Vancouver, BC

City overview

Vancouver's Orthodox community is centred on Oak Street, which runs south from Broadway through South Granville, Shaughnessy and Oakridge. Congregation Schara Tzedeck stands at 3476 Oak Street, Beth Hamidrash, the Sephardic congregation, is a few blocks east at 3231 Heather Street, the Ohel Yaakov Community Kollel is on West Broadway at 1965, and Chabad Lubavitch of British Columbia has its head office further south at Oak Street and 41st Avenue. Kosher food follows the same line: a bakery on Oak Street, a dairy café at the Chabad building, a dairy restaurant inside the Jewish Community Centre on West 41st Avenue and a meat restaurant next to the Kollel on West Broadway, with a butcher and deli and a kosher grocery warehouse in East Vancouver on Fraser Street and Kingsway. Richmond, across the Fraser River to the south, has its own smaller community: The Bayit on No. 3 Road, which is inside the Richmond eruv, and Chabad Richmond on Blundell Road, which maintains that eruv. Downtown Vancouver has Chabad of Downtown on Howe Street, which holds a Shabbos morning service and helps visitors. For a visitor who keeps Shabbos, where you stay matters more than anything else. Most hotels are downtown, a long walk from the Oak Street shuls, and Chabad Lubavitch of BC says no hotels are within walking distance of its building at 41st Avenue. The Holiday Inn Vancouver-Centre on West Broadway at Heather Street is inside the Vancouver eruv and within walking distance of Beth Hamidrash. In Richmond, the hotels along Westminster Highway are outside the Richmond eruv. Book with the Shabbos walk in mind before anything else.