A Conservative egalitarian congregation.

Halifax’s first Jewish residents arrived in 1750, just a year after the settlement itself was founded. Within two years there were approximately 30 Jewish men, women and children living in the young city. These early Jewish settlers came from Newport, Rhode Island. With the arrival of Russian Jews fleeing pogroms in the 1890s the Jewish community numbered 118 by 1901. The continued growth of the Halifax Jewish community has brought its present day population to approximately 1500, the largest Jewish community in Canada east of Montreal.

Congregation Shaar Shalom was established in 1953 to serve the needs of Halifax’s Conservative Jewish community. It is an egalitarian congregation where both men and women participate fully in the spiritual, ritual and social life of the community.