1.
Snowdon, Montreal
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Snowdon is a neighbourhood located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is part of the Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce borough, the area is centred on the intersection of the Décarie Expressway and Queen Mary Road. Snowdon is bordered by Macdonald Street in the west, Victoria Avenue in the east, Côte-Saint-Luc Road to the south and Vezina Street, furthermore, the northwest end borders Côte Saint-Luc and the southeast end borders Westmount. The neighbourhood is served by the Snowdon Metro station, notable buildings in the neighbourhood include the former Snowdon Theatre. The district was named for James Snowdon, who owned a farm where the now stands
2.
Canada
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Canada is a country in the northern half of North America. Canadas border with the United States is the worlds longest binational land border, the majority of the country has a cold or severely cold winter climate, but southerly areas are warm in summer. Canada is sparsely populated, the majority of its territory being dominated by forest and tundra. It is highly urbanized with 82 per cent of the 35.15 million people concentrated in large and medium-sized cities, One third of the population lives in the three largest cities, Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. Its capital is Ottawa, and other urban areas include Calgary, Edmonton, Quebec City, Winnipeg. Various aboriginal peoples had inhabited what is now Canada for thousands of years prior to European colonization. Pursuant to the British North America Act, on July 1,1867, the colonies of Canada, New Brunswick and this began an accretion of provinces and territories to the mostly self-governing Dominion to the present ten provinces and three territories forming modern Canada. With the Constitution Act 1982, Canada took over authority, removing the last remaining ties of legal dependence on the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy, with Queen Elizabeth II being the head of state. The country is officially bilingual at the federal level and it is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many other countries. Its advanced economy is the eleventh largest in the world, relying chiefly upon its abundant natural resources, Canadas long and complex relationship with the United States has had a significant impact on its economy and culture. Canada is a country and has the tenth highest nominal per capita income globally as well as the ninth highest ranking in the Human Development Index. It ranks among the highest in international measurements of government transparency, civil liberties, quality of life, economic freedom, Canada is an influential nation in the world, primarily due to its inclusive values, years of prosperity and stability, stable economy, and efficient military. While a variety of theories have been postulated for the origins of Canada. In 1535, indigenous inhabitants of the present-day Quebec City region used the word to direct French explorer Jacques Cartier to the village of Stadacona, from the 16th to the early 18th century Canada referred to the part of New France that lay along the St. Lawrence River. In 1791, the area became two British colonies called Upper Canada and Lower Canada collectively named The Canadas, until their union as the British Province of Canada in 1841. Upon Confederation in 1867, Canada was adopted as the name for the new country at the London Conference. The transition away from the use of Dominion was formally reflected in 1982 with the passage of the Canada Act, later that year, the name of national holiday was changed from Dominion Day to Canada Day
3.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
4.
Judaism
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Judaism encompasses the religion, philosophy, culture and way of life of the Jewish people. Judaism is an ancient monotheistic Abrahamic religion, with the Torah as its text, and supplemental oral tradition represented by later texts such as the Midrash. Judaism is considered by religious Jews to be the expression of the relationship that God established with the Children of Israel. With between 14.5 and 17.4 million adherents worldwide, Judaism is the tenth-largest religion in the world, Judaism includes a wide corpus of texts, practices, theological positions, and forms of organization. Modern branches of Judaism such as Humanistic Judaism may be nontheistic, today, the largest Jewish religious movements are Orthodox Judaism, Conservative Judaism and Reform Judaism. Major sources of difference between groups are their approaches to Jewish law, the authority of the Rabbinic tradition. Orthodox Judaism maintains that the Torah and Jewish law are divine in origin, eternal and unalterable, Conservative and Reform Judaism are more liberal, with Conservative Judaism generally promoting a more traditional interpretation of Judaisms requirements than Reform Judaism. A typical Reform position is that Jewish law should be viewed as a set of guidelines rather than as a set of restrictions and obligations whose observance is required of all Jews. Historically, special courts enforced Jewish law, today, these still exist. Authority on theological and legal matters is not vested in any one person or organization, the history of Judaism spans more than 3,000 years. Judaism has its roots as a religion in the Middle East during the Bronze Age. Judaism is considered one of the oldest monotheistic religions, the Hebrews and Israelites were already referred to as Jews in later books of the Tanakh such as the Book of Esther, with the term Jews replacing the title Children of Israel. Judaisms texts, traditions and values strongly influenced later Abrahamic religions, including Christianity, Islam, many aspects of Judaism have also directly or indirectly influenced secular Western ethics and civil law. Jews are a group and include those born Jewish and converts to Judaism. In 2015, the world Jewish population was estimated at about 14.3 million, Judaism thus begins with ethical monotheism, the belief that God is one and is concerned with the actions of humankind. According to the Tanakh, God promised Abraham to make of his offspring a great nation, many generations later, he commanded the nation of Israel to love and worship only one God, that is, the Jewish nation is to reciprocate Gods concern for the world. He also commanded the Jewish people to one another, that is. These commandments are but two of a corpus of commandments and laws that constitute this covenant, which is the substance of Judaism
5.
Spanish and Portuguese Jews
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Over half of Spains Jewish origin population had converted to Catholicism as a result of the religious anti-Jewish persecution and pogroms which occurred in 1391. Between 40,000 and 80,000 did not convert, many of Spains Jews who left Spain as Jews also initially moved to Portugal, where they were subsequently forcibly converted to the Catholic Church. It is the collective of these communities, and their descendants, which are known as Western Sephardim, the main Western Sephardic Jewish communities developed in Western Europe, Italy, and the non-Iberian regions of the Americas. The term Western Sephardim is frequently used in research literature to refer to Spanish and Portuguese Jews. Similar considerations may have played a role for ethnic Sephardic Jews in the French regions of Bayonne and Bordeaux, as the term Sephardim necessarily connotes a link with Spain, the distinguishing feature of Portuguese Jews or Jews of the Portuguese Nation was the added link with Portugal. Thus, as a subset of the Sephardim, Portuguese and Spanish, finally, almost all organised communities in this group traditionally employed Portuguese rather than Spanish as their official or working language. In Italy, the term Spanish Jews is frequently used, but it includes descendants of Jews expelled as Jews from the Kingdom of Naples, as well as Spanish and Portuguese Jews proper. In Venice, Spanish and Portuguese Jews were often described as Ponentine, occasionally Italian Jews distinguish between the Portuguese Jews of Pisa and Livorno and the Spanish Jews of Venice, Modena and elsewhere. The scholar Joseph Dan distinguishes medieval Sephardim from Renaissance Sephardim, in reference to the times of each groupings formative contacts with Spanish language. The term Sephardi means Spanish or Hispanic, and is derived from Sepharad, the location of the biblical Sepharad is disputed, but Sepharad was identified by later Jews as Hispania, that is, the Iberian Peninsula. Sepharad still means Spain in modern Hebrew, during their period as New Christians, many conversos continued to practise their Jewish faith in secrecy as best they could. Those New Christian conversos of Jeiwsh origin who maintained crypto-Jewish practices in secret were termed marranos by Old Christian Spaniards, for Spanish and Portuguese Jews, their historical period as conversos has shaped their identity, culture, and practices. For centuries, the Sephardic Jewish communities under Ottoman rule provided spiritual leadership to the dispersed Sephardim through their contributions to the Responsa literature, the common feature shared by Western Sephardim to Sephardic Bnei Anusim and Neo-Western Sephardim is that all three are descended from conversos. The Oporto communitys return to Judaism was led by the returnee to Judaism Captain Artur Carlos de Barros Basto, as mentioned, these communities of modern-day returnees to Judaism are among the first in the emergence of the nascent Neo-Western Sephardim. Neo-Western Sephardim are the returnees to Judaism throughout Iberia and Ibero-America emerging from among the population of Sephardic Bnei Anusim. Even more recent examples of such Neo-Western Sephardim communities include the Belmonte Jews in Portugal, and the Xuetes of Spain. In the last five to ten years, organized groups of Benei Anusim have been established in Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Chile, Ecuador, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, some members of these communities have formally reverted to Judaism. Spanish and Portuguese Jews were originally descended from New Christian conversos whose descendants later left the Iberian peninsula, the main wave of conversions, often forced, followed the massacre of 1391 in Spain
6.
Architect
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An architect is someone who plans, designs, and reviews the construction of buildings. Etymologically, architect derives from the Latin architectus, which derives from the Greek, practical, technical, and academic requirements for becoming an architect vary by jurisdiction. The terms architect and architecture are used in the disciplines of landscape architecture, naval architecture. In most jurisdictions, the professional and commercial uses of the terms architect, throughout ancient and medieval history, most architectural design and construction was carried out by artisans—such as stone masons and carpenters, rising to the role of master builder. Until modern times, there was no distinction between architect and engineer. In Europe, the architect and engineer were primarily geographical variations that referred to the same person. It is suggested that various developments in technology and mathematics allowed the development of the gentleman architect. Paper was not used in Europe for drawing until the 15th century, pencils were used more often for drawing by 1600. The availability of both allowed pre-construction drawings to be made by professionals, until the 18th-century, buildings continued to be designed and set out by craftsmen with the exception of high-status projects. In most developed countries, only qualified people with appropriate license, certification, or registration with a relevant body, such licensure usually requires an accredited university degree, successful completion of exams, and a training period. To practice architecture implies the ability to independently of supervision. In many places, independent, non-licensed individuals may perform design services outside the professional restrictions, such design houses, in the architectural profession, technical and environmental knowledge, design and construction management, and an understanding of business are as important as design. However, design is the force throughout the project and beyond. An architect accepts a commission from a client, the commission might involve preparing feasibility reports, building audits, the design of a building or of several buildings, structures, and the spaces among them. The architect participates in developing the requirements the client wants in the building, throughout the project, the architect co-ordinates a design team. Structural, mechanical, and electrical engineers and other specialists, are hired by the client or the architect, the architect hired by a client is responsible for creating a design concept that meets the requirements of that client and provides a facility suitable to the required use. In that, the architect must meet with and question the client to ascertain all the requirements, often the full brief is not entirely clear at the beginning, entailing a degree of risk in the design undertaking. The architect may make proposals to the client which may rework the terms of the brief
7.
Shanghai
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Shanghai is the most populous city proper in the world, with a population of more than 24 million as of 2014. As one of the four direct-controlled municipalities of the Peoples Republic of China, it is a financial centre and transport hub. Located in the Yangtze River Delta in East China, Shanghai sits on the edge of the mouth of the Yangtze in the middle portion of the eastern Chinese coast. The municipality borders the provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang to the north, south and west, as a major administrative, shipping and trading city, Shanghai grew in importance in the 19th century due to trade and recognition of its favourable port location and economic potential. The city was one of five treaty ports forced open to foreign trade following the British victory over China in the First Opium War, the subsequent 1842 Treaty of Nanking and 1844 Treaty of Whampoa allowed the establishment of the Shanghai International Settlement and the French Concession. The city then flourished as a center of commerce between China and other parts of the world, and became the financial hub of the Asia-Pacific region in the 1930s. However, with the Communist Party takeover of the mainland in 1949, trade was limited to other socialist countries, and the citys global influence declined. In the 1990s, the reforms introduced by Deng Xiaoping resulted in an intense re-development of the city, aiding the return of finance. The two Chinese characters in the name are 上 and 海, together meaning Upon-the-Sea. The earliest occurrence of this dates from the 11th-century Song Dynasty, at which time there was already a river confluence. There are disputes as to exactly how the name should be understood, Shanghai is officially abbreviated 沪 in Chinese, a contraction of 沪渎, a 4th- or 5th-century Jin name for the mouth of Suzhou Creek when it was the main conduit into the ocean. This character appears on all motor vehicle license plates issued in the municipality today, another alternative name for Shanghai is Shēn or Shēnchéng, from Lord Chunshen, a third-century BC nobleman and prime minister of the state of Chu, whose fief included modern Shanghai. Sports teams and newspapers in Shanghai often use Shen in their names, such as Shanghai Shenhua F. C. Huating was another early name for Shanghai. In AD751, during the dynasty, Huating County was established at modern-day Songjiang. Today, Huating appears as the name of a hotel in the city. The city also has various nicknames in English, including Pearl of the Orient, during the Spring and Autumn period, the Shanghai area belonged to the Kingdom of Wu, which was conquered by the Kingdom of Yue, which in turn was conquered by the Kingdom of Chu. During the Warring States period, Shanghai was part of the fief of Lord Chunshen of Chu and he ordered the excavation of the Huangpu River. Its former or poetic name, the Chunshen River, gave Shanghai its nickname of Shen, two important events helped promote Shanghais development in the Ming dynasty
8.
China
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China, officially the Peoples Republic of China, is a unitary sovereign state in East Asia and the worlds most populous country, with a population of over 1.381 billion. The state is governed by the Communist Party of China and its capital is Beijing, the countrys major urban areas include Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing, Chongqing, Shenzhen, Tianjin and Hong Kong. China is a power and a major regional power within Asia. Chinas landscape is vast and diverse, ranging from forest steppes, the Himalaya, Karakoram, Pamir and Tian Shan mountain ranges separate China from much of South and Central Asia. The Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, the third and sixth longest in the world, respectively, Chinas coastline along the Pacific Ocean is 14,500 kilometers long and is bounded by the Bohai, Yellow, East China and South China seas. China emerged as one of the worlds earliest civilizations in the basin of the Yellow River in the North China Plain. For millennia, Chinas political system was based on hereditary monarchies known as dynasties, in 1912, the Republic of China replaced the last dynasty and ruled the Chinese mainland until 1949, when it was defeated by the communist Peoples Liberation Army in the Chinese Civil War. The Communist Party established the Peoples Republic of China in Beijing on 1 October 1949, both the ROC and PRC continue to claim to be the legitimate government of all China, though the latter has more recognition in the world and controls more territory. China had the largest economy in the world for much of the last two years, during which it has seen cycles of prosperity and decline. Since the introduction of reforms in 1978, China has become one of the worlds fastest-growing major economies. As of 2016, it is the worlds second-largest economy by nominal GDP, China is also the worlds largest exporter and second-largest importer of goods. China is a nuclear weapons state and has the worlds largest standing army. The PRC is a member of the United Nations, as it replaced the ROC as a permanent member of the U. N. Security Council in 1971. China is also a member of numerous formal and informal multilateral organizations, including the WTO, APEC, BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the BCIM, the English name China is first attested in Richard Edens 1555 translation of the 1516 journal of the Portuguese explorer Duarte Barbosa. The demonym, that is, the name for the people, Portuguese China is thought to derive from Persian Chīn, and perhaps ultimately from Sanskrit Cīna. Cīna was first used in early Hindu scripture, including the Mahābhārata, there are, however, other suggestions for the derivation of China. The official name of the state is the Peoples Republic of China. The shorter form is China Zhōngguó, from zhōng and guó and it was then applied to the area around Luoyi during the Eastern Zhou and then to Chinas Central Plain before being used as an occasional synonym for the state under the Qing
9.
Montreal
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Montreal, officially Montréal, is the most populous municipality in the Canadian province of Quebec and the 2nd-most populous in Canada as a whole. Originally called Ville-Marie, or City of Mary, it is believed to be named after Mount Royal, the city has a distinct four-season continental climate, with warm-to-hot summers and cold, snowy winters. In 2016, Montreal had a population of 1,704,694, Montreals metropolitan area had a population of 4,098,927 and a population of 1,958,257 in the urban agglomeration, with all of the municipalities on the Island of Montreal included. Legally a French-speaking city,60. 5% of Montrealers speak French at home,21. 2% speak English and 19. 8% speak neither, Montreal is one of the most bilingual cities in Quebec and Canada, with 56% of the population able to speak both official languages. Montreal is the second-largest primarily French-speaking city in the world after Paris, historically the commercial capital of Canada, it was surpassed in population and economic strength by Toronto in the 1970s. It remains an important centre of commerce, aerospace, finance, pharmaceuticals, technology, design, education, culture, tourism, gaming, film, Montreal was also named a UNESCO City of Design. In 2009, Montreal was named North Americas leading host city for international events, according to the 2009 preliminary rankings of the International Congress. According to the 2015 Global Liveability Ranking by the Economist Intelligence Unit, in the 2017 edition of their Best Student Cities ranking, Quacquarelli Symonds ranked Montreal as the worlds best city to study abroad. Also, Montreal has 11 universities with 170,000 students enrolled, the Greater Montréal region has the highest number of university students per capita among all metropolitan areas in North America. It is the only Canadian city to have held the Summer Olympics, currently, the city hosts the Canadian Grand Prix of Formula One, the Montreal International Jazz Festival and the Just for Laughs festival. In 2012, Montreal was ranked as a Beta+ world city, in Kanien’kéha, or Mohawk language, the island is called Tiohtià, ke Tsi or Ka-wé-no-te. In Anishinaabemowin, or Ojibwe language, the land is called Mooniyaang, though the city was first named by French colonizers Ville Marie, or City of Mary, its current name comes from Mount Royal, the triple-peaked hill in the heart of the city. The most popular theory is that the name derives from Mont Réal, Cartiers 1535 diary entry, naming the mountain, according to the Commission de toponymie du Québec and the Geographical Names Board of Canada, Canadian place names have only one official form. Thus, Montreal is officially spelled with an accent over the e in both English and French. In practice, this is limited to governmental uses. English-speaking Montrealers, including English-language media, regularly omit the accent when writing in English, archaeological evidence demonstrates that First Nations native people occupied the island of Montreal as early as 4,000 years ago. By the year AD1000, they had started to cultivate maize, within a few hundred years, they had built fortified villages. Archeologists have found evidence of their habitation there and at locations in the valley since at least the 14th century
10.
Synagogue
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A synagogue, also spelled synagog, is a Jewish house of prayer. Synagogues have a hall for prayer, and may also have smaller rooms for study and sometimes a social hall. Some have a room for Torah study, called the beith midrash beis medrash —בית מדרש. Synagogues are consecrated spaces used for the purpose of prayer, Tanakh reading, study and assembly, halakha holds that communal Jewish worship can be carried out wherever ten Jews assemble. Worship can also be carried out alone or with fewer than ten people assembled together, however, halakha considers certain prayers as communal prayers and therefore they may be recited only by a minyan. The synagogue does not replace the long-since destroyed Temple in Jerusalem, israelis use the Hebrew term beyt knesset. Jews of Ashkenazi descent have traditionally used the Yiddish term shul in everyday speech, Sephardi Jews and Romaniote Jews generally use the term kal. Spanish Jews call the synagogue a sinagoga and Portuguese Jews call it an esnoga, persian Jews and some Karaite Jews also use the non-Hebrew term kenesa, which is derived from Aramaic, and some Arab Jews use kenis. Reform and some Conservative Jews use the word temple, the Greek word synagogue is used in English, to cover the preceding possibilities. The all-day Yom Kippur service, in fact, was an event in which the congregation both observed the movements of the kohen gadol as he offered the days sacrifices and prayed for his success. During the Babylonian captivity the Men of the Great Assembly formalized and standardized the language of the Jewish prayers, prior to that people prayed as they saw fit, with each individual praying in his or her own way, and there were no standard prayers that were recited. Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai, one of the leaders at the end of the Second Temple era and this contributed to the continuity of the Jewish people by maintaining a unique identity and a portable way of worship despite the destruction of the Temple, according to many historians. A synagogue dating from between 75 and 50 BCE has been uncovered at a Hasmonean-era winter palace near Jericho, more than a dozen Second Temple era synagogues have been identified by archaeologists. Any Jew or group of Jews can build a synagogue, there is no set blueprint for synagogues and the architectural shapes and interior designs of synagogues vary greatly. In fact, the influence from local religious buildings can often be seen in synagogue arches, domes. Historically, synagogues were built in the architectural style of their time. Thus, the synagogue in Kaifeng, China looked very like Chinese temples of that region and era, with its outer wall, the styles of the earliest synagogues resembled the temples of other sects of the eastern Roman Empire. The surviving synagogues of medieval Spain are embellished with mudéjar plasterwork, the surviving medieval synagogues in Budapest and Prague are typical Gothic structures
11.
Oldest synagogues in Canada
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The Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue of Montreal,1760, is the oldest congregation in Canada. The 1863 building of Congregation Emanu-El is the oldest surviving synagogue building, the 1901 building of Congregation Sons of Israel of Glace Bay is the oldest synagogue building in Nova Scotia. Temple Anshe Sholom, In 1853, the Hebrew Benevolent Society Anshe-Sholom of Hamilton was formed, religious services began in 1856 and in the next year, a half-acre plot was purchased as a cemetery site. On May 5,1863, a “Body Corporate and Politic under the name of the Jewish Congregation Anshe-Sholom of Hamilton” was formed listing 19 founding members, toronto Hebrew Congregation - Holy Blossom, formed in 1856, was the first Jewish congregation in Canada west of Montreal. Its current building dates to 1938, knesseth Israel was founded in 1909 and its shul, completed in 1913, in Torontos Junction neighbourhood is the citys oldest synagogue building still in operation. United Brothers Jewish Synagogue, designed by Cecil Burgess, Rideau Street near Chapel Street, Ottawa 1912, the First Russian Congregation of Rodfei Sholem Anshei Kiev was founded in 1914 and its Kiever Synagogue was built in 1927 on the edge of Torontos Kensington Market. Beth Israel Anshei Minsk congregation was founded in 1912 in Torontos Kensington Market and its shul was completed in 1930. The First Narayever Congregation was founded in 1914 and its current shul on Brunswick Avenue was acquired in 1940. The Beach Hebrew Institute in Torontos east end was founded in 1919 and its shul was originally constructed in 1895 as a Baptist church and was acquired by the congregation in 1919. In 1926, alterations were made to the interior and exterior of the building, including the construction of a new facade, the Congregation is now housed in its fourth premises in the Snowdon-Cotes des Neiges area of Montreal since 1947. Congregation Shaar Hashomayim was founded in 1846 and it is the oldest and largest traditional Ashkenazi Congregation in Canada. The current synagogue building, situated in Westmount, close to downtown Montreal, was dedicated in 1922, the Bagg Street Shul is the oldest congregation that is still operating in its original building. Formed in 1906, the Congregation has been at the corner of Clark Street, Beth Israel Ohev Sholom is the oldest synagogue in Québec City, founded in 1852. The 1906 building of Beth Israel Synagogue is probably the oldest surviving building in the province. Reform, Temple Emanu-El-Beth Sholom Oldest synagogues in the world Oldest synagogues in the United States Oldest synagogues in the United Kingdom History of the Jews in Canada
12.
Orthodox Union
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Not to be confused with Union of Orthodox Rabbis, a distinct Haredi rabbinical group. The Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, more known as the Orthodox Union, is one of the oldest Orthodox Jewish organizations in the United States. It is best known for its kosher certification service and its circled-U symbol, Ⓤ, a hechsher mark, is found on the labels of many kosher commercial and consumer food products. It is one of the largest Orthodox Jewish organizations in the United States and its synagogues and their rabbis typically identify themselves with Modern Orthodox Judaism. The OU was founded in 1898 by Rabbi Henry Pereira Mendes, the need for a national Jewish Orthodox rabbinical organization in the early twentieth century was recognized by a number of groups. The Union of Orthodox Rabbis was the most powerful rabbinical body at that time, originally, the OU was formed by the same rabbis who created JTS, the Jewish Theological Seminary. JTS started as an Orthodox institution to combat the hegemony of the Reform movement, at the time, there was no Conservative movement by name, though there was a range of liberalism within Orthodox Jewry. Cracks between the OU and JTS first formed in 1902, shortly after Solomon Schechters recruitment from Great Britain to head JTS, Schechter liberalized the institution and its approach to Torah study. Most of JTSs original founders, backers, and staff disavowed the changes, without their support, Schechter broke away from Orthodoxy to create the Conservative movement, with JTS as its predominant agency. Conservative Judaism created its own competing synagogue movement in 1913 with the formation of the United Synagogues of Conservative Judaism, one of the clearest breaks between Orthodox Judaism and Conservative Judaism was the Sabbath decision of 1949. Nevertheless, the idea for a national Orthodox congregational body took hold, the OU was soon acknowledged within the American Jewish establishment as the main, but not exclusive spokesman for the American Orthodox community. Representatives of 150 Orthodox congregations, with a membership of 50,000. The OU played a role in advocating for public policies important to Orthodox practice, such as advocating for the five-day work week. It was also involved in efforts to serve the needs of American Jewish soldiers as well as relief for European Jewry. In the 1920s the OU started its Kashruth division, establishing the concept of community-sponsored, in 1923, the H. J. Heinz Companys Vegetarian Beans became the first product to be kosher certified by the OU. The OUs kashruth program was influenced by Abraham Goldstein, a chemist who used his knowledge of food science to determine the kosher status of various products. The wide acceptance of OU kashruth supervision rested largely upon the reputation of its rabbinic administrator. The OU Womens Branch was also organized during the 1920s to encourage the formation, Womens Branch took on a number of special products, typically related to womens Jewish education and support for Yeshiva University
13.
Abraham de Sola
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Alexander Abraham de Sola was a Canadian Rabbi, author, Orientalist, and scientist. Born in London, England, the child of David Aaron de Sola and Rebecca Meldola, his maternal grandfather was Haham Raphael Meldola. His sister Eliza, married Rev. Abraham Pereira Mendes, and was the mother of Dr. Frederick de Sola Mendes. In 1846, De Sola was elected minister of the Shearith Israel congregation of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and he arrived in that city early in 1847. In 1848, De Sola was appointed lecturer, and in 1853 professor, of Hebrew and Oriental literature at McGill University, Montreal, and he eventually became the senior professor of its faculty of arts. He was president of the Natural History Society for several years, the degree of LL. D. was conferred upon him in 1858 by McGill University. This was the first instance of a Jew attaining that honor in an English-speaking country, in 1873, by invitation of President Ulysses S. Grants administration, De Sola opened the United States Congress with prayer. Mr. Gladstone, then premier, as well as Sir Edward Thornton, for twenty years he was a constant contributor to Leesers Occident, and after the latters death he purchased the copyrights and stereotype plates of his works and continued their publication. He married Esther Joseph on 30 June 1852, amongst their children was Clarence de Sola, a businessman and pioneer Canadian Zionist. Abraham de Sola died in New York City in 1882 and was buried in Montreal, a Commentary on Samuel Hannagids Introduction to the Talmud. Philological Studies in Hebrew and Aramaic, the Employment of Anæsthetics in Connection with Jewish Law. The Sanatory Institutions of the Hebrews, biography of David Aaron de Sola. History of the Jews of Poland, History of the Jews of France. New Edition of the Forms of Prayer of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews, with English translation, based on the versions of David Aaron de Sola and his articles on Sir William Sawsons Archaia, Dawn of Life, and Origin of the World are specially noteworthy. He also edited and republished Englishs Grounds of Christianity and a number of educational works and this article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Singer, Isidore, et al. eds. New York, Funk & Wagnalls Company, Hebrew Printing in America, 1735-1926, A History and Annotated Bibliography
14.
Egyptian Revival architecture
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Egyptian revival is an architectural style that uses the motifs and imagery of ancient Egypt. It is attributed generally to the awareness of ancient Egyptian monuments generated by Napoleons conquest of Egypt. Napoleon took an expedition with him to Egypt. Publication of the work, the Description de lÉgypte, began in 1809 and was published as a series through 1826. However, works of art and architecture in the Egyptian style had made or built occasionally on the European continent. The most important example is probably Gian Lorenzo Berninis obelisk in the Piazza Navona in Rome, others may be found at Belan, County Kildare, and Dangan, County Meath. The Casteltown Folly in County Kildare is probably the best known, Egyptian buildings had also been built as garden follies. The most elaborate was probably the one built by Frederick I and it included an Egyptian bridge across which guests walked to reach an island with an elaborate Egyptian-influenced bath house. Designed by the court architect, Jean Baptiste Kleber, the building had a billiards room. New after the Napoleonic invasion was a increase of the number of works of art. In France and Britain this was at least partially inspired by successful war campaigns undertaken by each country while in Egypt, according to David Brownlee, the 1798 Karlsruhe Synagogue, an early building by the influential Friedrich Weinbrenner was the first large Egyptian building to be erected since antiquity. According to Diana Muir Appelbaum, it was the first public building in the Egyptian revival style, a street or passage named the Place du Caire or Foire du Caire was built in Paris in 1798 on the former site of the convent of the Filles de la Charité. In 1828 a building with Egyptianizing detail including large Hathor heads, among the earliest monuments of the Egyptian revival in Paris is the Fontaine du Fellah in Paris, built in 1806. It was designed by François-Jean Bralle, a well-documented example, destroyed after Napoleon was deposed, was the monument to General Louis Desaix in the Place des Victoires was built in 1810. It featured a statue of the general and an obelisk. Another example of a still standing site of Egyptian Revival is the Egyptian Gate of Tsarskoe Selo, one of the first British buildings to show an Egyptian revival interior was the newspaper office of the Courier on the Strand in London. It was built in 1804 and featured a cavetto cornice and Egyptian-influenced columns with palmiform capitals, Egyptian revival architecture enjoyed considerable popularity in other countries as well. The most notable Egyptian structure in the United States was the Washington Monument, begun in 1848, the South African College in the then-British Cape Colony features an Egyptian building constructed in 1841, the Egyptian revival building of the Cape Town Hebrew Congregation is also still standing
15.
Torah
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The Torah is the central reference of Judaism. It has a range of meanings and it can most specifically mean the first five books of the twenty-four books of the Tanakh, and it usually includes the rabbinic commentaries. In rabbinic literature the word Torah denotes both the five books and the Oral Torah, the Oral Torah consists of interpretations and amplifications which according to rabbinic tradition have been handed down from generation to generation and are now embodied in the Talmud and Midrash. According to the Midrash, the Torah was created prior to the creation of the world, traditionally, the words of the Torah are written on a scroll by a scribe in Hebrew. A Torah portion is read publicly at least once every three days in the presence of a congregation, reading the Torah publicly is one of the bases for Jewish communal life. The word Torah in Hebrew is derived from the root ירה, the meaning of the word is therefore teaching, doctrine, or instruction, the commonly accepted law gives a wrong impression. Other translational contexts in the English language include custom, theory, guidance, the earliest name for the first part of the Bible seems to have been The Torah of Moses. This title, however, is neither in the Torah itself. It appears in Joshua and Kings, but it cannot be said to refer there to the entire corpus, in contrast, there is every likelihood that its use in the post-Exilic works was intended to be comprehensive. Other early titles were The Book of Moses and The Book of the Torah, Christian scholars usually refer to the first five books of the Hebrew Bible as the Pentateuch, a term first used in the Hellenistic Judaism of Alexandria, meaning five books, or as the Law. The Torah starts from the beginning of Gods creating the world, through the beginnings of the people of Israel, their descent into Egypt, and it ends with the death of Moses, just before the people of Israel cross to the promised land of Canaan. Interspersed in the narrative are the teachings given explicitly or implicitly embedded in the narrative. This is followed by the story of the three patriarchs, Joseph and the four matriarchs, God gives to the patriarchs a promise of the land of Canaan, but at the end of Genesis the sons of Jacob end up leaving Canaan for Egypt due to a regional famine. They had heard there was a grain storage and distribution facility in Egypt. Exodus begins the story of Gods revelation to his people of Israel through Moses, Moses receives the Torah from God, and teaches His laws and Covenant to the people of Israel. It also talks about the first violation of the covenant when the Golden Calf was constructed, Exodus includes the instructions on building the Tabernacle and concludes with its actual construction. Leviticus begins with instructions to the Israelites on how to use the Tabernacle, leviticus 26 provides a detailed list of rewards for following Gods commandments and a detailed list of punishments for not following them. Numbers tells how Israel consolidated itself as a community at Sinai, set out from Sinai to move towards Canaan, even Moses sins and is told he would not live to enter the land
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Bema
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The bema, or bima, is an elevated platform used as an orators podium in ancient Athens. In Jewish synagogues, it is known as a bimah and is for Torah reading during services. In an Orthodox Jewish synagogue, a bema is the area around the aron kodesh. In antiquity it was made of stone, but in times it is usually a rectangular wooden platform approached by steps. The Ancient Greek bema means both ‘platform’ and ‘step’, being derived from bainein, the original use of the bema in Athens was as a tribunal from which orators addressed the citizens as well as the courts of law, for instance, in the Pnyx. In Greek law courts the two parties to a dispute presented their arguments each from separate bemas, the bimah in synagogues is also known as the almemar or almemor among some Ashkenazim. The post-Biblical Hebrew bima, ‘platform’ or ‘pulpit’, is almost certainly derived from the Ancient Greek word for a raised platform, among the Sephardim, it is known as a tevah or migdal-etz. It is typically elevated by two or three steps, as was the bimah in the Temple, at the celebration of the Shavuot holiday when synagogues are decorated with flowers, many synagogues have special arches that they place over the bimah and adorn with floral displays. The importance of the bimah is to show that the reader is the most important at that moment in time, a raised bimah will typically have a railing. This was a requirement for safety in bimah more than 10 handbreadths high. A lower bimah will typically have a railing as a measure to prevent someone from inadvertently stepping off. The bimah became a fixture in synagogues from which a portion from the Torah. In Orthodox Judaism, the bimah is located in the center of the synagogue, in other branches of Judaism, the bimah and the Ark are joined together. The ceremonial use of a bema carried over from Judaism into early Christian church architecture and it was originally a raised platform with a lectern and seats for the clergy, from which lessons from the Scriptures were read and the sermon was delivered. In Western Christianity the bema developed over time into the chancel and it may be approached by one or several steps. The bema is composed of the altar, the soleas, Orthodox laity do not normally step up onto the bema except to receive Holy Communion. Ambo Templon Tribune Media related to Bimot at Wikimedia Commons
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Torah ark
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The ark in a synagogue is generally a receptacle, or ornamental closet, which contains each synagogues Torah scrolls. Most arks feature a parokhet placed either outside the doors of the ark or inside the doors of the ark, the ark is known in Hebrew as the aron kodesh by the Ashkenazim and as the hekhál among most Sefardim. Aron Kodesh comes from Hebrew אָרוֹן קׄדֶש ʼārōn qōdeš, Holy Ark, similarly, Hekhál, also written hechal, echal or heichal — and sometimes also Echal Kodesh comes from Hebrew הֵיכָל ‘palace’, was used in the same time period to refer to the inner sanctuary. The hekhal contained the Menorah, Altar of Incense, and Table of the Showbread, the ark is often placed on the wall of the sanctuary which is facing Jerusalem, however it is sometimes placed on the north wall or another wall for architectural reasons. In those cases where the ark does not show the direction to Jerusalem, the Torah was brought into the synagogue for reading purposes. Ark of the Covenant Bimah Three hares Church tabernacle “Aron Kodesh” in Jewish Encyclopedia
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Jerusalem
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Jerusalem is a city located on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is considered a city in the three major Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. During its long history, Jerusalem has been destroyed at least twice, besieged 23 times, attacked 52 times, the part of Jerusalem called the City of David was settled in the 4th millennium BCE. In 1538, walls were built around Jerusalem under Suleiman the Magnificent, today those walls define the Old City, which has been traditionally divided into four quarters—known since the early 19th century as the Armenian, Christian, Jewish, and Muslim Quarters. The Old City became a World Heritage Site in 1981, and is on the List of World Heritage in Danger, Modern Jerusalem has grown far beyond the Old Citys boundaries. These foundational events, straddling the dawn of the 1st millennium BCE, the sobriquet of holy city was probably attached to Jerusalem in post-exilic times. The holiness of Jerusalem in Christianity, conserved in the Septuagint which Christians adopted as their own authority, was reinforced by the New Testament account of Jesuss crucifixion there, in Sunni Islam, Jerusalem is the third-holiest city, after Mecca and Medina. As a result, despite having an area of only 0, outside the Old City stands the Garden Tomb. Today, the status of Jerusalem remains one of the issues in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. During the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, West Jerusalem was among the captured and later annexed by Israel while East Jerusalem, including the Old City, was captured. Israel captured East Jerusalem from Jordan during the 1967 Six-Day War and subsequently annexed it into Jerusalem, one of Israels Basic Laws, the 1980 Jerusalem Law, refers to Jerusalem as the countrys undivided capital. All branches of the Israeli government are located in Jerusalem, including the Knesset, the residences of the Prime Minister and President, the international community does not recognize Jerusalem as Israels capital, and the city hosts no foreign embassies. Jerusalem is also home to some non-governmental Israeli institutions of importance, such as the Hebrew University. In 2011, Jerusalem had a population of 801,000, of which Jews comprised 497,000, Muslims 281,000, a city called Rušalim in the Execration texts of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt is widely, but not universally, identified as Jerusalem. Jerusalem is called Urušalim in the Amarna letters of Abdi-Heba, the name Jerusalem is variously etymologized to mean foundation of the god Shalem, the god Shalem was thus the original tutelary deity of the Bronze Age city. The form Yerushalem or Yerushalayim first appears in the Bible, in the Book of Joshua, according to a Midrash, the name is a combination of Yhwh Yireh and the town Shalem. The earliest extra-biblical Hebrew writing of the word Jerusalem is dated to the sixth or seventh century BCE and was discovered in Khirbet Beit Lei near Beit Guvrin in 1961. The inscription states, I am Yahweh thy God, I will accept the cities of Judah and I will redeem Jerusalem, or as other scholars suggest, the mountains of Judah belong to him, to the God of Jerusalem
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Star of David
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The Star of David, known in Hebrew as the Shield of David or Magen David, is a generally recognized symbol of modern Jewish identity and Judaism. Its shape is that of a hexagram, the compound of two equilateral triangles, unlike the menorah, the Lion of Judah, the shofar and the lulav, the Star of David was never a uniquely Jewish symbol. During the 19th century the symbol began to proliferate amongst the Jewish communities of Eastern Europe, a significant motivating factor was the desire to imitate the influence of the Christian cross. The earliest Jewish usage of the symbol was inherited from medieval Arabic literature by Kabbalists for use in talismanic protective amulets where it was known as a Seal of Solomon. The symbol was used in Christian churches as a decorative motif many centuries before its first known use in a Jewish synagogue. The symbol became representative of the worldwide Zionist community, and later the broader Jewish community, the identification of the term Star of David or Shield of David with the hexagram shape dates to the 17th century. The term Shield of David is also used in the Siddur as a title of the God of Israel, the hexagram does appear occasionally in Jewish contexts since antiquity, apparently as a decorative motif. For example, in Israel, there is a bearing a hexagram from the arch of a 3rd–4th century synagogue in the Galilee. Originally, the hexagram may have employed as an architectural ornament on synagogues, as it is, for example, on the cathedrals of Brandenburg and Stendal. A pentagram in this form is found on the ancient synagogue at Tell Hum, in the synagogues, perhaps, it was associated with the mezuzah. Similarly, the symbol illuminates a medieval Tanakh manuscript dated 1307 belonging to Rabbi Yosef bar Yehuda ben Marvas from Toledo, Spain. A Siddur dated 1512 from Prague displays a large hexagram on the cover with the phrase, turcomans who ruled in Anatolia during the 13th century, inherited it from the Seljuk Turks. A hexagram has been noted on a Jewish tombstone in Taranto, Apulia in Southern Italy, the Jews of Apulia were noted for their scholarship in Kabbalah, which has been connected to the use of the Star of David. Medieval Kabbalistic grimoires show hexagrams among the tables of segulot, the six sfirot of the masculine Zer Anpin correspond to the six items on the seder plate, while the seventh sfira being the feminine Malkhut corresponds to the plate itself. However, these triangles are parallel, one above the other. According to G. S. Oegema Isaac Luria provided the hexagram with a further mystical meaning, similarly, M. Costa wrote that M. Some say that one represents the ruling tribe of Judah. It is also seen as a dalet and yud, the two assigned to Judah
20.
Zodiac
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The zodiac is an area of the sky centered upon the ecliptic, the apparent path of the Sun across the celestial sphere over the course of the year. The paths of the Moon and visible planets also remain close to the ecliptic, within the belt of the zodiac, in western astrology and astronomy, the zodiac is divided into twelve signs, each sign occupying 30° of celestial longitude. Because the signs are regular, they do not correspond exactly to the boundaries of the twelve constellations after which they are named, the English word zodiac derives from zōdiacus, the Latinized form of the Ancient Greek zōidiakòs kýklos, meaning circle of little animals. Zōidion is the diminutive of zōion, the name reflects the prominence of animals among the twelve signs. The construction of the zodiac is described in Ptolemys vast 2nd century AD work, the term zodiac may also refer to the region of the celestial sphere encompassing the paths of the planets corresponding to the band of about eight arc degrees above and below the ecliptic. The zodiac of a planet is the band that contains the path of that particular body, e. g. the zodiac of the Moon is the band of five degrees above. By extension, the zodiac of the comets may refer to the band encompassing most short-period comets, the division of the ecliptic into the zodiacal signs originates in Babylonian astronomy during the first half of the 1st millennium BC. The zodiac draws on stars in earlier Babylonian star catalogues, such as the MUL. APIN catalogue, around the end of the 5th century BC, Babylonian astronomers divided the ecliptic into twelve equal signs, by analogy to twelve schematic months of thirty days each. Each sign contained thirty degrees of longitude, thus creating the first known celestial coordinate system. Because the division was made into equal arcs, 30° each, in Babylonian astronomical diaries, a planet position was generally given with respect to a zodiacal sign alone, less often in specific degrees within a sign. When the degrees of longitude were given, they were expressed with reference to the 30° of the zodiacal sign, in astronomical ephemerides, the positions of significant astronomical phenomena were computed in sexagesimal fractions of a degree. For daily ephemerides, the positions of a planet were not as important as the astrologically significant dates when the planet crossed from one zodiacal sign to the next. The Babylonian star catalogs entered Greek astronomy in the 4th century BC, Babylonia or Chaldea in the Hellenistic world came to be so identified with astrology that Chaldean wisdom became among Greeks and Romans the synonym of divination through the planets and stars. Hellenistic astrology derived in part from Babylonian and Egyptian astrology, horoscopic astrology first appeared in Ptolemaic Egypt. The Dendera zodiac, a dating to ca.50 BC, is the first known depiction of the classical zodiac of twelve signs. The earliest extant Greek text using the Babylonian division of the zodiac into 12 signs of 30 equal degrees each is the Anaphoricus of Hypsicles of Alexandria. Particularly important in the development of Western horoscopic astrology was the astrologer and astronomer Ptolemy, whose work Tetrabiblos laid the basis of the Western astrological tradition. Under the Greeks, and Ptolemy in particular, the planets, Houses, Ptolemy lived in the 2nd century AD, three centuries after the discovery of the precession of the equinoxes by Hipparchus around 130 BC
