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.
May 2025 - Hazzanit Tara Abrams
Hazzanit keeps the service flowing at City Shul
By Elaine Smith
As City Shul’s congregation moves from its founding rabbi, Elyse Goldstein, to transition-year rabbi,Danny Gottlieb, to incoming rabbi, Stephanie Crawley, Hazzanit Tara Abrams has been a steadying, cheerful presence at services.
Abrams, who retired in 2020 after 20 years as Hazzanit at Temple Har Zion in Markham, first served as Hazzanit for City Shul’s High Holy Day services in 2021 after Rabbi Goldstein reached out to see if she would consider working at City Shul for High Holy Days, and leading one Shabbat morning service per month. Given the pandemic, it was unclear whether the services would even be in person, or still online.
“At that time at City Shul, other cantors and soloists were leading Shabbat services, too,” says Abrams, whose contract extends through the 2025-2026 year. “However, once Rabbi Goldstein announced her retirement, the Leadership Team decided it would be a good idea to have a constant presence on the bimah. “I think there’s a lot of wisdom in that approach, because someone needs to know the history of how things are done, and I have become a resource. Also, the congregation feels some continuity by seeing a familiar face and hearing a familiar voice.”
When Abrams’ voice pours forth during a Shabbat service, it all seems effortless, but appearances can be deceptive. A lot of preparation goes into ensuring the service runs seamlessly, something especially true during this transition year, as the Hazzanit has familiarized Rabbi Gottlieb with City Shul’s traditions, and has also worked with lay leaders who have filled in during his absence.
To smooth the path for everyone involved, Abrams has also worked with administrator Barb Wiseberg and audio/video expert Jeff Cipin (also a City Shul gabbai) to consolidate and record all the Shabbat services procedures. The resulting online Shabbat Service Planner provides guidance to everyone from rabbi to gabbai.
“There are a lot of components to every service, and everyone needs to feel confident about their role,” Abrams says.
In preparation for each service, she works with the rabbi to create a service outline, and then she shares it with the gabbai, head usher, sound technician and assigned Leadership Team member. It helps to ensure that everyone knows all of the details, such as the week’s parsha, which readings are spoken for, whether there is a B’Mitzvah, if (and when) the ShinShinim will be participating and who will be observing yahrzeits.
Before Rabbi Goldstein’s final year with the congregation, she and the Hazzanit discussed City Shul’s current customs and melodies, as well as the introduction of some new melodies, with the aim of creating a “City Shul melody repertoire” to draw upon. The Hazzanit consults with the rabbi before each service, and faithfully practises her own parts, even if she is familiar with the melodies.
“The musical choices are discussed for each service, and we adapt them to the needs of the occasion,” she says. “Everything is a fine balance.”
Abrams knows that she is the one constant during a time of change at City Shul, but she isn’t flustered.
“I have a lot of experience with transitions after working with various rabbis at Har Zion, and I know what the challenges are when a founding rabbi leaves a congregation,” she says. “I am really excited about working with Rabbi Crawley, and having a conversation about music. I am thrilled to have a new work partner to help build the future of the synagogue, and I look forward to learning more about what her vision is. I admire the accomplishments she’s had in her current congregation, and knowing that she’s both a musician and a poet offers us great opportunities!
“I love the City Shul community; it reminds me of my congregation growing up, with wonderful, committed people who are a joy to work with.”
April 2025 - Ottie Lockey
A return to the Jewish community
Joining City Shul’s Leadership Team is another milestone for Ottie Lockey as she renews her commitment to Judaism.
Lockey, an arts administrator and coach, grew up in a Conservative Jewish family in the Bronx, New York at a time when everyone in the community was Jewish. During her teenage years, she had no interest in observing ritual and eagerly embraced the wider world. Her path took her far from her roots.
She first met Rabbi Emerita Goldstein in the 1980s when the Rabbi became one of Canada’s first female rabbis.
“We were both feminist activists in the early ‘80s and she was a unique, impressive voice,” says Lockey, who also leads City Shul’s Transition Team, working with the congregation to ease the transition to a new rabbi. “Forty years later, I’d had some losses and felt I needed more of the Jewish community in my life, and I thought immediately of City Shul. I connected with Rabbi Goldstein and the rest is history.
“I felt at home and accepted at City Shul as a lesbian and feminist and someone whose life is different. City Shul makes me feel embraced.”
Lockey joined Rabbi Emerita Goldstein’s final B-Mitzvah class and formed close connections with her cohort.
“I loved learning to read Torah and reading it before the congregation was one of the most meaningful moments of my life. It was profoundly emotional,” she says.
Joining the Leadership Team was a deliberate choice for Lockey, one which fit well with her experience and skills as an administrator.
“I wanted to make a contribution back to the community because I am getting so much from City Shul,” she says, “and my professional work has given me a great deal of knowledge about small, non-profit organizations in transition.
“I am enjoying working with really talented people, making new friends and feeling more rooted in my community. I want to make sure City Shul continues to thrive and grow.”
Lockey believes that City Shul is a special place with “its inclusivity, its extraordinary lay leadership and the music we make together.”
“City Shul has become very important to me and a lot of that is to do with the people in the congregation.”
March 2025 - Meredith Halpern
Meet the woman who puts the kitchen in Kitchen Kiddush
Meredith Halpern is accustomed to having fellow City Shul members gather at her house for volunteer activities, whether they are cooking the main courses for the congregation’s periodic homemade kiddush luncheons or practicing the songs for a Shira Harmony Group performance.
She is an eager participant in both activities, as well as a volunteer Torah reader.
“I tend to be a doer and if it’s in my wheelhouse, I’m happy to do it,” says Halpern, proprietor of H. Halpern Esq., an online haberdashery. Opening her home for shul activities is just “another string on the guitar of how our community connects.”
The Toronto native and her husband, Jonathan Wyman, each grew up in Conservative congregations. They met City Shul’s Rabbi Emerita Elyse Goldstein through services she had previously held at Kolel: The Adult Centre for Liberal Jewish Learning and they liked her ethos. Subsequently, they became founding members of City Shul.
“We hadn’t found services that we were comfortable with until we attended Elyse’s,” Halpern says. “They seemed warm, family-oriented, and more what we were seeking. City Shul was an opportunity to help build the community we wanted to have.”
It’s a community that she loves and continues to support.
Singing with City Shul’s Shira Harmony Group comes naturally to her since Halpern has been singing in bands and choirs since high school. She was interested in the music Shira director Steven Reich was adding to services, so when he asked her to join, she was pleased to do so
Reading Torah didn’t come quite as naturally.
“The first time I read Torah was at my Aufruf and I was terrified,” Halpern says. “However, everyone in my husband’s family reads Torah, so I learned from Rochelle Dworkin, and now, I read every year during the High Holidays, as well as at other times.”
As for Kitchen Kiddush, Halpern has been an integral participant since Rabbi Emerita Goldstein conceived of the idea.
“When Elyse proposed an idea and someone expressed interest, she would say, ‘Here you go,’” Halpern Wyman says with a chuckle. “My daughters would tell you that feeding people is my love language. Everyone bonds over food.”
It takes a team to create a Kitchen Kiddush meal, of course. First Brenda Silver and now Fran Bleviss organizes the desserts and hold baking sessions, and Marianka Nathanson is integral to planning for the main meal, sending recipes, and rounding up the volunteers.
Meanwhile, Halpern tests and scales the recipes, purchases the ingredients, and readies her kosher kitchen for an invasion of volunteer cooks. She serves as the chef, organizing and assisting her sous-chefs in locating equipment and ingredients as they busy themselves with chopping and blending.
“I’m always experimenting and picking up ideas from places we eat,” she says. “We always offer something gluten-free, something dairy-free and something vegan, and we’ve always tried to source seasonal Canadian produce.”
Halpern loves the communal cooking nights.
“I love that people have different skill levels,” she says. “Some come to cook and others just want to be part of it. Cooking together is a way to connect people.”
“Community is a big part of our shul and communal meals are a key part of building community.”
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.
