The largest Jewish congregation in Saskatchewan’s capitol city.

Although Saskatchewan is an enormous province in terms of land area, its Jewish population has never been large. At its peak, in 1931, the Jewish population was 5,047. Since then it has gradually declined to about 2,000. Regina, the capital of Saskatchewan, had only 9 Jews in 1891 yet that number gradually grew to a peak of over 1,000 in 1931 and just as gradually declined to about 400 present day.

The first organizational meeting to establish a Jewish community took place at the home of Jacob Shachter in 1905. Because the gathering took place at his home it was decided to name the congregation Beth Jacob Congregation. Within a few years the community had hired a ritual slaughterer and began weekly religious services although there were only about 20 Jewish families. In 1913 the corner stone for a synagogue was laid. A new synagogue building was built in 1993 with the financial help of the estates of Pearl and Max B. Herman, longtime Regina residents who resided in Las Vegas from the late 1950s.