By the 1860s, Canadian Presbyterians were sponsoring their own Jewish missionary in the Middle East, the Rev. Dr. Ephraim Menachem Epstein.5 When several Presbyterian denominations became a single national church in 1875—the Presbyterian Church in Canada—they looked for new Jewish ministries to support. While considering ministry opportunities in Canada, the Ward caught their attention. During the 1907 general assembly in Montreal, a motion was carried “to commence a mission to the Hebrew people in Toronto, with the privilege of extending the work elsewhere in Canada as the circumstances may warrant.”6 A special committee was formed under Rev. John McPherson Scott of St. John’s Church, Riverdale, in Toronto’s east end. He was charged with setting up an outreach to the growing Jewish community in Toronto.
Scott was a tall, beloved great-hearted leader with a reputation for getting things done. (A local Jewish mission had already started with his help.) With typical efficiency, he took leadership of the committee in September 1907, and by the end of December he was able to recommend a promising missionary candidate: Mr. Sabati Benjamin (Ben) Rohold, then employed by a similar ministry in Glasgow.
Numerous photos of the period show Ben Rohold as a studious-looking figure with round wire-rimmed glasses.7 His contemporaries respected his diligent, unpretentious and genuinely spiritual character and admired his intellectual gifts. (He grew up speaking Hebrew to his father, Spanish to his mother, Arabic to the children on his street, German to his tutor in secular studies, fluent English as a Christian minister and Yiddish for preaching and personal ministry.)8 In April 1915, the first international conference to form an international alliance of Hebrew Christians in North America was held in Toronto, and out of all the dignitaries he was elected president.9 He became the first editor of that organization’s quarterly journal, was a writer and editor of books and wrote for numerous other leading missionary publications. Whenever Morris and Annie spoke of him to their children it was with sincere reverence.10
Born and raised in Jerusalem, the son and grandson of distinguished rabbis, Rohold had a thoroughly traditional Jewish education, including rabbinical training and extensive Talmudic studies. An encounter with a Christian missionary on the Mount of Olives (according to his personal account they began their discussion in the Garden of Gethsemane) led Rohold to the firm belief that Jesus of Nazareth is the Jewish Messiah. After weighing the costs of his decision over a period of years, he made an irreversible break from his parents and left for Great Britain; Rohold was only 21. A few years later, after graduating from Glasgow Bible College, he began to work in the local Jewish mission. Rohold had been there seven years when the Canadians offered him the position of mission superintendent, ordination, an annual salary of $1,200 and full provision for moving expenses (which largely meant shipping his books). By March 1908 he had arrived in Toronto.11
Rohold’s storefront mission opened on Monday, April 6, 1908, in the centre of the Ward at 156 Teraulay Street (now Bay Street) at Elm. A number of the city’s leading Presbyterians were there for encouragement, but there were other visitors more openly doubtful of the enterprise. In his book Missions to the Jews (1918), Rohold describes listening to their comments. “Some gave us a lease of life of three months, six months and the most generous ‘one year.’ But the good Lord was pleased to put the seal of Divine approval on the work.”12
Scott and his committee were willing to be patient. Jewish ministries were expected to make slow progress. The Eastern European immigrants were isolated by the Yiddish language, a hybrid form of Hebrew and low German. They saw no difference between the Presbyterians and churches that had been persecuting them for the past millennia. A few of the young Jewish leaders had prepared their own welcome for the Mission; they set up a lookout to write down the names of anyone going in or out of the storefront. So when success came relatively quickly, it far exceeded the expectations of Rohold’s superiors. Within five years there was not only a regular flow of traffic through the Mission doors but even a small, vibrant Hebrew Christian Presbyterian congregation.
Rohold envisioned a mission caring for a wide array of needs, reaching “the whole Jewish family.” Comfortable reading rooms were stocked with newspapers in Yiddish from Europe and New York. Free services included night schools that taught English to separate classes of men and women, Sabbath schools, boys and girls clubs, recreation activities and a summer camp. A man of inexhaustible energy, Rohold visited widely in the community, distributing tracts and holding open-air services. On the Sabbath, he preached from the back of a wagon at Elizabeth and Agnes (Dundas St.), where Jewish families strolled after synagogue. (The practice wasn’t endearing to local Jewry or the press, although typical of missions at the time.)
The eventual key to success wasn’t in Rohold’s original plans. When he began visiting local residents, many were despairing and depressed by the shabby housing and unsanitary conditions. Frequently he heard “No one cares for us.” While sharing the remarks with his volunteers, one of the women suggested he seek the aid of a retired druggist, Mr. T. C. Wilmott, who in turn enlisted the assistance of a physician, Dr. A. C. McClennan. Their services attracted an unusual level of attention, and after a free dispensary opened on May 1, 1908, and then a free medical clinic, the Mission never looked back.
Success didn’t simply rely on the missionary’s rigorous personal schedule. Here we see the authentic qualities that Rohold demanded of himself:
In order to reach the Jewish people with the message of love, we must show them the reality of our message…The character, devotedness and spiritual power of the missionaries is really what a mission represents. The message that has entered their own life and soul is now entrusted to them, and this they must proclaim and exhibit in their life.13
These are the selfless values of faith that Morris and Annie chose to adopt and placed at the centre of their ministry.
From the beginning, the Mission gave meticulous reports to the presbytery. In Rohold’s first year, the clinic treated 3,142 cases, 43 babies were vaccinated, 242 home visits were made to the sick, and 41 of those were maternity cases. Eventually a women’s clinic was opened. By 1911, six doctors and a nurse were donating time to the Mission. Some practical assistance was offered, including rent subsidies and coal supplies.
In the fall of 1908, Rohold was ordained at Knox Church on Spadina Avenue. Meanwhile, demand for services on Teraulay Street was expanding far beyond the capacity of a storefront. An unfortunate incident in June 1911 would only briefly hamper Rohold’s best efforts, although it would remain a memorable chapter for the Jewish community.14 After another local missionary had made anti-Semitic comments that received wide circulation, Rohold’s regular Sunday afternoon open-air service incited a violent riot. The front page of The Toronto Daily Star’s late edition on Monday, June 19, featured a photo of the Presbyterian missionary in tabs and collar. The opening paragraph led with this statement:
“I come from Jerusalem, the home of the prophets who were stoned, and I shall preach as long as breath is in me. Preach I must and preach I will.”
This was the declaration made to The Star this morning by the Rev. S. B. Rohold, the Presbyterian missionary who was preaching when the riot began in the Ward last night. Mr. Rohold looked perfectly fresh this morning…He is a gentleman under middle age with short dark hair and flashing eyes. He is full of fire and enthusiasm.15
He promised “to be on the same spot, Saturday and Sunday, preaching the word.” Rohold denied that either his preaching or his work was an attack on the Jewish religion. “I simply preach Christianity,” he said. He also spoke of the ministry plans to erect a new building that would allow the work to go on with “renewed vigor.”
Scott’s committee had secured land on the southeast corner of