As Jewish people all over the world celebrate the Festival of Lights, a community menorah in Saint John is helping to bring those celebrating Hanukkah together.
“We feel like we’re in a big family. A lot of people just recently came from Israel,” says Sofia Yarin.
Yarin lived in Israel for about 20 years before she and her family decided to move to Canada in 2012.
“We just decided to change. We wanted some change in our lives,” she says.
Yarin and her family first lived in Fredericton, but then made the move to Saint John, where efforts are underway to build on the Port City's strong Jewish history.
Dan Elman of the Saint John Jewish Centre says there were about 600 Jewish families in Saint John in the mid-20th century, but that population has been declining. Two years ago the number of families was only 28.
“We miss children and they go away. In the past that is what has happened. We had a lot of children here in the early 20th century and in the 1950s,” says Elman.
Elman is also part of a committee that encourages Jewish immigrants to come to Saint John and put down roots.
Over the past two years, they have increased the number of Jewish families in the area by 24, with 33 children between them.
“We thought, we had a legacy of people that came before us and we’d like to continue that and continue contributing,” says Elman.
Halifax Rabbi Ari Isenberg says the Maritimes’ Jewish community is, generally speaking, small.
“In the Maritimes, altogether, there are about 3,000 Jews,” says Isenberg. “So significantly small, but big in presence.”
The growth experienced in Saint John is being matched in other Maritime centres.
“There's been a bit of a spike in Halifax, a bit of a spike in Moncton, even Fredericton,” says Isenberg.
Yarin says having a community with which to celebrate helps to make this time of year even more special.
“It helps us to keep traditions. I have an 18-year-old daughter; I want her to follow the Jewish traditions,” she says.
With files from CTV Atlantic's Nick Moore
