Looking back over a century of Jewish life in Toronto, it’s striking how often bold vision has emerged from moments of uncertainty. In 1917, as waves of newcomers reshaped the city’s neighbourhoods, community leaders Ida Siegel, Edmund Scheuer, and Abraham Cohen recognized a growing need: Jewish agencies were doing vital work, but each was competing for the same limited resources. Their solution was as groundbreaking as it was practical—the creation of the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of Toronto, a new, unified model inspired by emerging federations across the United States.

In those early years, women were the driving force behind many of the Federation’s founding organizations. The Ladies Co-operative Board, the Jewish Orphan’s Home, the Jewish Girls Club, the Junior Council of Jewish Women, and several mutual-aid societies formed the backbone of the new enterprise. Their first campaign goal of $30,000—ambitious for the time—raised an impressive $25,300 and signaled the strength of a community ready to take charge of its future.

Operating out of 218 Simcoe Street, the Federation sat between the Ward and the burgeoning Kensington Market—two neighbourhoods that housed thousands of newly arrived Jewish families. The 1920s brought the dual challenges of mass immigration and the influenza epidemic, and the Federation’s work turned urgently toward health care, family welfare, and services for children.

The Great Depression brought new pressures. In 1933, an emergency campaign to rescue the Brunswick Talmud Torah catalyzed a transformation: philanthropy became more professionalized, shifting from reactive relief to preventative, long-term community welfare. By 1938, this evolution formalized into the United Jewish Welfare Fund (UJWF).

Global events continued to reshape the community’s priorities. After the Second World War, support for Holocaust survivors and refugees dominated the agenda. With the founding of the State of Israel in 1948, the UJWF joined forces with the United Israel Appeal, creating the newly named United Jewish Appeal—UJA—a campaign that addressed needs both at home and overseas.

The decades that followed reflected the changing face of world Jewry. In the 1960s, the community mobilized to support Jews fleeing persecution, uncertainty and economic hardship in the Middle East and North Africa. The 1970s saw the rise of the Soviet Jewry movement, as Toronto Jews stood firmly alongside their oppressed counterparts in the USSR. In 1976, the organization adopted a new public identity—Toronto Jewish Congress—expanding its mandate to include local education, and cultural and welfare services.

The fall of the Soviet Union in 1989  saw the creation of Operation Exodus and Toronto joined Jewish communities worldwide in helping more than one million Soviet Jews rebuild their lives in Israel. At the same time, the community increasingly invested in strengthening Jewish identity among local youth—planting seeds for the next generation.

In 1999, the organization became the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto, and just five years later launched the Tomorrow Campaign—the largest capital initiative ever undertaken by a Jewish community in North America. It reshaped the physical landscape of Jewish Toronto, creating new hubs for learning, culture, and connection.

Most recently, following the Hamas terror attacks of October 2023, UJA has once again stepped into a moment of profound crisis with clarity and resolve, mobilizing the community to meet urgent needs in Israel and at home.

From its modest beginnings in a small office on Simcoe Street to its role today as one of the most influential Jewish federations in the world, the story of UJA Federation is ultimately the story of a community that never stops showing up for one another—wherever and whenever it is needed.