Built in 1913 on the corner of the Chetner's farm, the Montefiore Institute served the Jewish community north of Sibbald, Alberta as a Beit Tefillah (House of Worship), Beit Midrash (House of Learning) and Beit Knesset (House of Gathering).

Source: Provincial Archives of Alberta, 77-258 #73.

In his cowboy finest, Abe Hapton is enjoying the festivities of the first Calgary Stampede in 1912.

Source: JHSSA # 781, donated by Leon Hapton.

Max Silver on his farm at Trochu, Alberta, c. 1917.

Source: JHSSA Archives, donated by Goldie Silver Austin.

Young David Zuckerman liked to ride obliging rams with Rueben Oretzky playing the corral master c. 1928.

Source: donated by David Zukerman.

Esther and Max Silver with baby Joe, at their Trochu, Alberta homestead, c.1917.

Source: JHSSA # 1473; donated by Goldie Silver Osten.

Women played a major role in the growth and prosperity of the Jewish agricultural communities. Bertha Dattner, Esther Miller and Esther Guttman Silver are seen haying at Trochu, Alberta in 1917. Trochu and Rumsey (across the Red Deer River from each other) were the major Jewish farm settlements in Alberta. Both were large and more prosperous than Montefiore.

Source: JHSSA Archives, donated by Goldie Silver Osten.

Lillian, David and Freda Waterman are seen playing in a haystack on their farm in Trochu, Alberta in 1917. Parents, Charles and Ethel Guttman Waterman, were pioneer homesteaders at the Trochu Jewish farm settlement where Charles filed his homesteading papers in 1905.

Source: JHSSA #1210; donated by Phyllis Rubin.

David Zukerman found this Yiddish book with stamp at the abandoned Montefiore Institute building in 1927. Source: JHSSA Archives, donated by David Zukerman.

Max Bercovich showing the incredible skill and strenght that is required to drive a team of six horses. In 1923, at the age of eighteen Max was hauling grain for a Nanton-area farmer.

JHSSA # 511, donated by Max Bercovich.

Trochu homesteaders Sema and Solomon Goldenberg are seated at 1916 wedding of Hettie Spigelman (l) to Benjamin Goldenberg. Solomon Goldenberg (r) was best man.

Source: JHSSA Archives; donated by Emanuel Cohen.

Sam Raskin, Rex the Horse and Curly Gurevitch, the “Cowboy from the Colony” enjoying a sunny day at The Lazy S Ranch at Rumsey, Alberta. c. 1930.

Source JHSSA, #751; donated by Curly Gurevitch.

In 1912, the Calgary Hebrew School was large enough to hold this picnic at Bowness Park. Jacob Diamond (far left wearing a boler hat) was the first Jewish settler to arrive in Calgary in 1889.

Source: Glenbow Archives, NA 2034-1.

The children of Etta amd Meyer Switzer: Betty, Lily, Dinah, Billy and Annie (seated) c. 1928.

Source JHSSA # 1203; donated by Dave Spindel.

Morris Manolson one of the founders of the Montefiore Colony eventually became a livestock dealer in the Calgary area. Photographed here sporting a white stetson and wooly chaps in the late 1930s.

Source: JHSSA # 989, donated by Charna Shapiro.

A 1921 family portraint of the young Bella and Abraham Singer, and their children (left to right): Rosalie, Jack, Diane and Hymie. Bella Singer was instrumental in bringing to Canada from Poland over 300 relatives. When counting their children and grandchildren, it is believed that she saved over one thousand people from the Holocaust. She outlived her husband by 42 years passing away in 1984 at the age of 103.

Source: donated by the Jack Singer Family.

The 1927 wedding of Lou Diamond and Eda Kramer. Bridesmaids are (left to right): Ruth Diamond Griesdorf, Bertha Geffen and unknown. Seated: Fanny Diamond, bride Eda Diamond and Fanny Shumiatcher Ziskin.

Photo courtesy of the Libin and Diamond Families.