About

Petah Tikva Anshe Castilla Congregation
"The gates of hope for the people of Castille"
Founded: Toronto, February 1958
ONTARIO'S FIRST SEPHARDIC SYNAGOGUE

The need to move on is certainly not new to the Sephardic Jewish Community, nor is it new or unexpected, to the Jewish Community at large. And so it came to pass. In September 1958, 10 families in search of a spiritual place of workship where they could practice their distinctive liturgy and speak their native language, Spanish, gathered at their new home in Toronto's inner city.

The congregation was comprised of 15 adults from 10 families, who were otherwise struggling with harsh winters and financial straits. Most of all, the establishment of this unique place of workship provided refuge from harsh Torontonian parochialism which still displayed hostility towards Jews and the perplexed Ashkenazi community who had yet to come to grips with the diversity within the world of Judaism. The origin of the congregation has its roots in the Spanish Inquisition. At the end of the 15th century, the Jews fled the persecution of the Royal Inquisitors seeking refuge across the Straits of Gibraltar on the North African shores. Many settled in Tangier and its environs, others, elsewhere along the North African coast, where they remained and thrived for over 500 years. Independence for the kingdom of Morocco in 1956 and the subsequent annexation of Tangier -- until then, an international port city -- forced a civilization and culture which thrived over 500 years to move once again, this time seeking the gates of hope in Canada. Thus, Petah Tikva began, and today, lays claim to being the first Sephardic Synagogue in Canada's largest province, andone of the largest overall in Canada.