LINKS TO LOCAL WEBSITES

TOWN-GOWN RELATIONS

Links and testimonials

Learn more about Jewish Kingston at these sites:

Kingston Jewish Council

Congregation Iyr Hamelech (Kingston's Reform synagogue)

Queen's University Jewish Studies Program

Hadassah-WIZO

Queen's University Hillel

Read about the special Town-Gown relations

"The Kingston Jewish community opens up and welcomes new students as if they were their own children."

By Kim Edwards, former Psychology student at Queen's University and Beth Israel Youth Group Leader 2004-2007

My first experience with the Jewish community in Kingston was on a cold day in November 2003, during my first year here. I had been volunteering at the pediatric cancer clinic at Kingston General Hospital since the first week of school and a child I had met and become friendly with had passed away. I was having a really difficult time and I asked my boyfriend, Joey Fox, if he would come to shul with me, where I felt I needed to be that Saturday morning.

So, we ventured out from campus to Centre Street and found the shul.

Warmly greeted by Len Burley, we participated in the service. Rabbi Elkin introduced himself right away and welcomed us to the Jewish community. Then right after the service, Jonathan and Rachel Gray, who we had not previously met, invited us to their home for Shabbat lunch. The whole afternoon was filled with ruach, and Joey and I left having really enjoyed ourselves.

For every Friday night and Saturday lunch while Jonathan and Rachel were in Kingston, they invited us and other students into their home. I think they inspired the Shabbat evening potluck club that Jewish students at Queen's host on Friday evenings when there is no Hillel dinner. Since my first encounter with Beth Israel, Joey and I have often come both Friday night and Shabbat morning. All the residence dons in my building know that Friday nights are off-limits for me to be on call and carry the pager.

The Kingston community has been so wonderful, for Seders, guidance in my Jewish essays, for Rosh Hashanah dinners, for Friday nights, for break-fasts. The Kingston Jewish community opens up and welcomes new students as if they were their own children. Since arriving in Kingston, I've been joined my by cousin and sister. It's only a matter of time before my brother arrives! I think my dad still wears the Queens "proud dad" pin!

Having a strong Jewish basis and feeling united with the community has encouraged me to explore my Jewish identity and get involved in Jewish campus life. From leading youth group at shul for three years to running Holocaust Education Week at Queen's, I have built some lasting relationships with community friends and mentors. I have also seen Queen's Hillel grow in membership, confidence, creativity and ideas.

I feel that my desire to spend summers in Israel was nurtured during my four years in Kingston. Rabbi Elkin even wrote a reference letter on my behalf to Magen David Adom, the Israeli ambulance program I participated in two summers ago. For those of you who still have time left in your undergraduate degree at Queenís, I encourage you to get involved in Hillel, to come to synagogue events, and to be a part of this warm and welcoming Jewish community.

Kingston may be small in comparison to other Jewish communities, but it ís large in its outreach to Jewish universitystudents. With warm Shabbat dinners and lunches, weekly torah classes, social and educational events throughout the year, and opportunities for student jobs at Beth Israel's youth group and Talmud Torah, Hillel and the Kingston Jewish Community truly became a home away from home for me.

Next year, G-d willing, I will be at University of Western Ontario for grad school. The Jewish community and campus Jewish life will be bigger. It will be easier to find kosher food, a Conservative synagogue, and maybe even a Jewish day school. Yet, I know I will miss the intimate Kingston Jewish community.

As my mother always tells my sister: good things come in small packages.

"Outstanding unity . . . between Jewish community members and Jewish students at Queen's"

By Sheri Krell, Queen's Hillel President, 2006-07

The deepest generosity that we have been given is the holy Shabbos. The deepest way we can celebrate Shabbos is by being "nediv leyv", of generous heart, of sharing together.

The Kingston Jewish community should be proud of fulfilling this mitzvah to the utmost. There has never been a Shabbat in my three years here in Kingston where there has not been a family willing to extend an invitation to any student to share a Shabbat in their home. I believe this undying hospitality provides the vital framework for forming a cohesive, tight-knit community, one that includes students. Opening their doors and hearts to students to partake in Shabbat truly demonstrates the outstanding unity that exists between Jewish community members and Jewish students at Queen's. We're forever thankful for that warmth, acceptance, and generosity.