TORONTO — Rabbi Reuven Tradburks believes that, in addition to his work as spiritual leader of Kehillat Shaarei Torah over the past 15 years, he has filled an important role by “engaging in the broader community.”

Rabbi Reuven Tradburks

The rabbi, 51, who will make aliyah with his wife, Joyce, in mid-August, said that in the right-wing Orthodox community, there are many people “who would not be comfortable engaging in the broader community, but they haven’t begrudged that. They felt it was an important role for someone to do.”

A native of Ottawa, where he attended public school as a youngster, the future rabbi was president of his Reform temple youth group and became interested in becoming more observant when he was a student at Carleton University.

He applied and was accepted to law school three times before deciding that he didn’t want to spend “the best hours of the day doing something I wasn’t that interested in.”

Because Kehillat Shaarei Torah is “a very manageable size,” with approximately 200 families, Rabbi Tradburks, who was ordained at Yeshiva University 23 years ago, has been able to become involved in the Jewish community at large, with the congregation’s support and encouragement, he said.

Referring to the demographics of the synagogue, specifically its high proportion of congregants from South Africa and Montreal, Rabbi Tradburks said, “That’s kind of the South African/Montreal/Ottawa view of the rabbinate. The rabbi is a community figure and needs to be involved in a lot of things outside the shul.”

Noting that some of his Orthodox colleagues “choose not to” interact with the non-Orthodox community, Rabbi Tradburks said that he had become “somewhat of a spokesperson for the Orthodox community.

“I think I expressed the Orthodox point of view in a way that I felt was genuine to Orthodox principles while at the same time I hope being understandable and accessible to people who are not Orthodox.”

As for other Orthodox rabbis whose involvement is limited to the Orthodox community, Rabbi Tradburks said that the Orthodox community is large and has “so many” of its own needs – particularly those related to education and kashrut – that it creates “more than enough urgency” for them to address.

He traces his attitude to his background in Ottawa and Birmingham, Ala., where he served a congregation for seven years before moving back to Canada and joining Kehillat Shaarei Torah. “There’s no question there’s not the luxury of separatism in a smaller community.

“The Orthodox community in Toronto can function beautifully, as it does, not being so engaged with the broader community, whereas in Ottawa, and certainly in Birmingham, that was impossible. You couldn’t have an Orthodox school. You had to have a community school. You had to be involved with the broader community all the time.”

He said living in a smaller community gave him respect for people who were “very passionate Jews” involved in community institutions, but who didn’t necessarily have his religious background.

Reflecting on changes in the Toronto Jewish community since he arrived, Rabbi Tradburks said he believes the religiously weak “are getting weaker and the strong are getting stronger.”

Numbers are growing in the Orthodox community, and its schools and resources are also strengthening, he said.

“To some extent, I feel that that [Orthodox] community is not recognized as fully by the broader Jewish community for the power and resources it can bring to bear on the general Jewish community.”

In the non-Orthodox community, he said, he notes “a weakening of traditional observance.

“I think it goes without saying that there are many tens of thousands of Jews in Toronto whose connection to anything Jewish has pretty much dissipated.”

He said it is tragic that the Jewish community has “almost accepted that weakened connection as just part of modern life.

Ritual observance, he added, is “the most effective way of keeping people strongly connected to Judaism.

“The ideal should be helping people and encouraging people to become more fully engaged in religious ritual life, which includes also ethical behaviours and chesed of all sorts.”