DJC Blog

My sister is regularly my teacher. With a commitment to engaging in substantive steps toward reconciliation with Indigenous peoples, she has started a new practice when she leads workshops on Unconscious Bias (which she does regularly). Rather than sharing a Land Acknowledgement, she begins with a Pledge. The Pledge is an evolving statement of specific commitments to learning, […]

This is a pivotal time to contribute your skills and creativity to strengthening the DJC. Along with the Rabbi and the staff leadership team, Board members provide leadership and strategic direction to ensure the health, vitality, organizational effectiveness, governance, and financial stability of the DJC. Board members are appointed for 2-year terms and can serve […]

This Saturday night and Sunday, Jews around the world will stand at the foot of Mount Sinai together, listening. It is the holyday of Shavuot. Exactly seven weeks from the second night of Pesach, we celebrate the collective and communal experience of revelation and the giving of the Torah. This is a unique feature of […]

“Are we there yet?” I remember my own impatience as a child, traveling in the back seat of the car (or the back back seat of the 1976 Dodge Aspen Wagon) on family road trips, feeling such anticipation and excitement about the destination and so much frustration about the time it took to get there. […]

Updated July 20th, 2023 Guidelines We are committed to being an inclusive community. We ask that you do everything to ensure that the most vulnerable among us can safely and reliably attend services. The DJC COVID-19 policy has been developed to reflect the current requirements of Toronto Public Health, our partners in the Danforth Multi-faith […]

By: Heather Cohen and Eve-Lynn Stein In honour of World Refugee Day on April 4, acknowledging the war in Ukraine, and in recognition of Passover and its themes of wandering in search of safety, we have planned a special refugee-themed Kabbalat Shabbat for this Friday, April 8. Services will feature Naomi Alboim and you can […]

By: Artist in Residence, Leah Gold I am so honoured to work with the DJC community as the very first artist in residence. Over the next three months, I will be facilitating a series of workshops for community members of all ages, culminating in collaborative artworks to be displayed in the shared space of the […]

This year, when we sit at our Seder tables sharing the story and significance of our journey from oppression in Mitzrayim (ancient Egypt) to liberation, reflecting on our individual and collective movement from constriction (maytzar) to expansiveness, it is a potent moment to weave into our discussion, ritual and actions the plight of refugees around […]

Each month the Social Justice Committee recommends concrete things you can do to “heal the world” by taking a personal action to help make our world a more just place. As we welcome Passover this month, we urge our DJC family to think about how they can help Ukrainian refugees in their desperate time of need. […]

Jessica has just come home from Jewish Studies. The family sits down to dinner and listens to the news. It’s all bad, so Dad turns it off. Jessica asks, “What’s going on in Ukraine?” Dad grabs a sheet of paper from her school bag to draw a map. Mom starts to explain about the war, […]

Bearing witness is a moral act. While you and I don’t have the power to hault Putin’s military aggression against Ukraine, and while I feel quite powerless as the horrific events in Ukraine unfold, we have the ability and moral responsibility to bear witness to this assault – -to bear witness Putin’s use of […]

Jewish, Older LGBTQIA+ My name is Sheri Ahava Cohen and I recently came out as Queer. The coming out process is exhilarating, alive, unleashing, challenging and at times, difficult to navigate. I want to connect with older Jewish LGBTQ+ who have come out or are in the process of coming out now. I am looking […]

Pencil in hand, my eyes trace the contours of two oranges. I try not to draw what I know, but rather what is right in front of me — the outline, contours, shadows, bumps and dimples. Lighting a spark in the cold dark months, artist Leah Gold’s prompts are for anyone and everyone — an […]

Baruch ata Adonai matir assurim – Blessed are You Adonai who frees the captives. I only heard about Saturday’s hostage standoff at Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas when I turned my phone back on after Shabbat. Initially, I felt shocked and deeply worried until the hostages made it safely out of the building. It […]

I have known of the Chesed Caring Committee for a number of years, but have never fully appreciated what they do and how well they do it until recently. My partner had surgery in mid-October and we knew that his recuperation would be a slow one, so I reached out to the Committee for a […]

The DJC’s Artist Selection Committee is excited to welcome Leah Gold as our Visiting Artist this year, in honour of our 25th anniversary. An experienced community artist, Leah will lead printmaking workshops that investigate our place in the natural world. Leah Gold is a visual artist and community arts facilitator. Her drawings and ceramics use […]

It is a worthwhile question, as we begin Yom Kippur, as we enter this 25-hour period engaged in the central activity of kaparah – atonement – to ask, does it actually makes a difference? Does it change us? I don’t want to talk myself out of a job, so you can probably guess that I […]

I want to share a cartoon on the screen that you may have seen. I’ll describe it as well. There is a person sitting at a table in front of a lemon squeezer. To their right, are mountains of lemons and a cannon firing lemons right at their head. To their left are jars and […]

So, imagine it – you’re sitting in your bathrobe, drinking your morning coffee and looking out your garden window. A cluster of people you’ve never seen before are sauntering in and out of your garden. As they fill bowls with figs and apples from your trees, they smile and wave at you. You feel the […]

Five years ago, I was invited to attend a fibre art residency at the Mark Rothko Art Centre in Daugavpils, Latvia. This was the birthplace of Rothko, although in his time it was known as Dvinsk. We artists were expected to create a piece for their collection and I thought about those huge tallitot that […]