Okanagan Community Installs Rabbi
KELOWNA, B.C. — The Okanagan Jewish Community Association held a ceremony earlier this month to install its new rabbi and to mark its induction into the Union for Reform Judaism.
Some 90 guests came to the Oct. 16 Kabalat Shabbat service at the Okanagan Jewish Community Centre to formally welcome Rabbi Lindsey bat Joseph. On hand were Kelowna, B.C., Mayor Sharon Shepherd, MP Ron Cannan, MLA Steve Thomson, B.C. minister of agriculture and lands, and MLA Ben Stewart, B.C. minister of citizens’ services.
Rabbi bat Joseph, who was spiritual leader of Temple Beth Ora in Edmonton from 1996 to 2007, was ordained by Hebrew Union College in 1996.
Clergy from local Catholic, Anglican and evangelical churches, as well as other dignitaries, also attended.
Niagara School Opens
NIAGARA FALLS, Ont. — Chabad Lubavitch has opened a school in Niagara Falls, Ont. Aleph Champ Hebrew school uses a colour-coded grade system similar to belts in Japanese martial arts. It has 13 students who meet every Sunday morning in office space over a Royal Bank north of the city’s tourist area, the school’s instructors, Rabbi Zalman Zaltzman and his wife, Perla, told the Niagara Falls Review. The school opened last month, but an official ribbon-cutting ceremony was held Oct. 18.
