 Both served as officers in the British Army during World War II and, given their fluency with the German language, were in charge of German POWs at the war's close.The first High Holiday services were held in 1954 in rented premises downtown, but by 1958 they were renting space from the Judaea Lodge of the Knights of Pythias, a non-sectarian branch of an American organization started during the U.S. Civil War and established in Toronto 1927.This rented space in uptown Toronto was located at its current site near Bathurst and Glencairn.