Our bond with Eretz Yisrael
The land.
The people.
Our family.
Since our first visit to Chevron in 2000, Westmount's relationship with Eretz Yisrael has been personal, practical and enduring—expressed through presence, friendship, tzedakah and Torah.
More than a destination
A connection rooted in Torah and responsibility.
For Westmount Shul, Eretz Yisrael is not simply a distant place on a map. It is the land given by Hashem to the Jewish people, the home of our Avos and Imahos, and the heart toward which Jews have turned in prayer throughout the generations.
Our connection is not political. It is a bond with the kedushah of the land and with the Jews who live there—with their Torah, their communities, their challenges and their lives. Although we live thousands of kilometres away, we remain one people.
That bond takes many forms. We visit and experience the land; we sustain friendships and institutions in Chevron and Kiryat Arba; we stand with soldiers and veterans through practical help and Peace of Mind; we assist needy families through Kupat Ha'Ir; and we help support Torah learning at Kollel Chasday David in Yerushalayim.
Visiting the land
Experiencing its Torah, people and daily life firsthand.
02Chevron and Kiryat Arba
Sustaining friendships, Torah institutions and families.
03Soldiers and veterans
Providing practical help, support and a healing embrace.
04Families in need
Giving dependable tzedakah through Kupat Ha'Ir.
05Torah learning
Helping avreichim learn at Kollel Chasday David.
Visiting and experiencing the land
We came to see.
We left more deeply connected.
Our journeys brought Westmount members into the Torah, daily life and living landscape of Eretz Yisrael—not as spectators, but as Jews meeting members of their own extended family.
Chevron and Kiryat Arba
A relationship renewed year after year.
Chevron—the city of the Avos and Imahos—has held a special place in Westmount's relationship with Eretz Yisrael from our first visit in 2000. Over the years we have returned to the area, strengthened personal friendships and helped sustain Jewish life in neighbouring Kiryat Arba.
A central part of that relationship is our friendship with Rabbi Avinoam Horowitz, founder and Rosh Yeshiva of the Yeshiva High School of Kiryat Arba. Rav Avinoam has visited our kehilla nearly every year, sharing Torah and bringing the people of Kiryat Arba close to the hearts of Westmount members.
Westmount has helped the yeshiva financially, and each Purim our community provides matanos la'evyonim for families in Kiryat Arba. These are not occasional gestures. They are expressions of an enduring relationship between one Jewish community and another.
Visit the yeshiva website
Standing with our brothers
Love must become action.
Following October 7, Westmount sought practical ways to stand beside the Jews carrying the burden of protecting Jewish lives. In December 2023, our community helped provide 100 high-quality Columbia jackets to approximately 100 soldiers serving near Gaza. The jackets cost 35,617 NIS—approximately CAD $13,400.
The jackets provided warmth, but they also carried a message: Jews living far away were thinking of these soldiers, davening for them and standing beside them.
Chareidim Care About the IDF Soldiers
Rabbi Yossi Michalowicz's message accompanying Westmount's donation of 100 Columbia jackets.
A Message of Thanks from the Soldiers
The soldiers share their appreciation with the Westmount community for the Columbia jackets.
Standing with soldiers and veterans
From practical support
to a healing embrace.
In October 2026, Westmount will welcome a group of IDF combat veterans through Peace of Mind Canada. Their visit will form a central part of a nine-month therapeutic programme led by specially trained therapists from METIV: The Israel Psychotrauma Centre.
Peace of Mind gives veterans who served together the time and space to process difficult combat experiences, both individually and as a group. During an intensive week hosted by a Jewish community abroad, the distance from everyday pressures helps create a safe, quiet and supportive environment. Westmount will provide that embrace—welcoming the veterans into our homes and our kehilla as they strengthen their emotional wellbeing and continue their transition to civilian life.
Learn about Peace of Mind Canada
Tzedakah with dignity
Protecting our tefillah. Supporting families in Eretz Yisrael.
Westmount's daily minyanim are times for focused tefillah. To preserve the quiet and sanctity of davening, we do not conduct individual charitable solicitation or distribute tzedakah funds while the minyan is in progress.
Instead, members who regularly attend our daily minyanim participate in a monthly communal contribution. Westmount combines these gifts and sends them to Kupat Ha'Ir, a Bnei Brak-based tzedakah organization that assists needy Jewish families throughout Eretz Yisrael with food and other essential support.
This arrangement allows tzedakah to be given consistently and quietly, without collectors having to travel from Israel and approach worshippers during davening. It preserves the dignity of those who need help and the dignity of our tefillah.
Sustaining Torah in Yerushalayim
Supporting those who devote their lives to learning.
Westmount makes monthly contributions to Kollel Chasday David in Yerushalayim, helping support a distinguished community of avreichim engaged in serious Torah learning.
The kollel is headed by Rav Boruch Tanzer, who has carried the responsibility of sustaining it for more than twenty-five years. Westmount's connection is also personal: Rav Boruch has a longstanding friendship with the Lasarow family.
Supporting the kollel means helping Torah learning continue day after day in Eretz Yisrael—strengthening those who learn and the families who make their learning possible.