Jewish Genealogical Society of Canada (Toronto)

Holy Blossom Temple dates its history to September 1856. In 1849 members of the Jewish community had created a cemetery on Pape Avenue, which was later absorbed by the new congregation. The Ontario Heritage Foundation lists Holy Blossom as the first Jewish congregation in Canada, west of the Ontario/Quebec border.

For the first 20 years of the Temple's existence, Services were held in a rented room over Coombe's Drugstore on the southeast corner of Yonge and Richmond streets. In 1876, the congregation built its first synagogue a block east at 25-29 Richmond Street East.