Not That Kind of Rabbi

When Amichai Lau-Lavie realized he was gay, he knew he had to make a choice: hide his identity to abide by his Orthodox upbringing, or be true to himself. It wasn't an easy call for a man whose ancestors had been rabbis for generations—including his uncle and cousin, who both served as the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel.

Ultimately, Lau-Lavie decided to split the difference. As an out gay man, he became an Jewish leader, drag per...

Rabbi Aaron Rotenberg realized at a young age he was drawn to Jewish studies. After graduating from Jewish day schools around Toronto, he decided to attend the Jewish Theological Seminary, a Conservative rabbinical school in New York City, for five years—only to end up a Renewal rabbi years later, ordained just this month.

As the spiritual leader of the Annex Shul in downtown Toronto—and one of a handful of Renewal rabbis in the c...

With the recent news of a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas and the eventual return of the remaining Israeli hostages, tensions remain high between pro- and anti-Zionist communities here in Canada, who've stood sharply divided on the foreign conflict for 15 months. Members of those communities may still be holding hatred or anger in their hearts—leading to increased depression, anxiety and isolation.

But according to Dr. Rob...

Once upon a time, Toronto was a sleepy city. The atmosphere shut down at night. Red tape and cultural meekness kept things status quo. But through the 1970s and 1980s, the city's younger generations changed how things work—and one of the biggest players behind the scenes was Gary Topp.

A music promoter and independent movie theatre operator, it was Topp—along with his colleague, Gary Cormier, together known as the Two Garys—who fir...

On Oct. 9, around 2,500 strangers packed Montreal's Place des Arts concert hall to sing Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" in surprisingly perfect harmony. The melody was beautiful. In a video recording posted online, tears and smiles are visible as people sing out the familiar chorus. You could say it was a spiritual performance—unless you're Nobu Adilman, who co-organized the event, for whom this mass choir has always been ab...

Mark Leiren-Young wrote Shylock in 1996, a play using Shakespeare's controversial Jewish character in The Merchant of Venice to explore modern-day cancel culture. While the script saw productions aorund the world, Leiren-Young was wary of giving the rights away too quickly, knowing it was complex, sensitive subject matter that required an intellectual approach.

So when he met the acclaimed actor Saul Rubinek, who proposed that Lei...

Growing up, Allan Novak assumed his family was fairly ordinary: modest, witty, hardworking Jewish immigrants who found a new live in Canada after the war. That his mother was one of four sibling survivors was noteworthy, but the outside world did not take notice.

That is, until the siblings all began reaching the age of 100.

Once international reporters and Holocaust foundations discovered the story of the world's oldest surviv...

Michael Coren has lived many lives. Born to a Jewish cab driver in England, Coren converted to Catholocism in the 1980s, then Evangelicalism in the '90s; he grew into a bombastic right-wing Christian talk radio and TV personality with shows on the Sun News Network and the Crossroads Television System; then he came back to embrace the Catholic Church, before finally leaving again to become not just an Anglican—but an Anglican priest...

Both of Eva Almos's parents were Holocaust survivors. Her mother, from Lithuania, was a kind and gentle soul who went out of her way to uplift strangers and support her daughter. But her father was the opposite: a traditional Greek man with chauvinist ideas who was hardened by the horrors of the Holocaust. The duality sent Almos into therapy, where she spent years trying to piece herself together.

All this time, she was making a ...

Devon Spier has long COVID. The artist, poet and spiritual guide has spent days bedridden, feeling ill and angry at God. But that forced pause gave her time to reflect on her life, art and beliefs, and she began to realize more emphatically how God, for her, exists in liminal spaces—in the wilderness, in small moments of peace and beauty between devastation and pain.

These thoughts led her to create a new exhibit that blends art, d...

Growing up in the Orthodox movement, Neshama Carlebach would hear it a lot: "It's a shame your father never had sons." The father in question, the acclaimed Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, instead had two daughters—and the implication was that his legacy as a prolific songwriter, whose repertoire includes the popular 1965 folk anthem "Am Yisrael Chai", would die with him.

Neshama didn't let those comments stop her—in...

In the aftermath of Oct. 7, Jesse Brown—who has risen to prominence as a media critic and muckraker with his Canadaland podcast and digital media company—once again stirred up controversy online. But it wasn't a big news investigation that sparked outrage; it was a series of posts about antisemitic attacks on Canadian Jewish-aligned institutions, from synagogues and community centres to bookstores owned by Jews.

Brown was shocked a...

When Rabbi Victor Gross was looking for a home to grow his congregation in Boulder, CO, he knew he didn't want a dedicated building. It wasn't just the cost, but the environmental impact of operating a space that's only used a few hours a week. Instead, he looked for a church to rent out Friday evenings and Saturday mornings. He asked church leaders two questions: Was the church open and affirming to everyone? And could the churchg...

While Israel remains on the brink of war with Lebanon in the north, one of the country's most iconic sites—the famous Baha'i Gardens and shrine—sit less than an hour away. That a religion based on unity among humankind, which views all religions and tribes as branches from the same tree, should have its headquarters so close to a warzone is tragically ironic.

The irony is not lost on Mary Darling, a Canadian TV producer of Baha'i ...

Bernie Farber helped create the Canadian Anti-Hate Network (CAHN) in 2018, and sat as its founding chair until shortly after Oct. 7, 2023. The organization—which investigates, publicizes and works with journalists to report on hateful far-right extremist groups—was infamously silent in the weeks following the Hamas slaughter and kidnapping of 1,200 people in Israel, which sparked waves of antisemitic acts across Canada. It was arou...

In 2018, at a time when the faith beat in Canadian newspapers was steadily declining, John Longhurst made an unusual deal with the publisher of the Winnipeg Free Press. He wanted to help expand the paper's audience by reporting on religion, particularly within local communities: Mennonite, Indigenous, Catholic, Muslim, Jewish, whomever. The publisher thought it was a nice idea, but how would they get the money?

For Longhurst, the ...

Rabbi Beni Wajnberg has worked in Brazil, Argentina, Singapore, New York, Tennessee, California, Montana and beyond. When it came down to settle down with his family and put down roots, he chose Hamilton, Ont., where he's now the spiritual leader at Beth Jacob Synagogue.

Throughout his travels, he's found that one thing connects all those far-flung places' Jewish communities: they're all Jews by choice. They take the time to inves...

Marsha Lederman is a catastrophizer. As the daughter of Holocaust survivors, the author and Globe and Mail columnist has gone through life worrying about everything that can go wrong, to the point that she wrote a book about things going wrong in her life. Kiss the Red Stairs, released August 2023, investigates the ramifications of intergenerational trauma as she navigates her own divorce while recalling her parents' stories of the...

You may not think of keeping Shabbat as environmental activism—but Jonathan Schorsch does. The founder of the Green Sabbath Project is on a mission to tackle climate change by adapting the biblical Jewish practice into something universally good for our planet. After all, in the Venn diagram of environmentalism and observant Judaism, "Not driving one day a week" falls right in the middle.

For Earth Day, Schorsch joins No...