OUR COMMUNITY
Rabbi Sholom Galperin near the bimah.
Windsor’s Congregation Shaar Hashomayim Nears Its Centennial DANNY SCHWARTZ STAFF WRITER
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true piece of Jewish history sits just over the Detroit River, an institution that’s seen it all in its near century of existence. It may have originated as a replica, but there’s no duplicating it. Windsor’s Congregation Shaar Hashomayim, or “Gate of Heaven,” is an exact model of the namesake synagogue in Montreal, just on a smaller scale. The synagogue was built 93 years ago and is listed on the Heritage Register of the City of Windsor. As Windsor’s population boomed in the post-World War I era, so, too, did its Jewish population, until the Shaarey Zedek on Mercer Street could no longer hold its membership. According to the Windsor Jewish Federation, just over 300 Jews lived in Windsor in 1911. By 1921, the community
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numbered 980. It became clear a new synagogue was needed. A building committee was organized in 1925. The present Shaar Hashomayim site on Giles Boulevard was purchased and groundbreaking took place on June 24, 1929. The first services were held on Rosh Hashanah in 1930. By the time Shaar Hashomayim was built, the Windsor Jewish community had grown to 2,200 people. From that beginning, the synagogue grew both in membership and in function. High Holidays at Shaar Hashomayim were packed, full of congregants all the way up to the balcony. That was then, and now is now. The Windsor Jewish community has dwindled in numbers over the years. But Bill Mechanic, current act-
ing-president of the congregation and fifth-generation member of the community, has worked tireBill lessly to keep the Mechanic doors open to the near century-old gem of Jewish architecture and history. Mechanic’s great-grandfather,
NATHAN VICAR
SYNAGOGUE SPOTLIGHT
Morris Gitlin, was the first acting rabbi in Windsor, and his grandfather Bill and his brother Abraham were among the founding fathers of Shaar Hashomayim. Mechanic follows in his father Dave’s footsteps as a dedicated and giving congregant. The community has assisted Mechanic and Shaar Hashomayim in endless ways over the years, helping keep the operation going. “We’ve raised a lot of money,” Mechanic said. “Our heating and cooling was kaput. It was from 1929. We raised $300,000 to replace that last year.” Mechanic says along with help from those still in town, the congregation has received help from people who were raised in Windsor and moved away. When the ceiling collapsed about six years ago and they didn’t have the money to fix it, a man who was bar mitzvahed at the Shaar years prior visited and said, “That can’t be.” Mechanic said the problem was taken care of. “If there’s a cause, people in the community will come through and rally around it. They don’t turn their backs,” Mechanic said. “We’re trying to keep it operational. We keep reinvesting, and we’re able to have weekly services and High The exterior
