Editing Toronto

Toronto is Canada's largest city with approximately 2,800,000 residents in the city and 6,129,900 in the metropolitan area. Around 200,000 Jews live in Toronto. The city has a thriving Chabad community of about 400 families, making it the second-largest concentration of Chabad Chassidim in Canada after [[Montreal]].

== Chabad Community in Toronto ==
Toronto is a centuries-old city located in Ontario, [[Canada]], situated on a lake shore with many immigrant-populated districts. The Jewish community began settling there about two hundred years ago. By 1901, there were already three thousand Jews in the city. By 1961, the Jewish population had grown to sixty thousand.

A document from 1917 mentions the existence of a Chabad community in Toronto, though little is known about this period. In 1957, the Rebbe instructed establishing a branch of [[Yeshivas Tomchei Tmimim|Tomchei Tmimim Yeshiva]] in Toronto. [[Rabbi Shlomo Hochler]], who lived in the city, founded the Lubavitch Yeshiva Toronto, which operated for several years before closing. Like in many other cities, the yeshiva's establishment helped establish the Chabad community in the city, albeit relatively modestly. Alongside the yeshiva, Jewish educational institutions were established, and several Chabad families moved to the city to help develop these institutions.

In 1984, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Zaltzman established the Jewish Russian Community Centre (JRCC) in Toronto. In 1997, the local Cheder Chabad was established. Following the Cheder's establishment, Rabbi Yona Shor and Rabbi Akiva Wagner reopened Lubavitch Yeshiva Toronto.

In Tevet 2006, the community rabbi, [[Rabbi Dovid schochet|Rabbi David Schochet]], established a rabbinical ordination institute in Thornhill, a Toronto suburb, for the city's Chabad community, particularly serving community members who became religious. In Tishrei 2007, emissaries Rabbi Levi and Rebbetzin Rivka Ginsburg opened the "Chabad Hebrew School of Arts" in York Mills - a wealthy and challenging Toronto neighborhood, gathering around 150 Jewish families around the Chabad House.

In Tishrei 2009, after much effort, a new eruv was installed in southeast Toronto by emissary Rabbi Avraham Plotkin, connecting southeast Toronto with the rest of Toronto's eruv. Towards summer 2012, Camp Gan Israel Toronto was established in Haliburton, about a two-hour drive from Toronto (considered relatively close by Canadian standards). Before the camp's opening, Haliburton City Council renamed the street leading to Gan Israel grounds to "Gan Israel Trail."

In Menachem Av 2019, the Chabad "Noam Institute" inaugurated a mikvah. The city's emissary is Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Zaltzman. The main Chabad community is located in an area called "Chabad Gate" in the city's north, in the Thornhill-Vaughan area. Rabbi David Schochet serves as the community's rabbi there. In the second area, there is a smaller community alongside a large yeshiva led by the late Rabbi Akiva Wagner.

== Chabad Houses in the City ==
The city has dozens of Chabad Houses, including:

* Rabbi Israel Landa - works with Israelis in the area
* Rabbi Israel Eliyahu Friedman - manages Chabad House 'Maon Noam'

== Chabad Institutions in the City ==
* Lubavitch Yeshiva Toronto - Elementary and advanced yeshiva led by Rabbi Akiva Gershon Wagner
* Maon Noam - Chabad institute led by Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Rabisky
* Cheder Chabad Toronto - School serving the Chabad community. CEO: Rabbi Yona Shor, Directors: Rabbi Baruch Zaltzman and Rabbi Mendy Marmulstein
* Beis Chomesh High School - Chabad girls' high school for students worldwide
* Tzivos Hashem Toronto - Branch of worldwide Tzivos Hashem organization led by Rabbi Yona Wilenkin
* Chabad Friendship Fund Toronto
* Gan Israel Toronto - Camp located in Haliburton (two hours from Toronto)

==== Synagogues and Chabad Houses ====
* Chabad Lubavitch Center 770 Toronto - Main Chabad synagogue led by Rabbi Moshe Spalter
* Co-op Shtiebel - Chabad synagogue in Rabbi Dov Melich Katz's home
* Chabad Young Professionals Synagogue - Located in Thornhill
* Jewish Russian Community Centre (JRCC) - Chabad house with over 5 branches serving Russian Jews, led by Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Zaltzman
* Hebrew-Speaking Chabad Center - Led by Rabbi Israel Landa
* Southeast Toronto Chabad Synagogue - Serving about 400 Jewish families (as of 2009), led by Rabbi Avraham Plotkin
* Tomchei Tmimim Toronto (elementary and advanced yeshiva)
* Beis Chomesh School for Girls

====== See also: ======
[[Lubavitch Yeshiva Toronto]]

[[Category:Geography]]