“When the Pape Avenue Cemetery – the first Jewish cemetery in the city – opened in 1849, there was no synagogue. The new 200-acre cemetery abuts Bathurst Street and Dufferin Street – the entrance is off Bathurst – and is located one mile north of Pardes Shalom Cemetery.ĭraimin, who was chair of cemetery trustees at Holy Blossom Temple for 20 years, said that traditionally, cemeteries preceded synagogues as important services to the community. “They realized that we had to make cemetery services available, so in 1995 they made a purchase of sale.” In 1994, Draimin said, Sidney Freedman and Lou Greenbaum, who led THMP’s development committee, saw that Pardes Shalom was going to run out of space. (It also has a community section for the unaffiliated.) He said that a new cemetery became necessary because Pardes Shalom Cemetery, which had its first interment in 1976, is fully allocated – it sits on 89 acres – by 75 organizational members, including synagogues, landsmenshaft and mutual benefit societies. William Draimin, a lawyer, and president of THMP for the past 20 years, is also secretary of the Jewish Cemetery Association of North America and honorary legal council to the Ontario Association of Cemetery and Funeral Professionals.
While in their cars, passengers read appropriate psalms. The June 6 service to consecrate Pardes Chaim included prayers and talks by Rabbi Ron Weiss, the chaplain of Jewish Family & Child, and Rabbi Norman Berlat, director of pastoral care at Baycrest.Īlso as part of the service, participants got into their cars and drove around the cemetery seven times to formally delineate the burial areas. Run by Toronto Hebrew Memorial Park (THMP), which also runs Pardes Shalom Cemetery, the cemetery had its first interment on July 2 and will be formally opened with a community-wide event in early October. Rabbi Norman Berlat blows the shofar at the consecration service marking the opening of Pardes Chaim Cemetery. In 2019, THMP launched its ""THMP Find a Grave"" app (available for iOS and Android) that helps to locate graves at their cemeteries, including GPS directions.VAUGHAN - Pardes Chaim, the largest Jewish community cemetery in the Toronto area, was consecrated recently at a service held at the cemetery, at 11818 Bathurst St. Pardes Shalom Cemetery is owned by Toronto Hebrew Memorial Parks telephone: 41 e-mail: website: thmp.caįor a cemetery map, see thmp.ca/pardes-shalom-cemetery Headstone photographs for more recent burials can also be requested at this address and are anticipated to be fulfilled during the summer months. Please contact to request a headstone photograph please provide the decedent's name, cemetery section, and row and grave numbers. Headstone photographs are available for most burials through 2012/2013 (and are in the process of being added to JOWBR). In addition to seventy member organizations which have allotments in the cemetery, Pardes Shalom was the first Toronto-area cemetery to offer whole community sections for the burial of Jews who did not have burial rights through a synagogue or other institution. Pardes Shalom opened in 1977 and is THMP's first cemetery it comprises eighty-nine acres with about 30,000 burial lots. Run as a business by a corporation, it serves and is owned by the total community in all of its diversity.
Toronto Hebrew Memorial Parks (THMP) is a not-for-profit Ontario corporation founded in 1972. JewishGen Online Worldwide Burial Registry Cemetery Information Cemetery Identification