A pair of Conservative synagogues in Toronto have refused to become one

It was close, but after Beth David's merger vote fell short of the required two-thirds threshold, Toronto synagogues Adat Israel and Beth David will remain separate entities.

Adat Israel, the largest of the two Conservative synagogues by membership and building size, voted overwhelmingly to merge on April 14 with 91 percent in favor. But Beth David's membership reached only 64.4 per cent, 2.2 percentage points shy of the 66.6 per cent threshold required by both parties for these major changes under Ontario's Not-for-Profit Corporations Act.

Beth David President Sylvia Lulka told The CJN that more than 80 percent of congregation members voted, with 855 of the more than 1,000 members who were eligible to vote.

The proposed merger was driven by declining membership and rising costs at Beth David, an old and high-maintenance facility. After board elections in June 2023, two committees explored “independent development” and a merger with Adat Israel.

Both congregations are in the Toronto area and are also conservative denominations. Adat Israel welcomed the financial benefits of the merger and its potential to ensure its longevity in the future.

Beth David also recognized the need to increase the number of younger members.

Members of the two communities were eager to unite congregations, which meant sharing priests, administration, and governance. Beth David would also have moved to Adat Israel's larger, more modern building.

Lulka says that there is a lot of reflection going on among the members today.

“More than 80 percent of voters say it's really important to people, to the people who voted … 64 percent of the community is a very large number of people in the community,” he said.

“We didn't quite meet that (two-thirds) threshold, but it's a very significant number,” he says.

“All (voting members) I understand, they really wanted to see how we could build a new future together.”

Those who voted to merge, he said, “did so because they believed in a stronger community when united.”

Of the two synagogues, Beth David's building is smaller and requires more maintenance, and the merger involved moving to Adat Israel's larger building. Lulka says some people wanted to stay put.

“I think the people who voted 'no' generally had a feeling that they didn't want to leave the building and they didn't want to leave how they found their community,” he said.

In Toronto, the diversity of options has become more of a focus, says Lulka.

“Actually, all shuls experience this. We were built 70 years ago,” he says.

“I used to use the analogy of coffee a lot to say, 'Did you drink coffee, did you drink coffee, did you have Sanka in the 60s, 70s, 80s?' It happened. You had no choice.

“If you were a Jew in Toronto in the 1960s, 70s, 80s, 90s, you were a shul…conservative, orthodox, reconstructionist, reformist. “If you want coffee today and 10 years ago, there's a lot of diversity that you and I can do,” he said.

“If you want to be Jewish in Toronto today, you can go to Chabad one day… Darchei Noam (Toronto's Reconstructionist Synagogue) another day and never set foot in a synagogue where you have to pay a membership. The model has changed. What we need today is different,” he says, in terms of ways to adapt how the synagogue operates.

“I think it's important to reunify and recognize that a significant number of our members still support the merger, even though it's not the outcome we were hoping for, because we approved the merger,” he said of the merger with Adat Israel.

Before COVID, the thriving Beth David community offered three prayer services a day.

“We had two in the morning and one in the evening. Now we only have one in the morning, that's it,” he says. “Before, we had a Hebrew school that was developing. We didn't sign up enough this year.”

Lulka says demographic changes in the community have led to a decline in membership in recent years. Any thriving community, synagogue or not, needs two basic elements.

“You need financial resources to make it happen, and you need people to make it happen. And we really don't have enough to realize our thoughts. And that's part of what we have to look at now: Where do we go from here? What is the future? What awaits us in the future?”

As membership income declined, Beth David ran a deficit to cover maintenance costs for the old building.

According to Lulka, the need to “change the way we think about our model and how we operate” led to the creation of two committees, or “independent development,” to study the merger.

Previous discussions about a merger with Congregation Beth Tikva two years ago were shelved when Beth David backed out. This led to discussions with Adat Israel in 2023, which brought the two congregations to a vote in April.

“Every idea that was put forward was studied,” Lulka said of Beth David's committees. “Now we just have to get back together and see where we go.”

For his part, Shaul Duosh, president of the Adat Israel community, says he is disappointed but pleased with the amount of work the team has done at the two synagogues.

“I'm not sad. I'm not angry. But people have worked hard, it's just a feeling of frustration,” he said in an interview with CJN. “I think in our lives we learn to experience disappointment, and you don't always get what you want.”

Duosh received messages and emails from surprised members, many of whom expected the merger to go through, he said.

With 1,400 members and balanced books, Adat Israel's current position is strong, but the future is uncertain “demographically.” The community mainly saw the merger as “an opportunity to secure our future”.

“We thought it would be a great thing for the Jewish community as a whole,” he says.

“A merger would give us the financial resources and critical mass to ensure long-term sustainability.

“There should be no fighting communities. There should be vibrant, thriving communities. And that was one way to do it.”

Adat Israel voted 797 yes to 82 no for the merger, while Beth David's 551 yes to 304 no votes fell short of the threshold, he said. But he understands the factors that influenced the results of the vote.

“Beth David's exit was a much higher hill because when you live in the community when you are over 60 years old, it takes a long time to leave your building, your house,” he admits.

“It's a much more difficult proposition. “Last Sunday, they were not there yet,” he said. “They had more than 64 percent, but the legislation did not require it to make such a decision … we respect that.”

Like Beth David, Adat Israel had to adjust the number of prayer services to ensure a full minyan of 10 Jews.

Since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7 and fueled the war in Gaza, “the Jewish connection has become more important … you see that throughout the community. And as part of that, I think there's a renewed emphasis on the role of synagogues in Jewish life in our community.”

“I'm in shul every day, so I see it up close every day,” Duosh says. “And that gives me great hope.”

He thinks merger talks could come back into the picture down the road.

“I don't think this is the end of shul mergers and amalgamations. I'm always talking to the other presidents of all the Conservative shuls,” he says, adding that he and Lulka will be on an upcoming monthly call among congregational leaders, where they may be asked to share advice or lessons learned.

“This isn't the first merger conversation, and it won't be the last merger conversation in the next 10 years with conservative shuls in our city.”