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Volunteer Spotlight

City Shul is a labour of love that is in large part the work of volunteers. Every month we profile an individual or small group that has made a dedicated contribution to our synagogue in their off-hours, to recognize them and their effort and show our appreciation.

February 2025 - A.M. Matte

Meet a new Leadership Team member.

Mom, poet, playwright, francophone, costume designer and substitute Mordechai: City Shul’s newest board member, A.M. Matte, wears each of these hats and wears them beautifully.

Matte, an Ottawa native, has lived in Toronto for 20 years but only discovered City Shul in 2017. In the interim, she married, had a child, separated, had a second child and let religion in the community lapse.

“I had a francophone family and my experience of Jewish life was that it was in English,” Matte says. “I had to figure out how to give my children a Jewish experience.”

She mentioned her desire, and friends from different groups recommended City Shul, located at the time in the Wolfond Centre. She brought her eldest son to the Purim festivities and enjoyed the experience. When she had her own religious questions, friends suggested talking to Rabbi Emerita Goldstein.

“It seemed to be the right match when I really needed it,” Matte says. “My family is not super conventional, and what made me stay was the feeling of comfort and openness the shul had to a 2SLGBTQIA+ family. It was amazing. No one ever asked was about a spouse; they accepted us as we were, no matter how lapsed my Jewish education. The feeling I got was accepting and open.”

Matte also thought about how to contribute in return.

“When I joined, I was asked what I could do for the shul,” she says. “I said I wrote Purim spiels, but the first year, Jeff Cipin already had a script set, so I added songs. After that, he handed the writing over to me. I have a great time writing them.”

Last year, to celebrate Rabbi Goldstein’s final year on the pulpit, Matte created a by-request spiel starring the Rabbi as a liberated Vashti, set to the music of Bruce Springsteen, her favourite. Judging by audience response, it was a success.

Although life as a working single parent keeps Matte quite busy, she recently accepted an invitation to join City Shul’s leadership team.

“I know what my limits are and I don’t want to overpromise,” she says, “but I want to contribute to the
shul and now is the time to question and imagine for the future.

“It’s so important and feels good to find the right community for my family.”

Rediscovering Shalom ©AM Matte, 2024
A.M. Matte

A day not set aside
But highlighted
Raised above the rest
To allow for special moments

For reflection
For rest
For joy
Met with humility.
A day to lift one's head
A day to listen in earnest
A day for eyes wide open
A day to taste kindness
A day to smell the fragrant, ever-changing seasons
A day to lend a helping hand
Rendering holiness ordinary for each to achieve.
Time taken to breathe deeply,
  to savour the colours, 
  to touch the music,
  to rediscover one's soul
  to better understand 
  the soul of Another.
Redécouverte de Shalom
A.M. Matte

Une journée pas mise de côté
Mais mise en exergue
Élevée au-dessus des autres pour
Permettre des moments privilégiés
De réflexion
De repos
De joie
Rencontrés avec humilité.
Une journée pour relever la tête
Une journée pour tendre l'oreille
Une journée pour ouvrir les yeux
Une journée pour goûter la bonté
Une journée pour humer le parfum des saisons toujours changeantes
Une journée pour offrir un coup de main
Pour rendre la sainteté ordinaire pour chacun.e d'entre nous
Prendre le temps de respirer profondément,
  de savourer les couleurs, 

  de toucher la musique,
  de se redécouvrir l’âme
  pour mieux comprendre 
  celle de l’Autre.

 

January 2025 - Robin Nobleman

Volunteering comes naturally to co-ordinator of Torah readings, By Elaine Smith

Reading Torah is both a joy and an honour for Robin Nobleman and it’s something she is eager to encourage her fellow City Shul members to share. Robin, a lawyer who joined City Shul in 2013, serves as co-ordinator for the congregation’s Shabbat and High Holiday Torah readings, one of the many volunteer roles she has assumed at the shul.

“Volunteering comes naturally to me,” says Robin, who grew up as a member of a small Reform shul in Edmonton where pitching in was a given. “There’s probably never anything I’ve been involved in where I haven’t volunteered. It’s just how I operate.”

In 2014, City Shul welcomed a new Torah and, after agreeing to get involved, Robin discovered that Rabbi Emerita Goldstein had tapped her to run the celebratory event.

“We had a Torah parade in the Annex neighbourhood [close to the shul],” Robin says. “It was a nice welcome to the volunteer crew for me.”

Afterward, she started to read Torah more regularly and joined the shul’s music committee and the Shira Harmony Group that performs at selected City Shul services and special events. Music was what drew Robin to shul as a child, and it continues to be a meaningful part of services for her, although her parenting responsibilities for two children under age five have meant taking a break from Shira.

After COVID, Robin’s work as a tech manager for the shul’s Zoom services drew to a close, providing her with time to take on another volunteer task. In 2022, while on maternity leave, Robin took over co-ordination for Shabbat Torah readings from Rochelle Dworkin and learned how to select the readings and determine how many readers were necessary for each service. She continues to organize the schedule of volunteer Torah readers, something that also provides her with an opportunity to read herself.

“It’s a useful role, because reading the Torah is the heart of the services,” she says. 

Some of the readers have taken Hazzanit Abrams’ cantillation course; the newest readers are from City Shul’s recent adult B’Mitzvah cohort.

“It’s brave of them to learn a new skill and apply it for the good of the community,” Robin says.

Her own contributions to the community also include serving on the search committee for a new rabbi, which she calls “such an important opportunity to shape the future of the shul.

“City Shul has been part of every life cycle event in my adult life,” Robin says. “It is home to my husband Brad’s conversion, our wedding, Nora’s baby naming, Brad’s adult B'Mitzvah and Ezra’s bris. The shul has really watched our family grow.”

Meanwhile, Robin continues to help City Shul grow and blossom in turn.

December 2024 - Elana Ellison

Creating a tot spot at City Shul

Each month during Shabbat services, it isn’t unusual to hear giggling or laughter or murmurs coming from the room City Shul uses to serve its Shabbat buffet lunch. It’s not the salad talking, however; it’s the satisfied toddlers and their parents clustered around Elana Ellison as she reads them a story about the next Jewish holiday on the calendar.

Elana, the mother of a son, age five, and a daughter, age two-and-a-half, is the creator and leader of Tot Shabbat, a monthly gathering of toddlers – and their parents -- that allows them to experience the joy of Judaism and the pleasures of community in an age-appropriate fashion.

After growing up in an observant home in the Greater Toronto Area, Elana relocated to Hamilton once she graduated from university. There, she met her husband, Zach. They married and moved back to Toronto, settling in the downtown core.

Although she wasn’t aligned with a synagogue at the time, the couple lived near to Bloor Street United Church where City Shul was housed at the time. Elana attended a Shabbat service and enjoyed it.

“I find the services very beautiful and spiritual,” she says.

The Ellisons joined the congregation in 2018, but it wasn’t until 2022 that Tot Shabbat was born.

“My background was in early childhood education (ECE), and after the pandemic, I felt there wasn’t much happening for families at City Shul, and I wanted something my family could attend,” Elana says. “Since I had ECE skills, I wanted to share them with the community.”

She approached Lori Shapiro-Press, City Shul’s Director of Jewish Learning, and received the go-ahead to begin a program. From the start, Elana ensured that Tot Shabbat was a casual, drop-in program with no registration required to make it easy for families with young children.

“Parents can be exhausted, so I didn’t want to put any pressure on them,” she says. “Our focus is on making people feel welcome.”

The program consists of circle time, Shabbat songs, an activity -- such as making Pesach afikomen bags -- and a snack.

“It’s a draw for young families to come to shul and they create their own social community,” Elana says. “The children begin to create connections with shul attendance.”

In creating the program, she took to heart the approach suggested by Rabbi Emerita Elyse Goldstein: “If there’s something you want, go and do it.”

Elana recently held the program’s second family potluck dinner in the party room in her building, which was a success.

“People are grateful and appreciative of the programming and it gives me a positive feeling to create something for our community,” she says.

November 2024 - Allen Braude

"Allen Braude, a man on the move"

If you’ve been to services at City Shul, know it or not, your life has been touched by Allen Braude.

Allen, who has been a member of the congregation for six years, currently serves as head usher. As such, he is responsible for setting up the Grange for Shabbat services and Kabbalat Shabbat, as well as ensuring that there are ushers and greeters at each service. You’ve seen him there: He’s the man who gathers volunteers from the congregation at the end of each service to help put away ritual objects.

It wasn’t until the 2018 shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh that Allen, who is also a member of the leadership team, joined City Shul.

“I found out about the shooting from my partner Ken, who teaches in Pittsburgh, and it really upset me,” says Allen, communications associate director for an environmental not-for-profit organization. “Not going to synagogue shouldn’t be the reason you are safe. I had been thinking of going and the shootings made it more urgent.”

At the time, City Shul was close to where he lived, and he’d heard Rabbi Goldstein speak a few times. Allen reached out to her and she set him up with a shul buddy for the coming Shabbat.

“I joined the week after,” he says. “It turned out that when I came to services, I know some of the people from different places, so it seemed like a sign that it must be the right shul for me.”

When the COVID-19 pandemic made it necessary for online services, Allen, who was familiar with Zoom, offered to assist. He became one of the Zoom gabbais and also helped turn Siddur pages on the screen. After the pandemic, he was asked to assist in person and began ushering and helping with setup. When
Jan Mitchell, the previous head usher, relocated to the West Coast, Allen stepped into the job.

“I like being at services, seeing people and being part of the community, getting to know people,” he says. “I get by giving. I’d be there anyway and I know my skills and know they’re needed. Making sure that services happen is important to me.

“I want City Shul to thrive and being part of a service that people want to attend makes the synagogue strong. City Shul was very welcoming to me when I needed it and I want to make sure that it is there for others.”

April 2024 - Jan & Lorne Mitchell

City Shul's move from Bloor Street United to St. George on the Grange, in late 2021 was a massive undertaking. Packing up and transporting the synagogue's possessions, sacred and otherwise, across town was itself a significant effort, but a relatively straightforward one compared with what came next. 

As Jan Mitchell came to see it, the biggest challenge the transition posed was how to preserve the warmth, sanctity, and beauty that the shul's services were known for – its unique feel, the quality that had compelled her and her husband Lorne to join the community in the first place – in its new home, one that was significantly different in terms of its presence, build and layout, and the degree of support its staff and landlords would extend to us, their new tenant. 

Jan and Lorne first attended City Shul in 2015, for the High Holidays. They felt like they belonged from the outset, won over by the genuine welcome they received as strangers, the modesty of the congregation, and Rabbi Goldstein's dynamism, intelligence, and personal touch.  

Stepping up and assuming responsibility for protecting the sanctuary during its relocation was a natural extension of the sense of purpose Jan had found as one of City Shul’s Head Ushers. She discovered a virtuous circle acting in that role, a position from which she could both receive what the shul had to offer her and give back in kind. It was an opportunity to extend the sense of comfort, belonging, and unity that the shul had nourished her and Lorne with, back to the rest of the congregation, to both members and newcomers alike. Being Head Usher wasn't about attending to a set of tasks for Jan, but rather a way of dedicating herself to giving the sanctuary the foundation it needed to live up to its name, for it to flourish as a site of spiritual connection, restoration, and reflection.

The Mitchells hit the ground running upon arrival at SGG and quickly found themselves at the centre of the multidimensional effort of adapting the shul to its new reality. Jan became the main point of contact between City Shul and its new landlords, and seeing the challenges the new space presented first-hand, started addressing them in collaboration with Lorne. The two of them ultimately went on to coordinate a large share of the behind-the-scenes labour that was and remains essential to the execution of our services at St. George, especially Shabbat.

As many of you know the Mitchells recently moved to BC, to be closer to family. Filling their shoes has required the coordinated effort of a group of our other volunteers, and remains a work in progress.That it has taken many hands and months, so far, to take over for the Mitchells is a testament to how incredible their contribution was to our synagogue and community. As such it is fitting that this, our first Volunteer Spotlight is dedicated to them. 

Thank you Jan and Lorne, for everything.

Mon, February 10 2025 12 Sh'vat 5785