Winnipeg Beach synagogue celebrates 75th anniversary

When the brand-new Hebrew Congregation of Winnipeg Beach opened on a Saturday morning back in the summer of 1950, Harry Fogelman was one of the first congregants to walk through its doors. Next Saturday, on Aug.2, his daughter, Lenore Kagan, will walk through those same doors as the tiny synagogue celebrates its 75th anniversary.

Kagan, a long-time summer resident of Winnipeg Beach, has been a congregant and volunteer with the synagogue for decades. She is thrilled to be participating in its milestone celebration.

“I love our little shul on the prairie because it is flourishing with the love and friendship of those attending,” Kagan says.

The synagogue, she explains, has no rabbi, no cantor and no official staff. It is run entirely by the people who attend its Sabbat services throughout the summer.

“Volunteers come together every Shabbat, looking forward to a haymishe (warm) service, and everyone is willing to participate in any way they can,” Kagan says. “This is why this little shul means so much to me.”

Kagan’s awe and affection for the synagogue is echoed by Steven Hyman who also summers at Winnipeg Beach. He has been the congregation’s Torah reader for more than 30 years.

“The Hebrew Congregation of Winnipeg Beach is quite unique,” Hyman says. “It is a congregation that is entirely volunteer run, operates only for nine to 10 Shabbats a year, holds egalitarian conservative services, is the only synagogue in operation in Manitoba outside the city, and its sanctuary is a former one room schoolhouse!”

That former log school house was initially hauled to the beach from Beausejour and settled on to the corner of Hazel Avenue and Grove Street, a block from the lake and a half dozen blocks from the town’s downtown. After almost 50 years on that site, it was hitched to a trailer for a second time and hauled to an underused parking lot at Camp Massad of Manitoba, a Jewish summer camp conveniently located nearby. Shortly after it was relocated, a small reception room was added to the building.

Long before the synagogue began operating, Winnipeg Beach was already a favourite summer holiday destination for members of Winnipeg’s Jewish community. This had a little to do with the resort town’s proximity to the city, but was mainly due to the fact that other Manitoba summer resort areas, among them Victoria Beach, made it explicitly clear that Jews were not welcome along their shores.

For its first many years, the beach synagogue offered Saturday morning Sabbath services and twice daily liturgical services throughout the rest of the week, and had no difficulty recruiting the 10 men necessary to make up the minyan, or the quorum, required for communal services to proceed. Eventually, owing to a number of factors, many that were influencing synagogue attendance everywhere, the twice daily minyan was pared down to once daily, and gradually to only on Saturday. Another major change came in 2007 when the synagogue replaced its more traditional service with an egalitarian one, and began inviting women to be counted in the minyan and to read from the Torah — a move that increased the shul’s popularity and visibility.

About 35 people now regularly attend the Saturday morning Sabbath services that began this season on July 5 and continue until Aug. 30. Many more attendees join those regulars when the synagogue hosts lifecycle events such as baby namings and Bar Mitzvot, which it does on occasion.

“Although most of the people who attend our services are from the Winnipeg Beach, Gimli and Sandy Hook area, we have others who drive the 45 to 60 minutes from the city each week to attend,” says Abe Borzykowski, the congregation’s president and a part-time Winnipeg Beach resident. “That’s a testament to the enjoyment they have by attending and the dedication that these people have to ensure that we continue providing a thriving place to worship.”

In preparation for the anniversary celebration, Borzykowski and the synagogue’s other volunteers have reached out to the children and grandchildren of the synagogue’s founders and invited them to join them at the beach for the anniversary. The event will feature a special Sabbath service and kiddish, or reception, formal recognition of the individuals who had the foresight to establish the synagogue, and an acknowledgement of the many Interlake volunteers who have kept the synagogue viable for so long.

“I keep wondering what our founders would say now, seventy-five years later, about the Hebrew Congregation of Winnipeg Beach,” Kagan says. “A small synagogue that these men founded. Seventy-five years, and still in existence. Seventy-five years, and stronger then ever.”

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