Shabbaton with visiting Rabbi Elyse Goldstein
Dates: Friday June 5th and Saturday June 6th
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Beth Israel is proud to announce a Shabbaton with Rabbi Elyse Goldstein, founding Rabbi and current Rabbi emeritus at the City Shul in Toronto, June 5-6, 2026. She will lead us in three events over Shabbat:
Weekend Schedule:
Friday June 5th
5pm – Shabbat Potluck with Blessings
6pm – “Not By Bread Alone”: A Tasty Exploration of Jewish Identity
Starting from bread in the Bible we will look at—and taste—Jewish uniqueness as it is expressed through Jewish law, Jewish tradition,
Jewish ethnicity and Jewish peoplehood/nationhood.
7pm – Shabbat songs with Elyse and Dan
Saturday June 6th
10am – Shabbat Shacharit service with Torah Reading, music with Dr Dan, and dvar/sermon: “Pashat Naso: The Big Questions of Building a Community”. Our ancestors built a “mishkan” (tabernacle) as a symbol of Gd’s presence. How does that manifest in our synagogue life today, if at all? What can their mishkan preparation chapters teach us about community for our time
12pm – Shabbat Kiddish lunch, catered
1-3 pm: Torah/text study ““For Heaven’s Sake: Ancient Wisdom for Modern Disagreements.” How does Judaism view civil discourse? Can we disagree over fundamental issues and maintain a “community”? How? We will explore traditional texts which will help us ponder these difficult questions for difficult times.
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Biography of Rabbi Goldstein:
Rabbi Dr. Elyse Goldstein is the founding Rabbi of City Shul, a Reform congregation in downtown Toronto she started in 2011, which has grown to prominence as one of the most creative synagogues in Canada. She retired in 2024 and was named its Rabbi Emerita.
She broke the “stained glass ceiling” after her ordination upon her arrival to Toronto in 1983, as the only female Rabbi in all of Canada. She was quickly recognized as a fiery speaker, skilled teacher and social justice advocate. After her first position as Assistant Rabbi at Canada’s largest synagogue of 5,000 families (Holy Blossom Temple) she founded Kolel: The Adult Centre for Liberal Jewish Learning, an adult education institute recognized a leader in Jewish adult education, and was awarded the most prestigious prize in Jewish education, the internationally recognized Covenant Award for Exceptional Jewish Educators, as a result of that work, in 2005.
She was the first woman to be elected as president of the interdenominational Toronto Board of Rabbis and was one of seven women featured in the Canadian National Film Board documentary, “Half the Kingdom.” Her first book, ReVisions: Seeing Torah through a Feminist Lens, won the Canadian National Jewish Book Awards in the field of Bible. Her second and third books,The Women’s Torah Commentary, and The Women’s Haftarah Commentary were the first Bible commentaries in history written by female Rabbis. Her fourth book, New Jewish Feminism: Probing the Past, Forging the Future won finalist in The National Jewish Book Awards.
In 2013 she was named one of America’s 50 Most Influential Rabbis by The Forward and in May 2017 she was awarded Doctor of Laws Honoris Causis from TMU (formerly Ryerson University) in recognition of her path-breaking work in Canada. She also acted in the theatre from 2017-2019 inThe Clergy Project, an award-winning show she wrote together with a priest and a minister, about being clergy in the 21st century which won “Best of The Fringe Theatre Festival” in Toronto. She’s married to Baruch Sienna and together they have 3 adult children with 3 spouses and 3 grandchildren.