Toronto’s 400-member congregation of Sephardic Jews from Tangiers, Morocco, opened their first synagogue here with a service conducted in four languages — Spanish, English, French and Hebrew. The congregation, Petah Tikva Anshei Castilla, purchased the synagogue building from Congregation Shomrei Shabbos, founded in 1889 by Austro-Galician Jews.
The members of the Tangiers congregation are mainly descendants of Spanish Jews who fled to North Africa at the time of the Spanish Inquisition. Their emigration from Morocco began when that country achieved independence in 1956.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
