The West Coast is comprised of: British Columbia (35,005).

There has been a Jewish presence in British Columbia since the late 1850s and the gold rush. By 1858 approximately 100 Jewish merchants, of British or Western European origin, had established themselves in Victoria. A smaller number of Jewish miners, traders, and small shopkeepers also ventured into B.C.’s interior, pioneering in boom towns like Yale and Barkerville.

By the mid-1860s, Victoria’s Jewish population reached about 250. The city’s first synagogue, Temple Emanu-El, was consecrated in 1863. Due to a decline of the gold trade in the 1870s, Victoria’s Jewish community moved to Vancouver.

With the influx of large numbers of East European Jews between 1901–31. Vancouver’s Jewish population grew from 214 to 2,440. Many peddled produce or various forms of secondhand merchandise until they accumulated enough capital to open their own retail or manufacturing establishments, particularly in the clothing industry.

In 1911–12 Vancouver’s first synagogue, the Sons of Israel, opened. In 1917 the Orthodox congregation was renamed Schara Tzedeck, and in 1921 it consecrated a new house of worship with a seating capacity of 600.

A Conservative congregation, the Beth Israel, was also established in the mid-1920s and incorporated in 1932, absorbing what remained of the community’s Reform element. Each synagogue maintained its own congregational school.

The school originally associated with the Schara Tzedeck synagogue eventually evolved into the Vancouver Talmud Torah, the city’s only Jewish day school.

 

The postwar period was one of tremendous growth for B.C. Jewry, Vancouver remaining the primary centre. By 1971 the city’s Jewish community had grown to more than 10,000. By 2001 the Jewish population of B.C. had grown to more than 30,000. Jewish growth also occurred outside of Vancouver: in Richmond, Maple Ridge, Oakridge and Burnaby. Victoria’s Jewish community likewise witnessed a revival, and relatively new Jewish communities emerged in interior towns such as Kelowna.