Samuel Edelstein Children’s Garden

The Beth Emeth Bais Yehuda Synagogue’s commitment to build for the future on the foundations of the past, coupled with the acknowledgement of the legacy created by our significant community of Holocaust survivors, leads us to the understanding that our Synagogue has a unique responsibility to ensure that the memory of those who perished in the Holocaust is preserved. 

Within this framework, The Samuel Edelstein Children's Garden will honour and celebrate the memory of the children who perished in the Shoah through the establishment of a landmark testimonial to them and to the indomitable Jewish spirit represented by each child. It will come to life through its distinctive landscape architecture and design. 

The Chuppah Plinth, the focal point of the Garden, will host wedding ceremonies and enable Jewish couples - about to embark on their new Jewish lives together - to renew their commitment to their Jewish future. All the materials used in the building of this garden will be stone, a highly sustainable building source and one that requires minimum maintenance and has a long life span. The open concourses, promenades and the arboretum will welcome all guests of our Synagogue family - extending hospitality to the community in a spirit of tolerance and mutual understanding. 

The Children’s Learning Concourse will host our community’s youth as they congregate to learn the lessons of the Holocaust and to discover how to participate in acts of “tikkun olam” - repairing the world and making the world a better place for all. And finally, the paving stones inscribed with the names and hometowns of the children who perished will be interwoven through all of the elements of the Garden. In this way, the legacy of each child will live on forever in the hearts of their surviving families, friends and communities.

The environmentally sustainable garden will be filled with indigenous Canadian plants, shrubs, ground-cover and prairie grasses purposefully chosen to attract and house butterflies and birds. This includes the Monarch Butterfly (Danaus plexippus), listed as a species of ‘special concern’ by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC). The shrubs and grasses being used in the garden have been specially chosen for their hardiness and thus the garden will require no pesticides, insecticides or herbicides as well as requiring far less water than the average suburban garden.    

The Joseph & Sylvia Lichtman Twinning Program

For more information on The Joseph and Sylvia Lichtman Twinning Program and how to go about finding a child to honour - please see our Bat/Bat Mitzvah Page.

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