Yellowknife held its first community-wide Passover seder, with support from the Jewish Federation of British Columbia, at the Sundog Trading Post on April 1. (photo from Jewish Federation Facebook page)
Yellowknife held its first community-wide Passover seder, with support from the Jewish Federation of British Columbia, at the Sundog Trading Post on April 1. Now, the small Jewish community in the Northwest Territories capital is planning more events.
Jewish celebrations are not unknown in the Northwest Territories, of course. Rosh Hashanah dinners, Hanukkah gatherings and seders have been held in various homes over the years. Yet, according to a community member interviewed by the Independent, there has never been an effort to identify and bring together the larger community in a more formal way. That changed in December 2025, when seven Yellowknifers formed the NWT Jewish Cultural Society.
“We are still in infancy and working to create a website, but right now we have a WhatsApp group with 30 adults in town. People have been added in from word of mouth,” said a Yellowknife organizer who wished to be identified by only her first name, Sari.
When the group thought about hosting the first community seder, there were talks of having it at a home; yet, in the end, due to the growing interest, that option was not possible. Two weeks before Passover, in an effort to find a venue, they reached out to Sarah Mackenzie, associate director of community engagement at the Jewish Federation, for support, which came through shortly after the request.
The seven-member board scrambled to organize everything, bringing in seder plates and setting up the tables. They used the PJ Library Haggadah. For food, there was a potluck. Decorations were ordered, Passover crafts were arranged for the children, and wine and juice were placed on each table.
“All the Jewish people I’ve met in town grew up with a connection to their culture. I think it has just fallen to the wayside without the opportunities to gather,” said Sari.
“One Jewish person hadn’t been to a seder in decades. This was my second in the 18 years I’ve been in Yellowknife. It was definitely the first seder for some of the young kids and probably only the second or third for some non-Jewish partners.”
Sari added that several people in Yellowknife are part of multi-faith households. After the Oct 7, 2023, terror attacks on Israel, she explained, there had been feelings or questions from parents of how are we going to share Jewish identity with our kids here?
A crucial moment for the more formalized Jewish community in Yellowknife happened earlier though, in August 2023, when an out-of-control wildfire caused the city to be evacuated. At the time, Sari was in Edmonton, where she visited Temple Beth Ora and picked up a copy of the Alberta Jewish News. In it, she found an article about another Jewish resident of Yellowknife.
“While I was evacuated, PJ Library reached out to me and asked me if I needed anything and provided a bunch of support. You can always count on the Jewish community,” said Sari.
“When I returned home, I had a new Jewish connection in town, and having another person to connect with nearby was a lifesaver. In the months that followed, we knew we needed more community. Our Jewish identity, which was a small piece of ourselves, suddenly skyrocketed to a top concern in our lives.”
They decided to take part in a one-week Momentum Canada trip to Israel. This presented a challenge because, typically, one must do so through a Jewish organization, but there were none in Yellowknife.
In her efforts to raise funds for the trip, Sari emailed contacts who had supported her during the evacuation in Edmonton, and they suggested reaching out to the Jewish Federation in British Columbia.
“There, Sarah Mackenzie took it upon herself to become a champion for our little community. We just happened to reach the right person,” Sari said. “She related to the experience of being disconnected from large cities with high numbers of Jewish people. She offered to take Yellowknife under her wing and do the same for us in the Northwest Territories.”
For her part, Mackenzie said, “Jewish Federation … is honoured to come alongside the Yellowknife Jewish community in alignment with our mission of creating vibrant, caring and inclusive communities, together.”
Looking to the future, the goal of the NWT Jewish Cultural Society is to organize community gatherings for the Jewish holidays. They have started an informal Hebrew school that meets once a month; it is currently in members’ homes, but they are looking for a space.
“We hope to also do small things – maybe a Purim mishloach manot (Purim basket) exchange. It will depend on capacity and resources,” said Sari, noting that many of the people who live in Yellowknife are transient.
“Two of our board members will be leaving this summer,” she said. “Grassroots events definitely depend on the efforts of a small group of determined people.”
In his weekly message on April 17, Jewish Federation chief executive officer Ezra Shanken had this to say about the Yellowknife seder: “For those involved, it was described simply as a powerful beginning for Jewish communal life in a place where opportunities to gather are few and deeply appreciated.”
Sam Margolis has written for the Globe and Mail, the National Post, UPI and MSNBC.