The Gate of Heaven: The Story of Congregation Shaar Hashomayim of Montreal, 1846-1996

The Gate of Heaven is the story of the evolution of Congregation Shaar Hashomayim, from the beginnings of Jewish settlement in Canada to present-day activities. Rabbi Wilfred Shuchat shows how the achievement of political rights for Jews in Canada galvanized immigration, leading the English/German/Polish congregation of the Shaar to create the second oldest congregation in Canada, the oldest in the Ashkenazic tradition.

Rabbi Shuchat tells of the emergence of Shaar Hashomayim as a congregation separate from the Spanish and Portuguese fold, the generation-long tension between the two congregations, and the rebellion that produced the Temple Emanuel. He describes the role of the Canadian government in the ups and downs of Jewish immigration and details the effects of world-wide anti-Semitism on the local community, as well as the struggle for Jewish educational rights that ultimately produced a real public school system in the province of Quebec. The student protest that almost paralysed the Passover festival and the day school crisis that almost split the congregation are recounted in detail, and the Pavilion of Judaism at Expo '67 is described.

Weaving together individual stories and the history of the Shaar, Rabbi Shuchat demonstrates how the turbulence of the nineteenth century produced a twentieth-century Shaar and Montreal Jewish community that are second to none in tolerance and creativity.