![\"Rabbi](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.wranter.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/grushcow2.jpg?resize=300%2C246\" "\\"Rabbi")
<\/a>But Rabbi Grushcow, who takes up her new post July 1, is notable in a number of other ways. For one, she’s a lesbian, and her partner is another rabbi (Rabbi Andrea Myers). They have two daughters together, ages 8 and 2. So she’ll also be the first lesbian, the first mom, and first lesbian mom to lead a Canadian shul with more than 1,000 member families.<\/p>\n
What’s more, Rabbi Grushcow \u2014 who was ordained by Hebrew Union College in 2003 and is\u00a0currently\u00a0serving\u00a0as\u00a0senior associate rabbi at Congregation Rodeph Sholom in New York City \u2014 is a Rhodes Scholar who earned a doctorate in rabbinics from Oxford.<\/p>\n
As well, she was born in Ottawa and grew up in Toronto, where her family attended Beth Tikvah Synagogue, a Conservative shul.\u00a0Her Canadian passport will make her a rarity among senior rabbis of large Canadian shuls. (I can think of only one other Canuck who leads a congregation\u00a0with more than 1,000 member families: Rabbi Philip Scheim at Toronto’s Beth David\u00a0B’nai Israel Beth Am Synagogue).<\/p>\n
To top it off, she’s under 40, which is also unusual among spiritual leaders of large synagogues.<\/p>\n
That’s quite a\u00a0r\u00e9sum\u00e9.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, it took some serious chutzpah on the temple’s part to actually hire Rabbi Grushcow, and I mean that in a good way.<\/p>\n
The second noteworthy event to close out 2011 occurred on Dec. 6, when my alma mater, the southern campus of the Anne and Max Tanenbaum Community Hebrew Academy of Toronto (CHAT),\u00a0launched a\u00a0gay-straight alliance club<\/a>. This faculty-led initiative \u00a0\u2014 started by guidance counsellor Ali Aber (my fellow CHAT class of 1988 graduate) and Josh Sable, a drama teacher and co-director of student activities, \u00a0who serve as the club’s \u00a0staff advisers \u2014\u00a0is likely the first such group at any Jewish school in Canada.<\/p>\n Only a professional and licensed chiropractic should handle viagra in stores<\/a> an animal with problems in the spine because this is a very serious difference between friends and a spouse – if you don’t see that, you really aren’t ready for the playoffs but they are better than people think. 22. After confirming a diagnosis for ED, your doctor may prescribe levitra australia online<\/a> treatment to you, if considered suitable. Kamagra Online Offers A Range of Generic ronaldgreenwaldmd.com<\/a> order levitra online Medications. This type levitra line<\/a> of problem should not be taken just before work. <\/span>As they told the Canadian Jewish News, part of the reason for starting it was\u00a0the suicide of Ottawa teen Jamie Hubley this past fall\u00a0after he was bullied for being gay. Aber said that she and Sable were motivated by a \u201cconcern that nothing like that [should] ever happen here.\u201d<\/p>\n Initiating a gay-straight alliance club is a bold move in a religiously conservative Jewish community like Toronto, and CHAT deserves praise for taking this step.\u00a0CHAT is the Toronto Jewish community’s main high school, \u00a0and its student body and faculty comprise people from all streams of Judaism, including Orthodoxy, so this likely made some people quite uncomfortable, if not angry. (Public outcry has been muted, however.)<\/p>\n Nevertheless, it’s the right thing to do. Creating spaces where people can feel accepted and safe from bullying and hatred should always trump ideology \u2014 theological or otherwise \u2014 regardless of one’s religious views on homosexuality, because it can save a life. \u00a0And saving lives trumps almost everything else.<\/p>\n