Rabbi Elyse Goldstein

Rabbi Elyse Goldstein is the founding Rabbi and as of June 2024, Rabbi Emerita, of City Shul, downtown Toronto’s Reform congregation. Before that, for twenty years, she was the director of Kolel: The Adult Centre for Liberal Jewish Learning. She is the author/editor of four books on women and Judaism (published by Jewish Lights Publishing). You can visit her website.

Home sanctuary setup of a table in front of a window bearing a laptop surrounded by flowers and Jewish ritual objects like a prayer book and candlesticks

How to Turn Your Home into a Sanctuary for the High Holidays

Rabbi Elyse Goldstein

September 3, 2020

Like our ancestors before us, we must again bring worship “inside” and create a sacred space at home while we are in front of our computers.

Why I Love the “Once-a-Year" Jews

Rabbi Elyse Goldstein

September 10, 2015

I imagine how Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur services feel to shul regulars: a fashion-show of strangers, preening, talking, walking in and out, coming late, and leaving early. It’s a bad theater scene, with people exiting before or even during the final act. It

Five Easy Steps for Keeping Passover Simple

Rabbi Elyse Goldstein

March 30, 2015

Passover can be overwhelming. Why not simplify it? Here are five easy tips for reconnecting with the meaning of the holiday.

Seven Shiva Lessons from My Mom

Rabbi Elyse Goldstein

August 5, 2014

My mother passed away on Rosh Chodesh Iyar – May 1, 2014. It’s fair to say she was a legend in the Reform Jewish community. For 21 years, she was the director of the National Federation of Temple Youth (NFTY), and for 12 summers, she held court at her faculty

Why I Marched, as a Rabbi, at the World Pride Parade

Rabbi Elyse Goldstein

July 7, 2014

I mentioned to someone a few weeks ago that I would be marching at the World Pride Parade taking place at the end of June in my hometown of Toronto. We’d be marching under a City Shul banner with Kulanu, Toronto’s Jewish LGBTQ social, cultural, and educational