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In 1928, a group of members of Beth Israel Synagogue, unhappy with the overcrowding of the synagogue during High Holiday services and with the blessing of the synagogue, began holding separate services in the Talmud Torah School building. In 1932, the congregation was incorporated as Beth Shalom Synagogue with J. Eisen as the congregation's first rabbi. In 1950, after considerable discussion, sod turning began on a new synagogue building at 11916 Jasper Ave. In 1951, services and activities began in the partially completed Beth Shalom building. Once the building was completed, it housed the synagogue along with a new Community Centre Association, a library, a theatre, and two full kitchens. With the founding of a Jewish Youth Centre and then a Jewish Community Centre in Edmonton, many of the activities that had taken place in the synagogue moved to the new facilities. In February 1980, an arson attack on the synagogue resulted in over $300, 000 in interior damages. Beth Shalom Synagogue is a conservative synagogue and a member of the Association of Conservative Synagogues of America.

Dr. Maxwell Mordecai Cantor was born in Winnipeg on April 1, 1903. He obtained his B.Sc. degree from the University of Manitoba in 1924, and his M.D. in 1929. He pursued post-graduate studies at the Universities of Alberta and Toronto, at the Pratt institute in Boston and at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore. For nearly 40 years, Dr. Cantor taught at the University of Alberta. He held the position of Chief Coroner of Alberta for nearly thirty years, and served as Chief Coroner of the Yukon and Northwest Territories as well. Dr. Cantor received the Red Cross Gold Medal in 1941, the Centennial Medal in 1967, and a Government of Alberta achievement award for forensic medicine in 1972. He was a charter member of the Beth Shalom Synagogue and of Sigma Alpha Mu Fraternity. He married Edith Rose Secter of Winnipeg in 1936. Edith was long known as a patron of the arts in Edmonton. Max passed away in 1981, Edith in 2001. Their daughter Sharon Abbott is a graphic artist, and their son Paul is the Executive director of the Toronto International Leadership Centre for Financial Sector Supervision.

Born in 1868 in the Russian province of Bessarabia, Abe Cristall immigrated to Canada in 1890. After landing in Montreal, Mr. Cristall traveled west and worked as a farm labourer near Brandon, Manitoba and then Oxbow, Saskatchewan. Soon after arriving in Saskatchewan, Mr. Cristall began working as a peddler, selling bolts of cloth door-to-door in rural Saskatchewan. In the course of visiting a customer, Mr. Cristall met the customer's daughter, Rebecca Leavitt, and they were married in 1893. The newlywed couple planned to move to Seattle, but Mr. Cristall, after visiting and being enticed by the economic possibilities present, elected to settle in the booming frontier town of Edmonton instead. The Cristalls were the first Jewish residents of Edmonton. Abe Cristall opened his own draying business before becoming a prominent member of the city's economic elite through his involvement in the city's active real estate market. In 1909, Mr. Cristall financed and built the Royal George hotel in the city's downtown. The Cristalls had five children; George, Max, Rose, Jessie and Ted. Abe Cristall died in 1944.

The Jewish Archives and Historical Society of Edmonton and Northern Alberta (JAHSENA) was founded in 1996 by Uri Rosenzweig, the first President. He created a committee to write a history of the Edmonton Jewish Community entitled, "The First Century of Jewish Life in Edmonton and Northern Alberta, 1893-1993.". The Society was incorporated in 1998 and published the book in 2000. Debby Shoctor was hired as the first Archivist for the Society in 2001. The archives is located inside the Edmonton Jewish Community Centre. In 2004, the second president of the Society, Dan Kauffman, produced a documentary film for the Society entitled, "From Pedlars to Patriarchs: A Legacy Remembered." The Society joined the Archives Society of Alberta in 2002.