TORONTO — Rabbi Steven Schwarzman, who is about a month into his two-year contract as the spiritual leader of Shaar Shalom Synagogue in Thornhill, Ont., said he is optimistic about the shul’s future, despite challenges it has faced in recent years.
“Shaar Shalom… is a community that is poised for growth. It sounds cliché, but it really is. And I don’t mean only in numerical growth, but internal growth. It is a shul that hadn’t had a rabbi for a year, and people are hungry, I think, to really grow and develop more of the wonderful things that are already happening here,” said Rabbi Schwarzman, who comes to the Toronto Conservative shul following three-year stints leading congregations in Bangor, Maine, and Worcester, Mass., respectively.
Rabbi Schwarzman, 54, who left behind a job as a technical writer and trainer for an Israeli software company to pursue a career as a rabbi, was ordained in 2008 at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York.
“I moved around with the company, starting with them in Israel – where I lived and where I met my wife and our first child was born – to a bunch of [American cities]… It became an international company, and back in North America… I wanted to re-integrate my passion for Jewish life into my day job,” he explained.
“I revisited the decision I had made 20 years before, when I made aliyah, that if I hadn’t made aliyah, I would have applied for rabbinical school.”
Rabbi Schwarzman cited Toronto’s “exciting” Jewish community as one of the reasons he was interested in serving as Shaar Shalom’s rabbi, but also acknowledged some challenges he might face in his new role.
In 2012, the shul’s executive and board of governors decided not to renew the contract of Rabbi Martin Berman, who had led the congregation for 18 years. Rabbi Berman sued for wrongful dismissal. The case was settled out of court, and he remained the shul’s spiritual leader until the summer of 2013.
The synagogue’s membership had already been on a decline, dropping from about 600 families in 2007 to the 400 member families it has today.
Rabbi Schwarzman said he is committed to bringing the membership numbers back up.
“It’s important for two reasons. Everyone is aware that you need numbers to pay the bills, but there is a deeper reason too. You need a critical mass to have an energy in the room. One of the things I place as my highest priority is building that sense of energy in the room… It’s not only about how many members we have, but also about the intensity about what happens inside,” he said.
“I think our numbers are not going to be going up dramatically. I don’t think we’re going to become a 3,000-member shul, and that’s not our goal. I think we’re happy to be small enough where we know each other, but bouncing back up to where we have been, now that there is a rabbi on board.”
One of things Rabbi Schwarzman hopes will attract new members is the decision the congregation made last year to change its constitution to allow for concurrent egalitarian and traditional Shabbat services.
“It’s a shul that is committed to traditional prayer and, as you know, it’s committed to looking into offering egalitarian prayer also. Not instead, but also. And that’s a very exciting thing. Because, as a rabbi, I’m looking for ways to help people plug into Judaism, and to offer additional ways is a good thing,” he said.
“It is not at all my ambition to change what works. The last thing I would ever want to be is the ugly American tourist planting some flag here.”
Rabbi Schwarzman said he recognizes that Canada’s Conservative community is more traditional than the one in the United States, and he is encouraged by it.
“With a greater tradition here, I have found, there comes a great amount of knowledge. It’s not blind practice, it’s not blind adherence to rituals that no one understands. On the contrary, there is a great commitment here – and that is incredibly exciting to a rabbi.”