On Mar. 27, Beth Torah Congregation filed a lawsuit in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, alleging that Rabbi Louis J. Sachs, who had recently left the shul to work at another one nearby, had breached his contract and caused financial damages lost memberships.
Rabbi Sachs—who began officially working as a rabbi at nearby Beth Sholom Synagogue on Eglinton Ave. W. in midtown Toronto in November—says he has been trying to ignore the “noise” of the surprise lawsuit by his former employer. Beth Torah has asked the court for $750,000 in damages.
None of the allegations have been proven in court, and Rabbi Sachs disagrees that he violated his contract by allegedly slacking off of his duties while doing events for the new shul before officially leaving his old one. In his view, he gave Beth Torah plenty of notice. He explains why he left after a little more than two years in the position: partly, because he was dissatisfied at having to handle so much administration work. His new synagogue has more staff, he says, freeing him up to focus on his rabbinic and pastoral mission.
Rabbi Sachs spoke to Ellin Bessner of The CJN Daily to explain how he intends to clear his name in court and what his message is to both congregations. Also on the episode, you’ll hear from Beth Sholom’s president, Margaret Lindzon, and from Rabbi Avi Finegold, The CJN’s resident rabbi, on why rabbis leave their congregations. The CJN reached out to Beth Torah, which declined to comment. Read the lawsuit and background here.
Transcript
Transcripts are AI-generated and may contain errors.
Rabbi Louis J. Sachs: What does it mean this time of year when someone asks us for forgiveness? Are we required to give it? Are we obligated to just immediately forgive someone whenever they ask?
Ellin Bessner: That’s the voice of Rabbi Louis Sachs in a Facebook video from last September, promoting an upcoming class he’d be teaching for members of Toronto’s Beth Sholom Synagogue. The topic was forgiveness. It was in preparation for the 2024 High Holidays. Last fall, Beth Sholom would officially welcome Rabbi Sachs to their clergy team only after the High Holidays ended in late October, because until then, Sachs was winding up his two-year stint as the rabbi at Beth Torah Congregation, where he’d already given his notice, but who was still paying his salary. That video and some other Beth Sholom announcements about his hiring are at the heart of a lawsuit Beth Torah lodged last month against Rabbi Sachs and his new synagogue, Beth Sholom, a ten-minute drive away. Beth Torah filed the case in Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice on March 27, and none of the lawsuit’s allegations have been proven in court. Beth Torah is asking the court to award it $750,000 for breach of contract and for damages they say they’ve suffered in lost membership now and in the future. They allege Sachs shifted his energies, not visiting the sick or the bereaved, doing programs for the new synagogue that he didn’t do for Beth Torah, while they and their members assumed he was still working for them. Sachs calls the lawsuit a surprise and deeply disappointing. He disagrees with the allegations, he says, and vows to defend his name and his reputation. The court was told both synagogues agreed he would leave officially only at the end of October. But Sachs says he’d informed his board well in advance, eight months earlier, that he was resigning and going somewhere else.
Rabbi Louis J. Sachs: I think people fear for the future of synagogues. It’s North America. It’s not just here in Canada. We’re seeing it all across North America, and it’s a lot easier to blame a person than to address the problems that are facing all of our institutions. And I feel that’s what’s really being overshadowed in all of this.
Ellin Bessner: Hello, I’m Ellin Bessner, and this is what Jewish Canada sounds like for Thursday, April 17, 2025. Welcome to The CJN Daily, a podcast of the Canadian Jewish News, made possible in part thanks to the generous support of the Ira Gluskin and Maxine Granovsky Gluskin Charitable Foundation.
Fresh from a hectic Passover weekend, assisting Beth Sholom’s senior rabbi in conducting services and running a community, Rabbi Louis Sachs says he has been trying to ignore what he calls “the noise” of the surprise lawsuit. Beth Sholom boasts between 1,000 and 1,500 member families, four times as many as Beth Torah’s. Sachs maintains he did nothing wrong. In 2022, his Beth Torah Passover magazine welcomed him publicly as their incoming rabbi nearly three months before Sachs was officially on staff.
Sachs came to Beth Torah in July 2022 after that synagogue abruptly parted ways with its longest-serving rabbi after nearly 24 years. At the time, Sachs had been working across town at Beth Tikvah as an assistant rabbi, his first job fresh out of rabbinical school in California. He stayed at Beth Tikvah for five years, and Beth Torah gave him his first solo pulpit. He says he soon discovered Beth Torah didn’t have enough office staff to handle all the admin work, so he had to do it on top of his rabbinical duties.
Beth Torah’s lawyer declined to speak to The CJN, and no one from the synagogue staff or board has replied to our requests for an interview. Last week, the president issued a communique to members explaining why they’d taken the legal route and suggested efforts are still being made to resolve the matter.
Rabbi Louis Sachs joins me now to share his side of the story. Happy Passover. Welcome to The CJN Daily.
Rabbi Louis J. Sachs: Happy Passover, Ellin. Thank you for having me.
Ellin Bessner: Can you tell us, Rabbi, what your first reaction was when you learned that you were being sued?
Rabbi Louis J. Sachs: I was surprised. I knew there were those there in the leadership that were deeply disappointed and upset by my choosing to leave, but I really had hoped that we had left on good enough terms that it wouldn’t come to things like this. I was particularly surprised because I feel that they were the ones who breached my contract, and I was owed things. But the truth of it is I’m looking to just move forward. I don’t want to focus on the past, and I want to serve my new community to the best of my ability. And I really wish just all the best for the membership and the leadership at Beth Torah and hope that they can move forward as well. In terms of the details of this lawsuit, I can’t go into that. They’ve chosen to do this publicly, which I’m deeply disappointed by. I wish we could have resolved this with a Beit Din or mediation, but this is the route that they’ve chosen, and I just look forward to being able to clear my name when the time comes in court.
Ellin Bessner: When you go to rabbinical school, and in all your rabbi training, what do they teach you about how to transition from one job to another, and how that’s supposed to work, to be ethical, to be fair, and also abide by contract? Or do they not train you?
Rabbi Louis J. Sachs: It’s always complex, rabbinic transitions. It’s difficult for a community when someone they’ve grown close to, when the leader of the community leaves. Rabbis leave for a variety of reasons. Sometimes it’s after a long career, it’s retirement. Other times, it’s time just to move on, to find another role. And it’s always difficult for people to say goodbye to someone like that. It was difficult for me to say goodbye. I have wonderful relationships and memories with so many at Beth Torah and appreciate those who’ve been reaching out and the support from them. It was just ultimately the right time and the right choice for me and my family to look at a different position.
In terms of the process, every rabbi has different contracts and different provisions. I fully believe that I gave the notice as required in my contract. I let the leadership know, even over a month beforehand, that I was going to be applying to another position in early January. I’m still just surprised that they would go this route.
Ellin Bessner: What was it that made this new place in Beth Sholom so attractive that you wanted to leave? What happened over the period that made you decide that maybe Beth Sholom was a better fit for you and your family?
Rabbi Louis J. Sachs: I don’t want to go into too much detail because both communities, I have a lot of just wonderful feelings about. You know, I’m very excited to be in my new community. I’ve received a wonderful and a warm welcome from just an amazing group of people. At the same time, I have such wonderful relationships and memories with so many at Beth Torah. I don’t want to compare the two, really, but like I said, it was a wonderful experience getting to go there and to work with that community. I was really excited after being a rabbi for five years to get to use the skills and the knowledge that I had learned from a wonderful mentor at another synagogue and getting to use those and put them to work in my own community. I really enjoyed the opportunity to get to do that, being part of a small synagogue. However, when you’re the only full-time clergy and one of just a couple of full-time employees, I found that I spent a lot of my time doing other work beyond what I went to become a rabbi for. I was looking then for an opportunity to focus on teaching, on pastoral care, on preaching, on doing the things that I went to rabbinical school to do, rather than worrying about a lot of the administrative and outside parts of the job. The opportunity to work with an incredible team of fellow clergy, like there are here at Beth Sholom, and as part of a larger staff where I can focus not on some of the behind-the-scenes work, but to get to do the work where I get to actually sit with families, sit with students, sit with adults, sit with kids and just be involved in the rabbinic side of things and make that my full-time focus was something that I wanted to do. I have a young family, and I was looking for the opportunity to be able to spend more time with them as well, to be there with my own family and not have as many late nights worrying about publications and other things that needed to get out of the synagogue.
Ellin Bessner: Work-life balance? As much as a rabbi can be.
Rabbi Louis J. Sachs: Well, that’s a better way of phrasing it.
Ellin Bessner: There’s some things that in the lawsuit the other side said. Are there things you want to correct, maybe clear the air on?
Rabbi Louis J. Sachs: I don’t want to speak to particular details about the lawsuit itself. There’s a lot in it that I disagree with and I look forward to the opportunity to be able to present my side of it when that time comes.
Ellin Bessner: How common is this in your general world of rabbinical friends where synagogues sue rabbis and sue the other synagogues?
Rabbi Louis J. Sachs: Like I said, it’s always complicated when a rabbi leaves a community. Rabbinic transitions can be difficult for communities, but for it to come to this is something I personally don’t know of. Other cases and other rabbis I’ve spoken to have shared with me more or less the same reaction, just shock and surprise that it would come to this. I know members were upset by my departure, and I don’t take it personally. I understand the emotional reaction for many; their parents, their grandparents, they helped to build that synagogue. It’s where they celebrated milestones. They pictured their kids and grandkids growing up there, celebrating their own milestones. It’s sacred, it’s personal, and I understand that. Ultimately, I feel sorry for the people caught in the middle of all of this—the congregants of both communities who just want their synagogues to be a place of comfort and community. I want to be able to focus on the people that we’re supposed to be serving, and I worry this noise is going to overshadow that.
Ellin Bessner: You said you heard from a lot of people who’ve reached out to you. What have they said?
Rabbi Louis J. Sachs: I’ve been working now in Toronto as a rabbi for almost eight years, since I graduated from rabbinical school in 2017. And I’m a human being. My work isn’t perfect. There are relationships and moments that I wish I could have done better at. But for the most part, throughout it all, I’ve served everyone to the best of my ability, and I think that the relationships I’ve built speak for themselves. I’ve had many reach out to me from my previous synagogues and many in the larger community that I’ve come across throughout, celebrating life cycle events and other moments. People I’ve sat with at Shiva or been with at funerals have reached out to offer their support, and my family and I deeply appreciate that. It means a lot. I think ultimately my biggest fear in all of this is that, you know, my name. I can’t get back. Once it’s been tarred and feathered, it’s hard to get that back. And it’s just been really meaningful to hear from so many that, as far as they’re concerned, my name means what it always has meant to them.
Ellin Bessner: Does this lawsuit kind of touch on the tip of the iceberg of a problem of Conservative synagogues now where they’re so worried that people are going to another synagogue, that theirs is at stake? There’s been a lot of merger talks in the community. Your old, old synagogue was thinking of merging. You know, what does this say about the health of Conservative synagogues in this community?
Rabbi Louis J. Sachs: It’s no secret that religious institutions, not just Jewish, but across the faiths, are having struggles when it comes to reaching the next generation in the same way that the past generation engaged. And I don’t know that that’s necessarily a bad thing. Institutions have always changed, even religious ones, and they continue to grow. It’s going to be about reinventing and rethinking how we engage with people to figure out how we can reach the next generation. They want the same spiritual connection that their parents and grandparents had, but they might need a different way to have that connection. While on the one hand, it’s true that the institutions that were developed in the last hundred years are struggling in many ways with getting the same numbers they used to. There are sanctuaries across North America that sit empty for most of the year.
At the same time, it’s also, I think, a little bit exciting because we’re going to be a part of figuring out what we do to get that next generation. How do we reinvent ourselves? How do we see Judaism continue to grow and renew itself? And that’s an exciting time period, I think, to be living in. There’s a lot of possibility for the future, but it’s going to take us as a people standing together, and us as a group of institutions across this city and North America as well, to work together, to find the best practices, to help each other out, to support each other, and I think that’s going to be the way forward. There are lots of exciting things happening right now and lots of synagogues, and I look forward to getting to be a part of that as well.
Ellin Bessner: Thank you for that. Is there anything else that you’d like our audience and our listeners to understand about this story?
Rabbi Louis J. Sachs: There’s a Jewish value, Kol Israel Arevim Ze ba Ze. That all of us are connected to each other. Ultimately, even in times of disagreement, I hope that we can all act with the kind of care and responsibility that’s necessary to recognize how our actions affect the greater good in the larger Jewish community. This is a time, as we remember the exodus from Egypt and we celebrate Passover. Our ancestors left, not individually, but they left as a group. They had to stand together to survive. And I hope that we can rise up to the challenge of today, to stand together, to find unity, even in moments like this that are difficult.
Ellin Bessner: Appreciate you giving us your side of the story, Rabbi Sacks.
Rabbi Louis J. Sachs: Thank you so much, Ellin. I really appreciate it.
Ellin Bessner: Beth Sholom’s president, Margaret Lindzon, says they did nothing wrong and originally had tried to settle the matter in other ways, but it was Beth Torah who refused. She’s upset the dispute between two neighboring synagogues has gone, especially because the court documents reveal the rabbi’s private financial information.
Ellin Bessner: It’s unusual for human resources issues from shuls to go to court. Did it come as a surprise out of the blue, or did you kind of know something was coming?
Margaret Lindzon: Well, certainly a lawsuit for a dispute in the Jewish community is not the first place that one goes. Generally, this is something that’s handled by a Beit Din or, alternately, a mediator. We offered many options for that, and this is what they chose to do instead since we couldn’t come to a conclusion on the details around that.
Ellin Bessner: And so what is Beth Sholom going to do about it?
Margaret Lindzon: We are definitely going to defend it. We do not feel that there is merit in the lawsuit.
Ellin Bessner: What would you like your congregation to know about the impact of this?
Margaret Lindzon: Well, I’d like them to know that, as always, they can expect us to act in good faith and integrity. We are not in any way at fault in the situation. In fact, I believe that at every milestone along the way, we have acted in good faith, in good communication, and in support of another member of our community.
Ellin Bessner: What does this say about the state of Conservative shuls in our city?
Margaret Lindzon: I’m not sure I really can answer that question for you, in the sense that we don’t have any understanding of why they would bring this case to us, why they would want to sue another shul, or why they might want to damage a rabbi’s reputation. I can say that we continue to have a stable membership and are growing. We have over 50% of our members under 50, and our school program is growing. Our family programs are always packed. We have excellent seniors’ programs that are well attended every week. So, I don’t see a problem for shuls in Toronto. I feel like young families, since October 7th, are turning back to their community and wanting to impress. They may not want to fill the seats on Shabbat every week, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have a connection to their synagogues.
Ellin Bessner: What would be your preferred outcome for Beth Sholom?
Margaret Lindzon: My ideal outcome would be that Beth Torah would agree to go before Beit Din and just solve this within rabbinical law. Alternatively, that we could find mediation and resolve it that way. I don’t think this is a matter that should be before the courts because I don’t think it’s good for our community in these very antisemitic times. And I don’t think the outcome should be on public record in that same way. I don’t think it’s good for them, and I don’t think it’s good for anybody. In this day and age, besmirching the reputation of any rabbi or person serving our community doesn’t sit well on my moral compass.
Ellin Bessner: So how common is this for synagogues to sue their rabbis this way? Not very, says The CJN’s Rabbi Avi Finegold, a Montrealer who now works in the Chicago area, from where he hosts The CJN’s “Not in Heaven” podcast and writes for the magazine. Finegold says times are changing, though.
Rabbi Avi Finegold: Is it common for rabbis to enter into talks with other congregations while they’re still employed by the initial congregation? All the time! Because you’re hoping to not be unemployed, and if you’re looking to make a switch, you have to talk to people elsewhere to see what’s going on.
I’ve heard where someone will go in for a Shabbat as a scholar in residence, without saying anything, where the first shul knows about it and it’s public, but not many other people know that it is really a job interview. Or, you know, they’ll go away for a Shabbat off and visit a synagogue, but try not to talk to anybody about it, just trying to get a sense of what’s going on and then have some meetings and keep quiet. But that happens all the time. I feel like that’s inevitable when you’re trying to leave a congregation.
Ellin Bessner: Why would rabbis want to do that?
Rabbi Avi Finegold: Anytime you have a movement or you have rabbis that are within a given set of synagogues, you often get out of rabbinical school and either start as an assistant at a larger congregation or as a senior rabbi, as the only rabbi in a very small congregation. And you work your way up. You become the assistant at a larger congregation, then the assistant at an even larger congregation, eventually. For a long time—I don’t know the exact details because I was never officially a member of the Rabbinical Assembly, but the Rabbinical Assembly had very specific ways in which you could move up the ranks. And rabbis are always looking for that. I think rabbis used to have a position, and they stuck with it. They were happy to have a congregation; those were their people, and they became their rabbi, their leader, and led. That was their place.
Ellin Bessner: Yeah, yeah.
Rabbi Avi Finegold: And now rabbis have gotten to a point where they want to see it as a career, like anybody else. And why would you not want to move up to a more prestigious position or one that’s going to pay you a lot more, or a place that’s more vibrant instead of one that’s—what you might perceive as—a little less than? I have no idea what these congregations are like. I’m not making judgments; I’m just talking.
Ellin Bessner: Yeah, we’re not casting aspersions. But what if it’s not a good fit? You get to the new congregation, and you’re like, oh, this isn’t working. This isn’t what I thought.
Rabbi Avi Finegold: Your first couple of jobs out of rabbinical school are often not the perfect fit for you. You go where they are willing to have you and where you think you’re willing to go, in some sense, and that’s it. But as you get older and develop experience, you know more about your own career and preferences, and more about yourself. You start looking for places that might be more ideal. Ideally, this happens at the end of a contract, without hard feelings on either side. Most of the time, there are no hard feelings. There are definitely times where there are, where one congregation feels they were taken advantage of for some reason. But that’s the nature of what happens in the private sector as well. It’s no different in the Jewish community. It used to be way beyond the pale for synagogues to sue other synagogues. We don’t do that. But it’s happening more and more. I think it’s started creeping in. It’s not unheard of.
Ellin Bessner: In your experience, when you say it’s not a good fit, is that because sometimes it’s mostly the board members and the laypeople who drive the rabbi out, or is it just a liturgical ritual issue where they don’t align their beliefs? Do you know what I mean?
Rabbi Avi Finegold: There are so many different factors. Sometimes the rabbi loves the congregation but doesn’t get along with the board or even just the president. Sometimes the board and the rabbi are really aligned, but the congregation doesn’t see the rabbi as a leader. That’s an issue. Sometimes everyone likes each other, but religiously, it’s not a good fit because the rabbi feels certain things aren’t there that align with their lifestyle, so they have to move on. I’m sure there is a rabbi in history who has said, “Listen, the house you gave me and the office I’m in at the shul is so bad that I have to leave.” Sometimes it’s something really small, and who’s going to fault them? That’s what happens in the private sector too. Like I said, you know, there are, I’m sure, plenty of accountants that jump ship because they don’t get along with their manager or their, the staff below them.
Ellin Bessner: Is that something you’ve ever heard of, that a rabbi makes or breaks membership signups?
Rabbi Avi Finegold: It is very often the case where a rabbi is looked to as somebody who’s going to grow a community, right? If the rabbi is the figure that people look to and you are a very charismatic individual, people are going to join a congregation because they want to be, you know, there because you’re doing something great. I’ve seen rabbis boost membership significantly, and I’ve seen rabbis do the opposite, right? They’re good people, but they’re just not the people person that they were expecting, and the membership drops. They’re not so into this person. And that’s a big part of what you have to ask yourself: Are we the kind of congregation that rises or falls based on how incredible our rabbi is, or are we a congregation that comes together because we’re a congregation and it doesn’t matter who the rabbi is? We want a great rabbi. But if the rabbi isn’t the greatest, we’re still going to be part of this because we believe in the community.
Ellin Bessner: And that’s what Jewish Canada sounds like. For this episode of The CJN Daily, made possible thanks to the generous support of the Ira Gluskin and Maxine Granovsky Gluskin Charitable Foundation.
While Beth Torah’s lawsuit continues, the synagogue is itself facing some legal action. Two of its own staff have filed a case with the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal, alleging discrimination. They allege that around the time Rabbi Sacks left, they took medical leave on doctor’s orders and claim the school has been repeatedly violating their human rights, asking for inappropriate medical information and harassing them because they have disabilities.
The CJN Daily is produced by Zachary Judah Kauffman and Andrea Varsany. The executive producer is Michael Fraiman, the editorial director is Marc Weisblott, and the music is by Dov Beck Levine. Thanks for listening.
Show Notes
Credits
- Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner)
- Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Marc Weisblott (editorial director)
- Music: Dov Beck-Levine
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