Hands across the divide Rabbi Elyse Goldstein on her legacy of linking lives and what the future holds.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY SHLOMI AMIGA EXCLUSIVELY FOR THE CANADIAN JEWISH NEWS
I ’ll never forget the day in 1983 when I arrived as a brand-new rabbi to Holy Blos- som Temple in Toronto. Did I mention I am a female rabbi? My first morning on the job: I am chastised by the senior rabbi’s secretary to never again wear open-toed sandals as they are “too sexy” (it was 30-degrees that day). I am invited to the nearby Conservative synagogue to meet their young assistant and am not allowed as a female to ascend the bimah to see their Torah scrolls. The upcoming bar mitzvah family has re- quested to not have me officiate because it would bother their Orthodox relatives.
I am asked to speak at three different Hadassah chapters on what it feels like to be a “lady rabbi.” My secretary has fielded two phone calls asking me out for a date, a TV show request- ing a debate with a Catholic priest on wheth- er or not I am “allowed” to be a rabbi, and an irate congregant asking how long my contract is for, with the closing line, “Well, maybe she won’t last.” The interdenominational Toronto Board of Rabbis is deciding/debating whether or not they can invite me to sit with them. (Years later I will be elected their first female presi- dent, but that is a story for another day.)
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