Jewish Community of Old Sherbrooke Quebec
I am documenting the lineage of the old Jewish Community Sherbrooke Quebec . The first Jewish person moved to Sherbrooke in the mid 1800's. By the early 20th century hundreds of Jewish families had emigrated there from all over eastern Europe. One family, the Echenbergs moved their entire extended family to Sherbrooke from a small town named Ostropol in the Ukraine. Many other families from the same town followed. The Gillmans, the Gillicks, the Rosenblooms, also moved their families from Ostropol to Sherbrooke.
By 1907 the community was large enough to establish a very active synagogue and for the next fifty years the community thrived and became an important component of Sherbrooke's commercial establishment. Many if not most of the stores on Wellington street were owned by Jewish families. Then, for many reasons, beginning in the 1960's many people from the community began to leave in order to get university educations and to find oppourtunities in larger cities. A prime example is Ralph Steinman, who grew up in Sherbrooke, but then left to become a physician researcher and won the Nobel Price for Medicine in 2010. Many if not most of the younger generation followed and the community began to dwindle. By 1987 the synagogue was sold and almost an entire generation had left. However today there is the beginning of a new Jewish Community in Sherbrooke especially amoung recent francophone immigrants and others who are being drawn by to work at the local universities and the community that almost dissapeared is beginning to grow again.
I have establish a Genealogical site that documents this community on ancestry.com. Please let me know if you are interested in more information.
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Re: Jewish Community of Old Sherbrooke Quebec
I would love to know more about this community, Dean. I remember the stores, and the synagogue, too. It would be wonderful if we could capture Sherbrooke the way it was in our parents' youth. Sometimes, when I'm thinking about my mother's stories, I can almost do that. It's great that you are doing all this work to keep the memory of your community green.
Susan
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Re: Jewish Community of Old Sherbrooke Quebec
I think I have family from Ostropol living in Canada. I don't know who or where. When a was a little girl around 1950, my father was very excited to introduce me to a cousin of his at a family event in Newark. The cousin was a woman about his age and lived in Canada. None of my living parents remember anything. If she was close to his age, she was born around 1900 or so. When I saw your post, I thought she might be from Quebec.
My father's family came from Ostropol around 1908. I have a passenger list from 1908 with my grandmother (Sarah Silverman/Sure Silbermann) and 5 of the 10 children. She listed no relatives in Ostropol and was going to her husband J (Isaac) Silbermann in Newark, NJ. Someone else listed was noted as her cousin: Abraham Beilin who listed his relative in Ostropol as Sch. Beilin. He was going to an Uncle Yankel Rosensatz.
Although Silbermann was listed on the passenger manifest, I have heard the the family name in Ostropol was Kodek/Chudak. I think the Beilin name was my grandmother's maiden name - she is listed as Sarah Bailey on my father's marriage license. I haven't found any family in Ostropol or from Ostropol other than my grandparents and their 10 children - who all came to Newark.
I was wondering if any of the families from Old Sherbrooke have names similar to Silverman/Silbermann, Bailey/Beilin, Kodek/Chodak, or Rosensatz.
I have taken the ftdna test and have 3280 matches - since Ashkenazi Jews are so close, I wonder if I can find anyone from these families on my match list.
Thanks,
Pat (Susan Silverman)
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