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Officers
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Rabbi
Howard Morrison (President)
Rabbi Howard Morrison, the spiritual leader of Beth Emeth Bais Yehuda Synagogue,
grew up in Brookline, Massachusetts.
There, he attended the Maimonides
Day School for elementary and high school. He attended services at the
Young Israel Synagogue and Congregation Kehillath Israel.
After spending his undergraduate
years at Boston University and the Hebrew College, Rabbi Morrison
entered the Rabbinical School at the Jewish Theological Seminary of
America. His rabbinical training included a year of study at Neve
Schechter and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
After receiving his ordination,
Rabbi Morrison assumed the position of Rabbi at Congregation Beth Shalom
in Union New Jersey from 1987-1991 and then assumed the position of
Rabbi at the Wantagh Jewish Center in Long Island, N.Y. from 1991-2000.
He recently retired from his duties
in the U.S. Air Force as a Reserve Chaplain, performing most of his
duties at McGuire Air Force Base in southern New Jersey.
While serving Beth Emeth Bais Yehuda
Synagogue since 2000, Rabbi Morrison has been president of the Ontario
Region of the Rabbinical Assembly. Rabbi Morrison currently serves on the
Executive of the International Rabbinical Assembly and acts as chaplain
and consultant for Mazon Canada, The Jewish War Veterans, and Casa –
the Hebrew Free Loan Society.
Rabbi Morrison has two sons, Elie Natan and Yonah Ari.
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Rabbi Baruch Frydman-Kohl (Vice-president))
Rabbi Baruch Frydman-Kohl
has been senior rabbi of Beth Tzedec Congregation since 1993. The
focus of his rabbinate has been a commitment to family education and
life-long learning.
In
addition to his congregational responsibilities, Rabbi Frydman-Kohl has
been deeply involved in work with the UJA Federation of Greater
Toronto, the Rabbinic Forum of Keren Hayesod and the Rabbinic Cabinets
of the United Jewish Communities and the State of Israel Bonds. In 2000
he was honoured by the United Jewish Communities with their Rabbinical
Award. He has also been involved with Mazon Canada and the Canadian
Council of Christians and Jews. Within the Conservative Movement, he is
a member of the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Rabbinical
Assembly, served on its Executive and Administrative committees and is
past President of two of its regions. He serves on the Chancellor's
Rabbinic Cabinet of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. Before
coming to Toronto, Rav Baruch served Congregation Ohav Shalom in Albany,
New York, for seventeen years
In June 1992, the Rabbi was awarded a Coolidge Fellowship
by the Association for Religion and Intellectual Life to pursue research
in an inter-faith community at the Episcopal Divinity School at Harvard
University. In 2003 he was awarded the degree of a Doctor of
Divinity. In 2004 he received his doctorate in Jewish Philosophy from
the Jewish Theological Seminary and was named Senior Rabbinic Fellow of
the Shalom Hartman Institute of Jerusalem.
Rabbi Frydman-Kohl is the author of scholarly articles in the area of
Jewish philosophy and mysticism. Some recent publications include "Oy,
Canada" in Conservative Judaism, "Kohanim and Levites" in the Etz Hayim Humash and "The Transmission of the Jewish Tradition" in Ecumenism Magazine.
Rav Baruch and Josette were married in 1970. They are the parents of 3 sons.
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Rabbi Debra Landsberg (Secretary)
Rabbi Debra Landsberg has served Temple Emanu-El since 2001. She is currently a
participant (by invitation) in the Rabbinic Leadership Initiative of
The Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, and has served as a founding
member of the Canadian Association of Muslims and Jews and as the
chairperson of the Coalition of Canadian Rabbis for Same Sex Marriage.
She received her Bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Harvard University
in 1988 (serving as counsellor and co-director of the Harvard/Radcliffe
Response Rape Crisis Center). After moving to New York, Rabbi Landsberg
worked as the senior educator/counsellor at the CAPABLE Project in the
Bronx Psychiatric Center, before being ordained from Hebrew Union
College-Jewish Institute of Religion (1996).
While in Rabbinic school,
she served as Steinhardt Scholar/Rabbinic intern at Vanderbilt
University and pastoral counsellor at the Momentum AIDS Project in New
York. Rabbi Landsberg served 5 years at The Temple in Atlanta, Georgia
before joining us here. She is married to Adam and the mother to
triplets Efi, Noa, and Elie.
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Rabbi David Seed (Treasurer)
Rabbi David Seed is associate rabbi of Adath
Israel Congregation since 2003. He currently serves as the president of
the Ontario Region of the Rabbinical Assembly and also serves on the Social
Action and Resolutions Committees of the international Rabbinical
Assembly. Prior to coming to Toronto, he
was a rabbi in Philadelphia where he also served
as the Rav HaMachshir (Kashrut Supervisor) for the Rabbinical Assembly in Philadelphia.
In his congregational and communal work here
in Toronto,
he has taken an active role in engaging people in acts of social
justice and the doing of gemilut chasadim (deeds of lovingkindness).
Rabbi Seed was ordained in 1983 from the
Jewish Theological Seminary in New York and
also received his Master’s in Social Work from Columbia University
the following year. He is married with three children. |
Contact
Rabbi Shekel by email.
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Rabbi Michal Shekel (Executive Director)
Rabbi Michal Shekel is the executive director of the Toronto
Board of Rabbis and the rabbi of Or Hadash in Newmarket, Ontario.
Ordained at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, she began
her rabbinic studies as a member of the first class of women accepted to the
Jewish Theological Seminary of America. She has served congregations in Ontario, Boston, and New Jersey. Rabbi Shekel also teaches adult classes in Toronto covering a
variety of Jewish topics.
Rabbi Shekel is the original co-editor of the holiday section of
myjewishlearning.com. She is also the author of numerous textbooks used in Jewish
schools throughout North America and has contributed articles to a variety of
Jewish publications such as The Women’s
Torah Commentary (ed. Goldstein, Jewish Lights, 2000). Among the honours
she has received, Rabbi Shekel is the recipient of a Bronfman Rabbinic
Leadership scholarship.
Rabbi Shekel has served as a board member of the Central Conference of
American Rabbis and as the chairperson of the
Reform Rabbis of Greater Toronto. She has also been a board
member of the Canadian Council of Christians and Jews, and the Christian Jewish Dialogue
of Toronto as well as on the boards
of organizations dealing with Jewish continuity and education, outreach,
interfaith issues, racism, and drug and substance abuse. |
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