Rabbi

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Thank you for visiting THZ online.

As Rabbi, I’m honoured to serve Temple Har Zion and the Greater Toronto Jewish community. I see my role as one that can help you find meaning and create spiritual, cultural, educational and socially responsive connections to Judaism. I’m here to help guide and enrich your experiences so that you can find your place individually, and within the wider community.

I encourage you to come visit us at Temple Har Zion as I’m very proud of what we have created here. It is a place where adults and children alike feel welcome and at home. There are many opportunities for you to join us for Shabbat, Festivals and other celebrations, educational and community events – as we celebrate the historic heritage of our people - its laws, stories, traditions, ethics, and hopes for the future - so that, together, we can be a holy people.

To ensure that being part of our community remains relevant and accessible to you, we have introduced many different programs and special services. Kol Bo Shabbat is a Friday night, family-oriented Shabbat service which uses visual t’filah – prayers are projected on-screen. Families who attend the service have the option of staying for family-style dinner and song session. There are many other opportunities to come for a visit – Thursdays, we offer Lunch & Learn, Torah study is held every Shabbat before our morning service and we host a community Seder for the second night of Passover every year.

As a musical graduate who plays the accordion and French horn, I’m honoured to work with Cantor Rachael Littman and Eleanor Rice, our Music Director. We have all composed Jewish liturgy for synagogues and together infuse music into our worship services – a special and unique part of who we are at Temple Har Zion.

As a native of Connecticut, I served as the Associate Rabbi at Congregation Beth Israel in West Hartford, Connecticut and as Rabbi of Congregation Beth Shalom Rodfe Zedek in Chester, Connecticut before becoming the Rabbi at Temple Har Zion in July 2006. I am a member of the Toronto Board of Rabbis and the Reform Rabbis of Greater Toronto and past president of the Greater Toronto Interfaith Clergy Curling Club.  I also had the opportunity to serve on the Board of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, and on the editorial board of the Reform Movement’s new prayer book for youth and families, Mishkan T’filah L’No’ar. In September of 2020, I was sworn in as a York Regional Police Chaplain.

I received my rabbinical ordination at the New York campus of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in 1993, and my Bachelor of Music degree in 1986 from the University of Michigan, where I studied French Horn, composition, and Judaic Studies.

My passion for life-long learning enabled me to receive my Doctor of Divinity degree.

I live in Thornhill with my wife, Karen, also a professional Jewish Educator, and am a very proud father of our two sons, Michael and Jacob.

I encourage you to visit Temple Har Zion soon and please be sure to introduce yourself so that I may meet you and talk more about our THZ family.

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