TORONTO — Beth Emeth Bais Yehuda Synagogue is launching a year of celebration next week to mark its 60th anniversary.

“There’s a whole slew of things planned,” said shul president Bernie Schwartz.

“We’re going to have a young families Havdallah event in January, there is going to be programming for the kids… There is a weekend in April, which is going to be a multi-faceted learning weekend. We are going to have a number of speakers… there will be a concert in June… we are going to have a Yakir Hakahal award ceremony in October and that will be the grand finale to our year of celebration.”

Launching the year of celebration is a Nov. 17 event with a 1950s theme. Guests will be treated to live music by a cover band called Of Gentlemen and Cowards, as well as a performance by Brandon Sobel and his comedy troupe.

Schwartz said that although Beth Emeth has a lot planned for its members this year, the celebration is about much more than programming.

“We try to do programming for our members, we try to give people lots of options, but at the end of the day, it’s not just the programs that you put on for them, but rather the relationships that people develop in the shul. That’s what keeps them there,” he said.

“There have been so many people who have ties to Beth Emeth. Either they were married at Beth Emeth, or they had their bar or bat mitzvah at Beth Emeth, or they grew up in the Bathurst Manor… and of course, people go their different ways, and young families these days are unaffiliated and so on, but to me, this is an opportunity for people to reconnect with their roots.”

Schwartz told the story of a couple who were married at Beth Emeth 35 years ago, but had been members of another shul since they got married.

“They were invited to a wedding at Beth Emeth and were sitting in the sanctuary. They hadn’t been to the shul in years, and a woman turned to her husband, who she had married there maybe 35 years ago… and she said, ‘This is our home. This is our spiritual home,’” Schwartz said, adding that soon after that, they became members.

Schwartz, who has served as president for the past year, has been a member of Beth Emeth since he married his wife, Riva, in 1983.

“Riva’s family are longtime members going back to the mid-1960s when they moved to the Bathurst Manor. My children – I have three boys… I’m proud to say they are fourth-generation members of Beth Emeth.”

The congregation’s history dates back to 1955 when 150 people in Toronto’s Bathurst Manor pooled what little money they had to operate out of a small home in the neighbourhood. The congregation bounced around a few other temporary locations until construction began on their current home in 1959.

“The shul was started 10 years after the end of the war in 1955. When people moved to Bathurst Manor, many of whom were survivors of the Shoah, they realized something was missing from their lives and the neighbourhood,” Schwartz said.

He said a small group of Jews founded the congregation, which boasts a membership of about 4,000 today, and it “grew from there.”

Beth Emeth spiritual leader Rabbi Howard Morrison, who has been serving his congregation since 2000, said there is much to look forward to over the next 60 years.

“Our goal for the next 60 years is to continue serving our young, our old, knowing that they are part of a larger Jewish community, that they are a part of the commitment to the state of Israel, that they are part of a 4,000-year ongoing Jewish way of life,” Rabbi Morrison said.

He referred to Beth Emeth’s new logo in honour of the 60th anniversary, which incorporates the slogan “honouring our past, celebrating the present and building the future.”

“Those three expressions are truly what we are commemorating this year. In a very integrated, interconnected, equal way, we truly are honouring those who came before us, celebrating the moment, but knowing that all of that is contingent on making sure the future piece happens are well.”