A unique synagogue housed in a building that was formerly a church.

Founded in 1919 as an Orthodox Shul, Shaarei Zedek Synagogue served as the centerpiece of Saint John, New Brunswick’s Jewish community for nearly a century. The building itself actually predates the synagogue, having been constructed in 1865 as a Presbyterian church.

An influx of Sephardic and, later, Ashkenazi Jews at the end of the 19th Century, meant that Saint John’s growing Jewish community needed a more substantial place to meet and worship. The solution was to purchase the more than half-century-old church on the corner of Wellington Row and Carleton streets.

In acquiring the building, Saint John’s Jews set aside some of their differences naming their new synagogue Shaarei Zedek, or Gates of Righteousness. Able to accommodate up to 550 people in a service, the synagogue’s ample dimensions were just what the town’s Jewish community needed at the time.

According to local records, the synagogue had 200 male members in 1920. The average Jewish family at the time had five children, suggesting Saint John’s Jewish population numbered in the vicinity of 1,400.

The synagogue exterior captures the neo-gothic austerity that often typified its Presbyterian builders. Meanwhile, the color palette of the interior is largely monochrome. The dark wooden columns and arches supporting the vaulted ceiling as well as the balcony railing offer some hint of extravagance and color in a sanctuary that otherwise extols simplicity. The windows, especially the one over the entrance with a rosette at the top, suggest that at one time they may have housed, or at least could have housed, stained glass.

Saint John’s Jewish roots started with Solomon Hart and his wife, who came from England, via New York City, and ran a tobacco business. The community grew gradually and the first synagogue was founded in 1899. A second synagogue started in 1906 and though both congregations were orthodox, they had significant language and cultural differences stemming from English versus Yiddish divide.

With Shaarei Zedek, both synagogue congregations came together and they continued to flourish for decades even as the congregation became conservative in the 1950s. In the 1960s, there were an estimated 80 Jewish businesses in town. In the latter half of the 20th century, however, Saint John’s Jewish population began to dwindle until the synagogue had fewer than 55 members, many of whom lived away or were too elderly to attend services.

As a result, the synagogue was sold and shut down in late 2008. Saint John’s remaining Jews hope to build a new shul and community center in coming years.