MONTREAL — The spiritual leadership of Canada’s oldest Jewish congregation has passed into the hands of a guitar-playing, bicycle-riding 30-something rabbi.
Rabbi Schachar Orenstein
Rabbi Schachar Orenstein, 36, is the new rabbi of the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue, succeeding Rabbi Howard Joseph, who has retired after nearly 40 years.
Rabbi Orenstein had been associate rabbi for almost 2-1/2 years, gradually taking over duties from Rabbi Joseph, who continues to play a role as rabbi emeritus. Since returning to Montreal from Vancouver, Rabbi Orenstein has already helped revitalize the synagogue through young adult programming, some of it unconventional, like whitewater rafting and parties where he may pick up his guitar and sing.
He is a committed environmentalist, usually cycles to the synagogue and is a vegetarian. Since his arrival, he has guided the synagogue into greater recycling, energy conservation and waste reduction, and is encouraging his fellow pulpit rabbis to do the same.
“I try to practise what I preach,” he says.
He is the founder of Teva Quebec, a Jewish group concerned with ecology, and for the second year in a row, is leading a cleanup of the Lachine shoreline this month as part of a Canada-wide volunteer project sponsored by TD Bank.
Rabbi Orenstein brings to the Spanish and Portuguese, officially established in 1768, some of the innovative thinking of the small Vancouver synagogue he led for two years, Shaarey Tefilah Synagogue.
Born in Ramat Gan to Israeli parents, Rabbi Orenstein grew up in Winnipeg and attended Joseph Wolinsky Collegiate, the Jewish day school now called Gray Academy.
He thought he would go into medicine and came to Montreal to study at McGill University. Throughout his undergraduate and graduate years, he combined his science major with Jewish studies. He also started attending two local yeshivot, Mercaz Hatalmud and Noam Hatorah.
He was eventually ordained by his two mentors, Rabbi Leib Baron, now living in Jerusalem, and the late Rabbi Joshua Shmidman, as well as two rabbis from Memphis, Tenn.
“I was conflicted for some time over whether to continue in medicine, and I came close to becoming a doctor, but my love of Jewish studies won out,” he said. An offer to become assistant rabbi at Congregation Shaar Hashomayim, Montreal’s largest and most prestigious congregation, helped make up his mind.
He worked from 2001 to 2004 with Rabbi Barry Gelman before being “lured,” as he puts it, to the West Coast shul, which had about 200 members and a more intimate and informal atmosphere than the Shaar. This younger community was environmentally aware, and Rabbi Orenstein joined the Jewish environmental group Adam va-Adamah (Hebrew for man and earth).
“I did everything there: I was Torah reader, cantor, even the cook, making the cholent. The congregation sang a lot and I played the guitar [although not on Shabbat]. It was wonderful training and furthered my development,” he said.
Then came a call from Rabbi Joseph, who was winding down his career, inviting him to apply to become associate rabbi during a transition period before he retired. A native New Yorker, Rabbi Joseph arrived at the Spanish and Portuguese in January 1970, and is credited with building up its membership from a low of under 300 families.
It was another offer Rabbi Orenstein could not refuse.
The Spanish and Portuguese, which has been at its present Snowdon site since 1947, has a culturally diverse membership of about 800, of whom up to 80 per cent are Sephardi.
“It’s a real mosaic,” he said. “There are five services at the High Holidays: Iraqi, Moroccan, Lebanese, Spanish/Portuguese and Ashkenazi, all with different melodies and flavours.” The Ashkenazi presence was boosted a couple of years ago when nearby Congregation Chevra Shaas closed its doors and joined the Spanish and Portuguese, bringing its rabbi, Emanuel White, with it. Although Rabbi Orenstein is Ashkenazi, he has Sephardi ancestors who were expelled from Spain in 1492 and fled to Amsterdam, he notes.
Since arriving, Rabbi Orenstein has focused on attracting young adults to the synagogue. “We’ve had a huge success. We’ve really tapped into the young adult scene, it’s surprising. Facebook has been a helpful tool in reaching out,” he said. The synagogue is now looking to hire a youth director.
Events have attracted up to 150 people and some are becoming congregational members, he added.
Although independent of the synagogue, Teva Quebec has also been a good conduit to young people who like learning that Judaism has much to say about protecting the environment. Its popularity has grown rapidly and now has a staff thanks to a Gen J grant from Federation CJA, relieving Rabbi Orenstein from some of the work. One of its new projects is providing informal education at four Jewish high schools.
Rabbi Orenstein is now trying to make the synagogue a friendly place for young families and their children. He and his wife Meira Alper, who is from Delaware, have a daughter, Chana, 4, and a son, Noam, 1.
