Saint John museum celebrates 40 years of sharing Jewish history

Shaarei Zedek Synagogue at the Saint John Jewish Historical Museum is pictured. (Source: Katherine Biggs-Craft)

From the 1920s to the 1960s, there were 200 to 300 Jewish families living and working in Saint John, N.B. As the children grew up and moved away, the numbers started to dwindle. By 1986, the community was down to roughly 50 families.

Marcia Koven wanted to preserve their history. The Jewish community has roots in Saint John that stretch back to the 1700s and Koven hoped to keep those stories alive for future generations.

She founded the Saint John Jewish Historical Museum, and 40 years later, the institution is celebrating its past and future.

“The museum was founded as a way to remember a once thriving Jewish community in Saint John,” said Katherine Biggs-Craft, executive director and curator of the museum. “People that come through the door are looking for that connection. They want to see what’s different, what’s new.

“They want something they can connect to, that has meaning for them.”

According to the museum, David Gabel was the first known Jewish resident in Saint John, arriving with the Loyalists after the American Revolution in 1783.

In 1858, Solomon and Alice Hart came to the Port City with their family and were later recognized as the founders of the Jewish community in the region.

Since the museum was founded in 1986, it has focused on curating exhibits and experiences to share the stories of the Saint John Jewish community with locals and visitors from around the world.

“We’re growing,” said Lorie Cohen Hackett, president of the Saint John Jewish Historical Society. “We’ve brought in art exhibits and the film festival and book readings. We keep adding to the museum.

“It’s opened our museum up to the world. We have access to so much.”

Biggs-Craft noted how technology has opened up the museum to a truly global audience and helped them spread their stories well beyond the confines of Saint John.

“People on cruise ships come from all over the world,” she said. “It’s an interesting and diverse group of people. Communication is not the barrier it used to be because people can translate on their phones.”

Biggs-Craft said in the museum’s first few months it welcomed around 200 people, but now it sees thousands of people come through its doors annually.

“We’ve had more than 142,000 people through our doors in 40 years,” she said. “As long as they don’t show up at once, we can handle it.”

Hackett, whose father helped set up the books at the museum when it started, said it’s an honour to be part of the building’s ongoing history.

“The museum is not just history. It’s a living museum,” she said. “It’s not static.”

The museum will be celebrating its 40-year history at an event at its 91 Leinster St. location at 2 p.m. on June 28.

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