MONTREAL — Rabbi Sidney Shoham, founding rabbi of Beth Zion Congregation, which he served as sole spiritual leader for 50 years, died unexpectedly on Sept. 21 at age 86. He was present and spoke at a cantorial concert at the synagogue the night before.
After his retirement in 2006, the Baltimore native continued in the role of rabbi emeritus until his death.
He also was a leader in other Montreal, national and international Jewish organizations, notably Combined Jewish Appeal, State of Israel Bonds and the Rabbinical Council of America.
“Rabbi Shoham was the leader, mentor, counsellor, friend, teacher and scholar [of Beth Zion] who had the enormous ability to not only build a sanctuary, but a community,” said the congregation’s executive director Eileen Rabinovitch.
When Rabbi Shoham arrived in 1956 fresh out of New York University, Beth Zion was located in a modest house congregants had built in then-undeveloped western Côte St. Luc. It stood amid overgrown fields, with dirt roads and no sidewalks.
He told The CJN on his retirement that he never dreamed he would spend his entire career in Montreal.
But he liked these enthusiastic pioneers, the way they pitched in, sweeping floors and cleaning windows. Indeed, Rabbi Shoham came to think of Beth Zion as his home, too, and collaborated closely with architects on the construction of its present impressive building on Hudson Avenue, on the site of that first cottage.
The young bachelor Rabbi Shoham was instantly popular. Not only could be preach, but he was a great softball player, a home-run king. (He had tried out for the Baltimore Orioles.)
His prowess at the bat drew new members. “I would tell them, if you want me to join your team, join mine.” Membership in the modern Orthodox congregation doubled to 300 six months after he arrived. By the time the sanctuary was completed in 1967, Beth Zion had about 960 members, mostly young families.
In latter years, he continued to be a golfer to be reckoned with.
He married Jewel Naimer two years after his arrival, and they raised three daughters.
People skills were always his strong suit, and over the years, Rabbi Shoham gained a reputation for his pastoral abilities. He helped anyone who sought his counsel, whether a congregant or not. He never shrank from visiting the sick.
Rabbi Shoham’s major at NYU was psychology and, in the early 1960s, he was among 10 clergy, three of them rabbis, who took a four-year course in pastoral psychiatry at the Royal Victoria Hospital’s Allen Memorial Institute in Montreal.
He was the monthly host of Religiously Speaking, a program on CFCF radio for five years, and was a regular on its television spinoff.
“He was… an incomparable talmudic scholar and teacher, but even more so a man with no prejudices, simply a man for all people of all walks of life,” Rabinovitch said.
“His spiritual guidance and love for community, his love and belief in people, his open hand and open heart not only made him the truest of rabbis and a shining example of who and what a rabbi should be, but as a human what one must strive to be.”
Ahead of his time, Rabbi Shoham started a class at Beth Zion in the 1950s for children with special needs.
He advocated for Jewish learning for women and, at its peak, his Tuesday morning Torah class had up to 100 female participants.
Seventeen years ago, he was a founder of Kollel Torah MiTzion Montreal, which offers learning for teens and men and women of all backgrounds.
Rabbi Shoham’s leadership outside the congregation soon grew. He became active in Israel Bonds in the 1960s, and was the first chair of its Canadian Rabbinic Cabinet, a post he held for 10 years. In 1997, he became the first and still only rabbi to serve as chair of Combined Jewish Appeal. He was the rabbinic leader for Quebec of the March of the Living, an educational trip for high school students to Poland and Israel.
Among his awards was an honorary doctorate in 1990 from Yeshiva University, where a chair in rabbinic and community leadership was established in his name.
Rabbi Shoham was descended from rabbinic scholars through both his parents, Rabbi Yechiel and Ethel Shoham. He received ordination at Mesivta Rabbi Chaim Berlin Rabbinical Academy in Brooklyn, N.Y.
His brother Gilbert preceded him in a Montreal pulpit, at Beth Hamedresh Hagadol Congregation.
Rabbi Shoham admitted that, as a youth, he did not want to follow in his brother’s footsteps. “I wanted to be a doctor,” he said, “I loved an old doctor in our town who was dedicated and beloved, who made house calls into the night. I wanted to be like him.”
However, at yeshiva, he discovered among his rabbis models for playing a caring role, and he could emulate them.
“I hope and pray my dear colleague, rabbi, friend and mentor will long be remembered and honoured through his lifetime of intellectual riches and profound legacy for providing much solace, guidance, teachings, inspiration and hope to so many individuals,” Rabinovitch said.
**This story was changed on Sept. 30 to correct Rabbi Shoham's age.