Canada: Little Synagogue on the Prairie to Open June 28

Canada: Little Synagogue on the Prairie to open June 28

(ISJM) Last August I wrote about the moving of a small prairie synagogue in Western Canada to a new home at a heritage park. I suggested the same might be done to save some of the endangered wooden synagogues of Lithuania. Since that time the danger to those synagogue has increased, with a suspicious fire destroying much of the synagogue of Pakruojis last month.

Thanks to Barbara Weiser, we have an update on the Montefiore Synagogue, now known as the "Little of Synagogue on the Prairie." The Jewish Community of Calgary will celebrate the grand opening of the moved and newly restored 1916 prairie synagogue on June 28, 2009 at 6 pm at Heritage Park Historical Village in Calgary.

A good read for preservation professionals and those interested in the history of small town and frontier synagogue is the original project proposal prepared about the Montefiore Synagogue for the Heritage Park project in 2006. You can access it as a PDF file here. -- SDG