.ערב טוב ותודה רבה עבור הכבוד וההכרה הזאת.

Thank you to the committee that made this selection. Kol hakavod to all the honourees tonight.

Just as we all stood together at Sinai, we all faced the flames of Auschwitz and sang Hatikvah at the birth of Israel. Tonight, in Toronto, our hearts are with those killed and wounded in Tel Aviv. We are all responsible to transmit our religious tradition and cultural commitments to future generations. Our collective identity is critical to our creative continuity. Most of us don’t work in agencies, congregations and community for recognition. We provide our time and talent as a free-will offering for the betterment of am yisrael, and, for those of us with a theological bent, because of our covenantal love for and service to God.

I am deeply appreciative of this Award, since Gordy Wolfe was one of the first professionals I consulted after moving to Toronto. Our relationship lasted throughout his life. Linda: I am grateful and honoured to carry his legacy and to stand with other community professionals whose service has been singled out in past years.  Let me take note of a previous recipient, Adam Minsky, who was just named as the President and CEO of UJA Federation. Years ago, under the huppah, I wished you personal success in your marriage to Heidi. Now, I wish you much professional success, communal accomplishment and personal satisfaction in the years ahead.

I am the first rabbi to be honoured with this Award. Too often, we imagine religious life and agency work as bifurcated, but there is much that we share and can give to one another. My work—with Federation and CIJA, Mazon and Out of the Cold, Sukkahville and JIAS, classroom education and camping, continuity and culture, the Jewish Theological Seminary and the Hartman Institute, academic research and personal Torah study, Israel advocacy and interfaith dialogue, public activity and private counsel, inclusion and outreach—all this grows from my work at Beth Tzedec. I am grateful that the Congregation has supported my vision of a rabbi engaged in community, devoted to tzedek and hesed, and has shared me with others.

I appreciate my friends, who share some or all of these various commitments, for their nurturing guidance and support. I grew up raised by my mother who, despite poverty and mental illness, provided me with love and religious tradition. Josette’s parents shared their history and hopes for a better world. My Kohl family gave me the aspirational goals of an immigrant family.   קטנתי מכל החסדים.

The Torah reading this week tells us that a דגל, flag, was mandated for each family and tribe to note its allegiance and relationship. The word דגל appears in only one other place in the Bible: in Song of Songs we read: “דגלו עלי אהבה, his banner of love flew above me”. The flag was a symbol of a place among our people as well as a proclamation of personal love. 

My family knows that there has been little separation between synagogue life, community activity and our home. The flag of concern and duty, responsibility and obligation, flies over our home. In different ways, we are always engaged and involved. I am grateful to Josette who, after 46 years, continues to be my life-partner and love of my life. Yakov, Rafi and Amir, my daughters-in-love, Sarah and Amanda—and now my grandchildren—have often shared me with others. But my love for them is both אהבה רבה  and אהבת עולם. This love exceeds all others. My flag of love flies over our family.