Congregation Dorshei Emet

Story

Congregation Dorshei Emet is a Reconstructionist synagogue in Hampstead, Quebec. It was founded in 1960 by Lavy Becker, who served as volunteer rabbi. Ron Aigen was hired as the congregation's first paid rabbi in 1976, and Heather Batchelor was hired as the first cantor in 2009.Dorshei Emet constructed its first synagogue building in 1967. The congregation soon outgrew this structure, and built a larger one on the same site in 2003., Dorshei Emet had close to 500 member households. It was the only Reconstructionist synagogue in Quebec, and the oldest in Canada.Early historyThe Reconstructionist movement's first congregation in Canada was founded in 1960 as the Reconstructionist Synagogue of Montreal by Rabbi Lavy Becker, in time for the High Holy Days. Born in 1905 in Montreal, Becker attended high school in Montreal, and studied Talmud at Yeshiva College (today Yeshiva University) in New York. He graduated from McGill University with a B.A. in 1926, and in 1930 was ordained at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, where he was strongly influenced by Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, the creator of Reconstructionist Judaism.