Of course, some speakers and events are very inspiring, but the most effective programming is ongoing programming that builds connection and meaning over time.”
The Shabbat Be-Yachad dinners, subsidized by a donor to keep them affordable, are proof, reaching capacity every month, 100 people singing, learning, and eating. “And they keep coming back,” says Rabbi Rubin, “even during Canadiens playoff games. That kind of continuous community-building feels more important than glamorous one-off events. People want meaningful, recurring experiences, together.” (His dream is for all three cantors to sing the anthems at the Bell Centre if the Canadiens make the Stanley Cup Finals.)
Rapps’ connection never stopped, deepening through high school and adulthood. “When I got married, my husband belonged to an Orthodox synagogue with separate seating and we split our time between the two.” Family seating won over. “It really makes a difference for many families, especially if you have three sons and you’re sitting alone. Why sit alone when you can sit together?” Now she does exactly that, with three sons, three daughters-in-law, and six grandchildren.
The reach has also expanded. Tannenbaum continues teaching bar- and bat-mitzvah lessons to members and non-members from a wide range of traditions, and the congregation includes Sephardi, South American, Israeli and Ethiopian families.
Entering its second century, enduring attachments and the ability to evolve continue to define SZBE, and Rapps is living testimony, from crawling on pews to praying with grandchildren. “It’s very special. When I walk in, I feel at home. Being part of it all these years gave me a strong sense of community, and sending my own children to Solomon Schechter reinforced that even more.
“In the midst of all the antisemitism we’re seeing, being together under one roof celebrating 100 years is very important. It’s monumental.”
Joel has spent his entire adult life scribbling. For two decades, he freelanced for more than a dozen North American and European trade publications, writing on home decor, HR, agriculture, defense technologies and more. Having lived at 14 addresses in and around Greater Montreal, for 17 years he worked as reporter for a local community newspaper, covering the education, political and municipal beats in seven cities and boroughs. He loves to bike, swim, watch NBA and kvetch about politics.