Rabbi Dr. Elyse Goldstein is the Rabbi Emerita of City Shul, a Reform congregation in downtown Toronto she started in 2011, which has grown to prominence as one of the most creative synagogues in Canada.
She broke the “stained glass ceiling” right after her ordination upon her arrival to Toronto in 1983, as the only female Rabbi in all of Canada. She was quickly recognized as a fiery speaker, skilled teacher and social justice advocate. After her first position as Assistant Rabbi at Canada’s largest synagogue of 5,000 families (Holy Blossom Temple) she founded Kolel: The Adult Centre for Liberal Jewish Learning, an adult education institute recognized a leader in Jewish adult education, and was awarded the most prestigious prize in Jewish education, the internationally recognized Covenant Award for Exceptional Jewish Educators, as a result of that work, in 2005.
She was the first woman to be elected as president of the interdenominational Toronto Board of Rabbis and was one of seven women featured in the Canadian National Film Board documentary, “Half the Kingdom.” Her first book, ReVisions: Seeing Torah through a Feminist Lens, won the Canadian National Jewish Book Awards in the field of Bible. Her second and third books,The Women’s Torah Commentary, and The Women’s Haftarah Commentary were the first Bible commentaries in history written by female Rabbis. Her fourth book, New Jewish Feminism: Probing the Past, Forging the Future won finalist in The National Jewish Book Awards. She is a blogger for The Times of Israel and HuffPost.
Rabbi Goldstein acted in the theatre from 2017-2019 inThe Clergy Project, an award-winning show she wrote together with a priest and a minister, about being clergy in the 21st century. This touching and funny piece won them Best of The Fringe Theatre Festival in Toronto.
She graduated Summa Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Brandeis University in 1978, earning her master’s degree from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in 1981 before ordination in 1983, and receiving their Doctor of Divinity, honoris causis in 2008. In 2013 she was named one of America’s 50 Most Influential Rabbis by The Forward and in May 2017 she was awarded Doctor of Laws Honoris Causis from Ryerson University in recognition of her path-breaking work in Canada.
She was honored to be a Chautauqua 2PM Hall of Philosophy speaker in week 8 of the summer season last year and is a Jewish representative on Chautauqua’s new “Future of the Abrahamic Mission Council”.