Jewish lumbermen and farmers briefly lived in the Medicine Hat area as early as 1881,and permanent Jewish settlement came after 1900,when the city and the neighboring town of Redcliff became a major railway,manufacturing and farm service centre.

      The city's Jews united in 1912 to worship as the Sons of Abraham Congregation.They bought a Torah scroll and hired the community's first religious leader,who also acted as Shochet and Hebrew School teacher.

      Cemetery land at a rural site was donated by a member;the first funeral was that of an eight- month-old Swift Current infant in 1916.Some years later,the graves were moved with appropriate ritual to a Jewish section in the municipal Hillside Cemetery.

      By 1930 there were over 100 Jews in Medicine Hat,then a city of 9,000 persons.Most men worked as small merchants.The community was home to a wide range of Jewish cultural and social activities and warmly hosted many Jewish visitors - area farmers,travelling salesmen,fund-raisers,families from surrounding towns and,during the Depression years,transient job-seekers.

      Community activities were held in rented sites for several decades.In 1929 the Sons of Abraham Congregation bought land for a synagogue but a building,on another site,was not acquired until 1938.

      Esther Raber Nobleman recalls the Medicine Hat synagogue:"The large downstairs housed a social hall,a kitchen,a stage,and classrooms.It was used for Bar Mitzvahs,Chanukah and Purim Concerts, visiting fund-raisers and entertainers,and always for card socials.Kosher food for Bar Mitzvahs came from Calgary and Winnipeg and everyone brought home baking...Sometimes the Rabbi was also a Shochet and could slaughter chickens."

      Medicine Hat's best known Jewish citizen was Harry Veiner (1904-1991),who served as the city's mayor from 1952 to 1966 and 1968 to 1974.He came to Medicine Hat in 1930 and became a wealthy hardware merchant and farm owner.