Bagg Street Shul, Orthodox synagogue in Le Plateau-Mont-Royal, Canada
Bagg Street Shul is an Orthodox synagogue in Le Plateau-Mont-Royal in Montreal located in a red brick building at the corner of Clark and Bagg Streets. The structure provides seating for about 350 people with a main prayer hall and a balcony section.
The congregation bought the red-brick duplex on Clark Street and moved there in 1921; the building itself dates to 1899. Its Torah ark, marble staircase, pews, bimah and chandeliers came from the McGill College location of Congregation Shaar Hashomayim, purchased in 1918 for $1,500. Membership declined from the 1950s as Jews moved west to Côte Saint-Luc, Hampstead and Saint-Laurent. The building was recognized as a heritage site in the 1990s by Quebec's Minister of Culture and the City of Montreal.
The sanctuary's light blue walls and ceilings carry a U-shaped women's gallery on the second floor, painted with the twelve zodiac animals. The Hebrew months Nisan and Iyar are shown as a moose and a bison, local Canadian substitutes for the bull and ram. The Torah ark, bimah, pews, marble staircase and chandeliers came from Congregation Shaar Hashomayim's former McGill College location, bought in 1918 for $1,500.
The synagogue is a functioning Orthodox congregation, so visits are tied to Shabbat morning services rather than general sightseeing hours. The Museum of Jewish Montreal includes the exterior on several of its walking tours, which is the most reliable way to see the building from outside. Men should cover their heads inside; the sanctuary is reached from the Clark Street entrance at the corner of Bagg Street.
This is the last operating Jewish house of worship among a dozen that once existed in the Plateau neighborhood of Montreal. This status makes it an important witness to the Jewish history of this district where the community shifted over time.
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