\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThe first is a pastoral care initiative, led by Rabbi Sally Finestone, whose sole focus is seniors, including regular visits, supporting their families, even driving people to appointments. As the congregation has grown to more than 1,000 households, Finestone is able to take some of the burden off Moskovitz, Associate Rabbi Carey Brown and Cantor Shani Cohen. This program, and Finestone\u2019s position, began through an endowment in memory of Michael Jacobson.<\/p>\n
The second endowment, originated by Susan Mendelson and her husband, the late Jack Lutsky, supports a scholar-in-residence program, which has allowed Temple Sholom and the broader community to learn from Israeli writer and thinker Yossi Klein Halevi for the past several years.<\/p>\n
Though Moskovitz\u2019s visit to Vancouver before being hired was in a typical Vancouver rainstorm, he instantly felt he had found a home.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just fell in love with this congregation,\u201d he told the Independent.<\/p>\n
What stands out most, he said, is that, in Vancouver, congregants don\u2019t simply attend services, they participate. \u201cThey own it,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nIt\u2019s a contrast, he suggested, to parts of American Reform Judaism, where it can feel like congregants outsource their religion to the rabbi, drop their kids off at shul and pick them up after. \u201cI call it drive-by Jewing,\u201d said Moskovitz.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur congregation shows up. The parents don\u2019t just drop off their kids. They come in the building. They stay for minyan,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Something else that surprised him about Vancouver is the level of collaboration among Jewish institutions, exemplified by the inter-denominational Rabbinical Association of Vancouver. It\u2019s a model, he believes, that could reshape Jewish communal life elsewhere.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nOf course, not everything has been easy. Rising antisemitism in Canada has forced him into a more public, defensive role than he ever expected. It\u2019s not why he became a rabbi, he said, but it has become part of the job.<\/p>\n
Thirteen years in, Moskovitz has no plans to leave.<\/p>\n
\u201cI never want to,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Neither, apparently, does the congregation ever want him to go. They gave him a life appointment, or to age 67: \u201cWhichever comes first,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Aside from missing his extended family and Trader Joe\u2019s, Moskovitz has no regrets about the move to a new city and country \u2013 the citizenship test for which, he noted, he aced, with 20 right answers out of 20.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy parents are older now. It\u2019s hard for them to travel,\u201d he said. \u201cMy father-in-law is older also, so that\u2019s hard. My kids grew up without that drop-by grandparenting, which is so special. So that\u2019s been a trade-off.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nHis family has likewise found a home at Temple Sholom, Moskovitz added. His wife, Sharon Mishler, is a true partner in the work, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I\u2019m in the front of the congregation leading the synagogue and services, she\u2019s in the back of the congregation creating relationships and connecting people,\u201d said the rabbi. \u201cShe takes brides to the mikvah. She meets with our seniors. She takes people out to lunch. She makes phone calls. She\u2019s a great source of information for me when people tell her things that they think I should know about somebody being sick or whatever it is.\u201d<\/p>\n
Their son Judah, 20, studies political science and history at the University of Ottawa and works on Parliament Hill for Vancouver Granville Member of Parliament Taleeb Noormohamed. He was just selected as the co-chair of the Canadian Jewish Political Affairs Committee Fellowship.<\/p>\n
Son Levi, 18, graduates from King David High School this spring and was accepted early to Western University\u2019s Ivey Business School.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nDaughter Estee, 14, also a student at King David, has an aptitude for science and, like her brothers, is very involved with BBYO (formerly B\u2019nai B\u2019rith Youth Organization), where she is vice-president of the chapter board.<\/p>\n
\u201cI never thought that I would be the rabbi of a synagogue that I\u2019d want to join,\u201d Moskovitz said. \u201cI thought that I would always have to compromise my spirituality to serve the masses of my community.\u201d<\/p>\n
At Temple Sholom, he is truly at home.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is Judaism in the way that I like my Judaism,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s traditional but inclusive and egalitarian. Progressive in what I think are all the right ways in terms of trying to adapt and respond to modernity, but not watered down Judaism in the process. And it\u2019s a loving, caring congregation.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Over the weekend of May 8, Temple Sholom celebrates Rabbi Dan Moskovitz\u2019s \u201cbar mitzvah\u201d year as leader of the congregation. (photo by Pat Johnson) Rabbi Dan Moskovitz will celebrate his bar mitzvah for the third time on May 9. Marking 13 years since his arrival as senior rabbi at Vancouver\u2019s Reform Temple Sholom, the congregation […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48842,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[3439,3128,20440,218,8664,1325],"class_list":["post-48841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","tag-dan-moskovitz","tag-fundraising","tag-gala","tag-judaism","tag-milestones","tag-temple-sholom"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48841\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}