Ohev Yisroel was founded in 2002 by a group of people who wanted to maintain orthodox synagogue services at a time when they were starting to disappear from downtown Ottawa. One group of founders had been leading services at the Jewish Old Age home, Hillel Lodge, until its move to the newly built Jewish Community Campus in the western part of town. The second group of founders was composed of members who had been praying at a landmark synagogue which was preparing to allow for mixed seating, and which eventually became part of the Conservative movement and finally merged with a conservative synagogue in the western part of town.  
 
Our first service, Rosh Hashanah 5763, took place in a private home, and later alternated between that home and the Party Room of an apartment building nearby.

Finally, in 2004 we moved into our current rented premises at 516 Rideau St. This location was previously a small restaurant, and necessitated a great deal of renovation of both the ground floor prayer hall as well as the upstairs apartment.

It took several years of continuing work in order to improve the interior and to decorate it. Some of the stages of the renovation, including the Chanukas HaBayis and the Hachnassos Sefer Torah celebrations, can be seen in the photo gallery. Our Torah scroll was donated by the Jewish community of Massena, New York.   
 
One of our innovations was the creation of a unique 
mechitzah which allows women members, seated in the southern half of the prayer hall, to see all proceedings of the services, without being viewed by the men seated in the northern half. 

The name of our synagogue is the Hebrew term for “one who loves his fellow Jew”. It was chosen to emphasize that our
members practice random acts of kindness to all — Sabbath hospitality, charity and helpfulness. It is also the nickname of a famous early 19th century Chassidic Rabbi of the Polish town of Apta (Opatow) who authored a book by that name, embodying the ideals above. The families of several of our original members originated from Apta.