Wednesday, June 12, 2024
From Cantor David Rosen & Rabbi Eliza McCarroll
For those of you who took part in the UJA’s walk with Israel this past Sunday, perhaps you too felt a sense of solidarity that was both empowering and embracing. The sight of 50,000 people walking to show their support not only for Israel but for our local and global Jewish community just felt so right…something that all of us need during a time when we have been feeling quite isolated. It was also so wonderful to see many non-Jewish participants who came to show their solidarity and support.
Despite the dark cloud that hovers over our people and the State of Israel, we also know that music can play an integral part in making us feel whole at times when we feel broken. As the Chassidic teaching, found in our Siddur Pirchei Kodesh, goes: “Say your prayer in the melody that is most pleasant and sweet for you … because the melody will draw your heart after the words spoken from your mouth”. This speaks to the power of music to say and make us feel things that words alone sometimes cannot accomplish. It can also bring faiths and different beliefs together through song and harmony, something that every one of us can feel good about.
Over the next 5 days, Holy Blossom will welcome Cantor Pavel Roytman from Chicago along with his “Kol Zimrah, Community Choir of Chicago.” Cantor Roytman will join us for Friday night and Saturday morning services and his choir will be here next Tuesday, June 18th as we present, “Journey of Sacred Sound,” a concert celebrating the diversity and depth of sacred music from four different faith communities. The concert will feature a 120-voice combined choir (including our own Temple Singers) and will take place at Timothy Eaton Memorial Church at 7:30 pm. No registration or tickets are required and there is a suggested $20 donation that one can make at the door.
We are very grateful to Elaine Choi, Music Director of Timothy Eaton and Reverend Jason Byassee, who along with their community, have continued to open their doors in support of the Jewish community and Israel since October 7th and have graciously offered to host this concert. The concert will feature new compositions as well as familiar works, including excerpts from the incredible Ernest Bloch, “Avodat Hakodesh” – “Sacred Service’.
As another Chassidic saying teaches: “there are castles in the upper spheres which only open to song”. There is no doubt that the glorious voices of these wonderful singers will open the heavens to the incredible sound of these faith communities coming together in song and solidarity.
Please click here for concert details: https://holyblossom.org/journey-of-sacred-sound/
In addition to the evening concert at Timothy Eaton Memorial Church, the “Kol Zimrah, Community Choir of Chicago” will be performing at Holy Blossom Temple earlier that day, June 18th, at 11 am, for a special Dorot program and lunch in the Mishkan. It will be a fun “practice run” for our choirs and a meaningful collaboration event for our Wisdom Generation. If you would like to join us for this event, please click the link below to register.
https://holyblossom.org/event/dorot-presents-kol-zimra-jewish-community-choir/
In addition to the evening concert on June 18th at Timothy Eaton Memorial Church, the “Kol Zimrah, Community Choir of Chicago, will also be performing at Holy Blossom Temple earlier in the day at 11:00 am for a special Dorot program and Lunch in the Mishkan. If you would like to join us for this event, please click the link below to register.
https://holyblossom.org/event/dorot-presents-kol-zimra-jewish-community-choir/
Saturday, June 8, 2024
Friday, June 7, 2024
By Susan Cohen
As we approach Holy Blossom’s annual Pride Shabbat on June 14th, we look back at 1980s Toronto and the rise of HIV-AIDS. Toronto seemed safe, growing, multicultural, even a little innocent. But under Rabbi Dow Marmur, Holy Blossom championed emerging social issues. One of the most challenging was HIV-AIDS, a disease which emerged first among gay men and left many not just ill and dying but ostracized from their communities.
The synagogue took on the task of galvanizing the broad Jewish community. An extraordinary group of volunteers from the synagogue partnered together to bring AIDS support out in the open. Acting on Jewish tradition and the belief that people with AIDS “should not become strangers in their own land”, Holy Blossom created the first direct Jewish community support program, AIDS: A Jewish Response, in Canada.
With partners such as 519 Church St. and Jewish Family and Child Service, Holy Blossom trained volunteers to offer support – financial, practical, social and spiritual. One of the most important initiatives was The Third Seder, a community-wide Passover meal with a unique Haggadah. It ran for almost a decade and at its height, attracted more than 250 people.
Holy Blossom created an Aids Assist Outreach buddy system and held special memorials to acknowledge and honour those who lost their lives. Temple Brotherhood and Sisterhood provided funds and volunteers while HABSTY members proudly helped at events. Today Pride Shabbat at Holy Blossom celebrates an inclusive Jewish identity and Holy Blossom members and staff march in the annual Pride Parade.
Two treasures in Holy Blossom’s archives from that era are a special hand-stitched quilt and rainbow suspenders. The late Sybil Geller created the colourful quilt in honour of Yale Aaron Lampe, her son-in-law’s brother. Yale died in 1991, relatively early, and the family wanted to bring attention to the people behind the statistics. The rainbow suspenders were worn at the Pride Parade in 2015 by the late Nancy Ruth, a former president of the temple.
(The Archives Committee receives inquiries regularly. We invite you to contact us about this or other areas of interest at: [email protected]. We are always interested in learning and sharing more about our remarkable history. We also encourage you to examine the archival displays in the Schwartz-Reisman Atrium.)
Friends,
Many of you have volunteered with us on the Ve’ahavta Van and signed up to do so again this year. Others of you work in their kitchen, support them with tzedakah, or funded their efforts through last year’s Gifts of Light concert.
We just received news that, last week, Ve’ahavta volunteers and staff were targeted by hateful and cowardly antisemites. Volunteers were accosted by an anti-Israel protestor as they were feeding the homeless, and the digital portal – which allows people to sign up for shifts caring for the poor – was the target of a malicious and disgusting digital hate campaign.
In response, Cari Kozierok, CEO of Ve’ahavta, has prepared a statement for the Mayor and City Council. She is asking that you, the concerned members of our community who have volunteered and supported the good work of feeding the hungry and clothing the homeless, help amplify this message. You can email the Mayor, our city councillor Josh Matlow, and all the other city councillors the following:
Dear Mayor Chow and Councillor [X],
My name is [X] and I support the Jewish charity, Ve’ahavta, which helps people of all faiths and backgrounds who are facing poverty and homelessness. At present, their good work, which benefits the most vulnerable people in our city, is being adversely affected by the rise in antisemitism in our city.
See their statement here.
I want to know what are you going to do to address the dangerous rise in antisemitism and antisemitic hate speech that we are seeing in the city of Toronto?
Signed,
[your name]
Thank you for lending us your voice and standing with our ally Ve’Ahavta!
Rabbi Samuel Kaye, Associate Rabbi and Megan Stephens, Volunteer Coordinator
1950 Bathurst Street, Toronto, ON, M5P 3K9
(416) 789-3291
[email protected]
Emergency Funeral Contact
Cell: 416-565-7561
Founded in 1856, Holy Blossom Temple is Toronto’s first synagogue with a rich history of tradition and modernity in our religious and spiritual expression.