B.C. event aimed to renew Jewish Renewal movement

Sharing ideas was the order of the day at the Aleph Canada retreat. ALON WEINBERG PHOTO

VANCOUVER — A diverse group of some 75 Jews gathered at Vancouver’s Or Shalom synagogue over the Shabbat of Jan. 16 and 17 to pray and eat together, and to advance the “Jewish Renewal” movement in Canada.

The event was hosted by Aleph Canada, the umbrella group co-ordinating what longtime director Rabbi Daniel Siegel calls “the movement for the spiritual renewal of Judaism.”

Aleph Canada is part of the larger Aleph: Alliance for Jewish Renewal movement started by the late Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi and his students. Rabbi Schachter-Shalomi died in 2014 just shy of his 90th birthday. He was known for his attempt to bridge old-world Judaism with “Aquarian consciousness,” weaving ecology and feminism into a holistic, contemporary Jewish practice. 

At the Vancouver retreat, after each meal, people gathered for rounds of sharing ideas. The Shabbat lunch session was based on Rabbi Siegel having asked congregants during morning prayers to note the parts of the service they connected to and where they felt their values were expressed in the liturgy. There were at least as many perspectives shared as there were people in attendance, consistent with the Renewal methodology of breaking down the divide between rabbi and congregant, teacher and student. 

The various points of view were revisited after Shabbat, when local facilitator Michael Mann documented all that had been discussed over the course of three Shabbat meals. 

Recommendations that emerged for the Aleph Canada board included holding online and telephone courses, organizing annual gatherings that alternate between eastern and western Canada, working on an “aging-to-saging eldering project,” facilitating inter-generational conversations, and holding events to reach young people in less traditional venues.

The Vancouver gathering was the third in Aleph Canada’s series of consultations held across the country. The first, held during the Shabbat of Sukkot, was hosted by Montreal’s B’nai Or community at the Montreal JCC for Jews of Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto. The second, a week later, was held at Regina’s Beth Jacob synagogue, another Aleph affiliate. 

Attending the Vancouver event was Montrealer and B’nai Or’s spiritual leader Rabbi Sherril Gilbert, who is also Aleph Canada’s associate director and playing a larger role as Rabbi Siegel seeks to take a back seat in the day-to-day management of Aleph Canada. 

Rabbi Siegel is hoping to devote more time to realizing a key project of Rabbi Schachter-Shalomi: the Integral Halakhic Institute, a project of the larger, U.S.-based Aleph to be run by Rabbi Siegel from his B.C. home that aims to produce progressive halachic responsa from beyond the bounds of Orthodoxy.

Asked about challenges she faces as interim associate director of Aleph Canada, Rabbi Gilbert said she hoped to have more in-person contact with Renewal-oriented Jews and Jewish communities across Canada. She said her job is to help spread the joy, practices and ruach of Jewish Renewal in Canada.

“There is an increasing recognition [that] Renewal has made inroads into all the denominations and is starting to be accepted as a legitimate resource in progressive Judaism,” Rabbi Gilbert said.