There are those who are calling us naïve; that we are ignoring the facts and putting our community in jeopardy. Some have asked whether we have a moral responsibility to care for the impoverished within our own city and country before we help strangers halfway across the world. A few have shared with me that something just doesn’t sit right with them about helping Muslim...

After the Blue Jays’ loss to Kansas City, I had many flashbacks to my childhood. The Blue Jays’ World Series wins in 1992 and 1993 are some of the happiest moments of my youth. After all, as a seven and eight year old, there’s nothing better than seeing your team win a championship. The key moments are further imprinted in my brain thanks to repeated viewings of the commemorative...

Who can recount the mighty acts of Israel?Who can count them? Indeed, in every age, a hero shall arise The people’s rescuer. Hear! In those days and in our time, A Maccabee saves and redeems. And in our days, all of Israel Shall stand united and be rescued. Every winter of my childhood, my family went to visit Israeli friends who lived nearby. We would sit around their living...

We have now completed the stretch run to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the annual period of self and communal reflection. In this town, the excitement and buzz may have focussed a little more on the Blue Jays playoff run and less on our own personal run towards a meaningful and fulfilling High Holy Day and Sukkot experience. Increasingly, or so it seems, many who are renewing or joining a...

What can a synagogue community be? The film Back to the Future was set in 1955 and imagined events of 2015. As Beth Tzedec celebrates its 60th anniversary as a congregation (our roots actually go back to the 1890s with our founding kehillot of Beth Midrash Hagadol and Goel Tzedec), it is appropriate to reflect on what our Synagogue has been in the past, where we are today and what we...

Are you looking to connect with singles ages 60 and over for friendship, networking and socializing? Join our new 60+ Singles Friendship Group and help us plan events where we can all laugh, learn and have fun together in a positive and supportive environment with likeminded adults. For more information, contact Zina Glassman at 416-781-3514 ext. 225 or the Synagogue office at 416-781-3511.

A 60th Anniversary Shabbat UpdateDear Friends:During the past 60 amazing years, Beth Tzedec has provided outstanding programs and services to our community. From time to time, we have faced challenges, yet each time we have turned the challenge into an opportunity.Late Wednesday night, we received word that our guest speaker, Rabbi Donniel Hartman, had fallen ill and had to immediately...

This summer, i witnessed the bringing together of  long separated art and spirit to restore a whole heart, םלש בל (lev shalem). I thought of the different paths our personal yearning for wholeness and healing may take: in the beauty of sea, sky and snow; the solitude of meditation; the activity of family celebration; exquisite moments of song and prayer. Just before the...

Since June 2015 Beth Tzedec Congregation has been in discussions with JIAS (Jewish Immigration Aid Services) Toronto about sponsoring a refugee family from Syria.We have committed to sponsor one family of four at a cost of $30,000. This figure helps to cover basic needs and start-up costs of refugees during their first 12 months in Canada. We need your help to move forward. In order to...

The18th century rabbi and mystic Yisroel ben Eliezer, lovingly known as the Ba'al Shem Tov, referred to the Jewish people as a living Torah. He explained that a Torah that is missing even just one letter is considered pasul, invalid, and no longer fit to be used until it is corrected. Similarly, if even one Jewish person feels like an outsider, unwelcome and not part of our collective...

During the recent PanAm Games here in Toronto, I attended my first-ever swimming and track and field competitions. Both were a lot of fun and a great way to spend a morning, and it also marked the first time I got to cheer on Canadian athletes in person. At each event, there was something that I had never experienced before. Prior to a race starting, when the starter called the...

Since the beginning of my tenure at Beth Tzedec in 2009, without fail, I have visited Camp Ramah in Canada every summer and the approximately 60 campers and staff for whom Beth Tzedec is their shul. Beth Tzedec is one of the camp’s founding synagogues and we maintain a very strong relationship with the camp to this day. I must admit, though, that I make the four and half hour...

It is a game we all played as children to teach the parts of the body and to demonstrate movement. We laugh and revel in the performance of the child who has no limitations. The new parent cannot imagine anything less than a “perfect” child, however unrealistic that may be. As we age, we all face challenges that require attention, be they visual, auditory, physical or otherwise; if you...

In answer to the ongoing Syrian refugee crisis, Beth Tzedec Congregation has established the Syrian Refugee Program. This new fund will help us to provide food, shelter and support to a Syrian family being resettled in Toronto, and is offered as part of a larger Toronto, JIAS and international initiative. Donations can be made through the Synagogue office by calling 416-781-3511 or...

I want to devote this column almost exclusively  to soliciting your comments on our proposed renovation plans for the Sanctuary so that I may receive your feedback. [In my September 2015 Bulletin article on page 5] are two renderings of what we are considering. As I reported in the Bulletin this past February, we propose raising the Sanctuary floor to the level of the foyer, thereby...