My parents were married at Holy Blossom by Rabbi Abraham Feinberg, my mum was a convert and my dad was the only son of secular Jewish immigrants from Odessa. The photos of my consecration and confirmation hang on the walls in the shul, and my signature is testimony to my youth group days when we snuck into the tower one night in the 1980s. Since then I’ve married my wife, Thuy, in the Youth Chapel, our three kids have been confirmed, and we still find ways to remain connected with our Family Service friends.

I’ve served on our Board of Directors for six years as the Holy Blossom Temple Brotherhood representative while simultaneously sitting as the Brotherhood president. I’ve helped create and run countless programs for all congregants through Brotherhood but my favourite remains the Havdallah potluck music events. In the past, I’ve played rhythm guitar in Cantor Maissner’s Simcha and Neginah bands, taught religious school music for 15 years, co-chaired the Chanukah Committee with Thuy, chanted Torah, Haftarah, and Migilat Esther, participated in a couple of Shpiels, co-led and chanted Yom Kippur Family Services, sat on the House Committee, and done one or two other things around the shul. I was also a tenor in the Toronto Jewish Chorus led by Judy Gershon, and Thuy a soprano.

My professional background is in architecture, however for more than the last twenty years I’ve worked in custom millwork as a project manager, detailer, estimator, and cnc programmer. It’s stressful, highly detailed and demanding work, deadline-driven and budget constrained. As a break from that, in addition to the Holy Blossom stuff, I also fly and instruct in gliders, a passion of mine for the last 31 years. I’ve taught numerous pilot ground schools, mentored both students and licensed pilots, championed our very few female pilots, logged almost 1000 hours, earned an FAI Diamond for a 300km flight last year, raced in many Provincial championships, taught each of our kids to fly, and have flown from many places in Canada, the US, Japan and Israel. When I’m not doing that, I like to travel, bike, hike, walk, paddle, fish, write, draw cartoons, and read prolifically. I am sometimes accused of being humourous.