Jews Of The Okanagan Valley Urged To Stay Active And Engaged

The Jewish community of the Okanagan Valley, located by the basin of Okanagan Lake in Kelowna, British Columbia, did not formally come into being until the early-1980s. By the time that Dr. Steven Finkleman moved from Montreal to Kelowna in 1982, there were only twelve or so Jewish residents in the city, who occasionally met in each other’s homes for religious services. One of the twelve residents was a retired rabbi, Rabbi Emil Klein, who eventually arranged for the small group to hold religious services and festivals in the hall at St. Michael’s Cathedral, which they jokingly nicknamed “St. Moishe’s”.

The following year, the small informal group of Jewish residents formally registered as a society, and thus Okanagan Jewish Community (OJC) was officially born. Over the following decades, several hundred new Jewish residents began relocating to the region seeking a somewhat warmer Canadian winter and a more relaxed lifestyle.

The first piece of infrastructure that the newly established Jewish community built was a cemetery. The Okanagan Jewish Community Centre (OJCC) was built in 1992, thanks to a substantial provincial grant, and inaugurated with a six foot challah. In addition to a library, kitchen and daycare, the OJCC houses the Beth Shalom Congregation, which until the arrival of Chabad in 2011, served as the Okanagan Valley’s sole permanent Jewish congregation.

Although OJC has never had a full-time resident rabbi, services are led by lay leaders and visiting Reform and Conservative rabbis. Prior to COVID-19, the OJC had close to 65-member units, who attended Shabbat and High Holiday services, Passover seders, Chanukah parties and other events in large numbers.