As we deal with the covid 19 threat, services at our shul are suspended until further notice. However, we are streaming services online through zoom allowing participants to daven simultaneously. See our schedule for service times. Email us in advance to get the zoom meeting number.

Kehillat Chaverim is a Traditional congregation that began operating on July 1, 2016, immediately after the closure of Shaar Shalom Synagogue. Since then we have held >2700 twice-daily minyanim – weekdays, Shabbat, Yom Tov and High Holidays. Even now, while we have our services on zoom, there is a great feeling of friendliness and informality as we daven together. We are a community of friends who care deeply about preserving a twice daily minyan in the German Mills area. We send our weekly bulletin to >180 families.

Our minyanim are habit-forming – we have several men and women who come regularly to our services who, previously, were never regular shul-goers. We have proven to be a convenient, warm, and welcoming location for people commemorating Yahrzeit or saying Kaddish for a loved one. We extend an invitation to you to observe these important moments with us whether you are a member or not.

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Mark Richler has kindly granted permission to reprint his essay below commemorating Yom HaSho'ah

I’ve seen pictures, and I’ve watched movies. I’ve heard stories, and I’ve read poems. I know names, and I know numbers. If someone asked me, “How many Jewish people lost their lives in the holocaust?” I would tell them, “Six million.” If someone asked me, “Where did Anne Frank hide from the Nazis?” I would tell them, “In a secret attic built by her father.” If someone asked me, “Which factory owner that was a member of the Nazi party, saved hundreds of Jewish lives?” I would tell them, “Oskar Schindler.” These questions, I can answer, and I want to be able to answer these questions. I need to be able to answer these questions. However, if someone asked me, “What do the walls in Auschwitz feel like?” I would tell them, “I don’t know.” If someone asked me, “What does it smell like in Treblinka?” I would tell them, “I don’t know.” If someone asked me, “How does it feel to march proudly with thousands of other Jewish teenagers, to show Hitler, and to show the Nazis, that they failed and we lived?” I would tell them, “I don’t know.” These questions, I cannot answer, and I want to be able to answer these questions. I need to be able to answer these questions.

I have been to Israel before. I went in the summer of 1996. At the time, I was only 11 years old, but there are few things I remember as well as I do that trip. I had been at Camp Kadimah in Nova Scotia for 3 weeks prior, and was incredibly excited to be going to Israel. In my mind I thought I was going to the Promised Land. This is a great feeling to have, but it doesn’t equal the feeling of going home. The feeling of going home is what I wish to have as I enter Israel, because that’s what it is; it’s home. I can’t expect to get that feeling simply by going to a land that we love, but I believe that by going to lands and places we dreaded and hated before, it will make the land that we love seem a lot more sacred. By seeing where and how my people were forced to live, it can give me a better glimpse as to what it must have felt like to be able to go to Israel, and be able to call it home.

By the time the March of the Living is over, I want to know what it feels like to go home. I want to know what the walls in Auschwitz feel like. I want to know what it smells like in Treblinka. I want to learn things I can’t learn, by watching a movie, or seeing a picture. I want to feel things I can’t feel by hearing a story, or reading a poem. I want to answer the questions I could not answer. But most of all, I want to know what it feels like, to march proudly with thousands of other Jewish teenagers, and without saying a word, scream the message that they failed. Scream the message that we lived and we’re marching on. Scream the message that we’re the march of the living.

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We have been holding our services (other than High Holiday services) at the German Mills Community Centre, a heritage one-room schoolhouse at 80 German Mills Road. Our services have been streamed on Zoom since March 2020.

Rabbi Howard Morrison of Beth Emeth is our Mara d’Atra. Ian Schlifer is our Torah reader.

We study Talmud every Wednesday morning after services - leading to stimulating discussion over coffee.

We initially established ourselves as the German Mills Minyan. In January, 2017, we were incorporated as Kehillat Chaverim. In early November, 2017 our application for charitable status was approved by the Canada Revenue Agency.

We can provide burial rights to members in the Kehillat Chaverim section at Pardes Chaim Cemetery.

We are Kehillat Chaverim – our community of friends.

Services at shul suspended until further notice - times below are streamed services via Zoom Email shalom@kehillat-chaverim.org for zoom meeting link
		Shacharit		Mincha/Maariv
Friday	May 7	8:30 AM		6:45 PM	*
Saturday	May 8				#
Sunday	May 9	9:00 AM		7:00 PM	^
Monday	May 10	8:30 AM		7:00 PM
Tuesday	May 11	8:30 AM		7:00 PM	@
Wednesday	May 12	8:30 AM		7:00 PM
Thursday	May 13	8:30 AM		7:00 PM
Friday	May 14	8:30 AM		7:00 PM	**

* candle lighting time 7:53 PM			#	Shabbat ends 8:59PM
** candle lighting time 8:01 PM
^ Yom Yerushalayim
@ Rosh Chodesh Sivan

Please be logged in before 7:00 pm to enable a timely start.

Announcements

OUR POLICY RE THE COVID19 THREAT

Reluctantly, we have suspended our services in person, at shul until further notice. During this very unusual time, we are streaming services via zoom. We are doing so for the sake of safety, not convenience. We will discontinue zoom services when it is safe for us to return to having our services at shul. Please email shalom@kehillat-chaverim and watch our Shabbat Bulletin for information on how you can connect and participate. We are also staying in touch by email, phone etc. Stay tuned and, most importantly, take every precaution to avoid getting sick.

Contribute to our upkeep... We are now in the fifth year of our Kehilla and we thank members for their ongoing generous support. We are holding our annual membership contribution unchanged at $1,080 per household ($540 per single). Please click on the DONATE tab for instructions how to donate with either a single payment or with 2 cheques dated January 1 andJuly 1. Our goal is to operate prudently and fairly. We are all dependent on each other.

Talmud study ... We are studying daf 43 in Chapter 3 of Bava Kamma, now via zoom. Join us to learn together after Wednesday morning services.

Do we have the Yahrzeit information for your loved ones? If you have not already done so, we invite you to provide us with the relevant information: the Hebrew calendar date, your name and your Hebrew name (including the patronymic), your relationship to the person whose yahrzeit it is, and the name and Hebrew name (including the patronymic) of that person. We will keep a record and remind you not only about your upcoming yahrzeiten but also about the days, in advance, when you can have Kel Maleh recited at services to honour loved ones.

Publicity...we appreciate publicity to increase awareness of our activities, but we request that you notify the executive in advance at shalom@kehillat-chaverim.org

Main contact: shalom@kehillat-chaverim.org

Snail mail: 5863 Leslie Street

Unit 340

Toronto, ON M2H 1J8

To sponsor breakfast, kiddush, or seudah: sponsor@kehillat-chaverim.org

Donations: donate@kehillat-chaverim.org

Chesed: chesed@kehillat-chaverim.org

Our location:

Donate

How to donate to Kehillat Chaverim

1. Credit Card or PayPal:

By clicking on button above, you will be taken to the secure encrypted PayPal web site and your donation can be made to Kehillat Chaverim through your PayPal account or your credit card account.

There you can specify the details of your donation, the amount, whether through PayPal or through your credit card, and your credit card information.

2. Interac Email Money Transfer:

Donations may be sent directly through your on-line banking web site as follows:

Log into your personal online internet banking web site and select "Transfers". Under transfers select "Interac e-Transfer" and select "Manage Contacts".
If you have previously set up Kehillat Chaverim as a recipient, skip to step 3. If you have not previously set up Kehillat Chaverim as a recipient, select "Add Contact". When you are asked for the Contact Name and Email Address insert: Kehillat Chaverim and the email address donate@kehillat-chaverim.org. Don't forget the hyphen.
Next select "Send Money" and your bank will walk you through the procedure to send your donation to your preloaded recipient (Kehillat Chaverim).
As part of the procedure, you will be asked to insert a security question. Make up a question with a one word answer and indicate the answer in the space provided. You will need to email us separately (to donate@kehillat-chaverim.org) to advise us the answer to your question, so we can receive your donation.

This method of making donations is safe & easy and 100% of your donation comes to Kehillat Chaverim. You will receive an acknowledgment from your bank when the transfer is complete and the donation has been received.

3. By cheque:

Donations may be made by cheque payable to "Kehillat Chaverim". Please bring cheques to the shul or send them to our mailing address which you will find at the CONTACT tab of this website.

Note: Donations made through PayPal or your credit card are subject to a handling charge paid by Kehillat Chaverim.

You will receive a receipt for Income Tax purposes for all donations to Kehillat Chaverim.

PLAN A VISIT TO OUR LITTLE SHUL

As we deal with the covid 19 threat, services at our shul are suspended until further notice. However, we are streaming services online through zoom allowing participants to daven simultaneously. See our schedule for service times. Email us in advance to get the zoom meeting number.

Schedule