The fonds consists of administrative and operational records generated by Congregation Emanu-El including: textual records; photographs; moving images; sound recordings; ledgers; and scrapbooks.
The fonds is arranged into 22 series: Preschool and Hebrew School; Correspondence; Jewish Historical Society of British Columbia/Allan Klenman; Membership; Committees; Photographs and audio-visual; Publications; Restoration; Ben Levinson historical/archival files; Renovation (Matanah G’Dolah Project); Congregation Rabbi’s; Bar/Bat Mitzvah and conversion certificates; Jewish cemetery; Vancouver Island Jewish Community Directory (VIJCD); Financials; Holocaust Symposium; Board; Administration and operational records; Ephemera; Marriages and divorces; Scrapbooks; and Sylvester family.
Photograph depicts C. B. Sylvester posing in a bowler hat at two years old. Written on verso: "C B Sylvester - 2 years old". Clarence B. Sylvester died in the street of a heart attack at age 50.
File contains the original donor list for building Congregation Emanu-El (November 26, 1862). Document reads: "Victoria, November 26, 1862 - Subscription List - We the undersigned hereby agree to pay to the Congregation Emnau-El of Victoria [V.I.] for the purpose of erecting a brick synagogue the sums sett [sic] opposite to our respective names. Payments to be made on call of the committee in four installments...". Another copy is available (a photocopy of the original list), and can be found in 10-C-5, File 9.
2 handwritten pages of a letter addressed to A. Hoffman from A. Matherson, acknowledging an invitation to St. Andrew's Society to participate in the laying to the cornerstone of the Synagogue, dated May 28, 1863.
2 handwritten pages of a letter addressed to the Congregation from J. P. Davies respecting a reader for the consecration of the synagogue, dated August 19, 1863.