From 1930 to the end of the 1940s, Kensington market transformed from a more-or-less completely Jewish neighborhood and market to a diverse, multi-ethnic village. It was in this period that the market began to establish itself as a haven for all immigrants to Toronto. After Jewish Torontonians moved from the Ward in the first decades of the century, they established their homes, shops, and institutions in the Kensington area. This period saw the ground floors of neighborhood homes converted into shop-fronts, the building of the Kiever Synagogue and other Jewish institutions, and the establishment of a dynamic consumer base with the end of the Second World War. The market, despite the tightly-knit Jewish community, was also witness to the pre-WWII anti-Semitic tensions. During the 1930s and 1940s Kensington Market saw the cementing of the Jewish community in the neighborhood, but also the demographic shift that came following WWII, when Jewish residents, having earned enough money, began leaving the market for bigger homes in the West and North parts of the growing city.
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