{"id":1004,"date":"2009-12-31T16:56:10","date_gmt":"2009-12-31T16:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/production.ou.org\/jewish_action\/2009\/putting_the_\/"},"modified":"2020-07-27T08:21:42","modified_gmt":"2020-07-27T08:21:42","slug":"putting_the_","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jewishaction.com\/jewish-living\/putting_the_\/","title":{"rendered":"Putting the \u201cUnity\u201d Back Into \u201cCommunity\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nMention Edmonton, Alberta, and what comes to mind? The very name evokes a shiver, conjuring images of blizzards and bitter cold. Some may recall that the world\u2019s largest mall is located within its city limits. But Edmonton as the center of a vibrant Jewish community? No one would have thought it\u2014that is,
\nnot until the arrival of Rabbi Daniel Friedman.<\/p>\n

\u201cAround here they say that the weather is cold but the people are warm, and I\u2019ve definitely found it to be true.\u201d<\/div>\n

Moving to a city where temperatures in the winter typically dip to twenty-five degrees below zero\u2014and lower\u2014is no small adjustment for a man who hails from balmy Sydney, Australia. \u201cIt took a couple of years to get used to the weather,\u201d says Rabbi Friedman, who has been in Edmonton for almost eight years and who began a shul tradition of serving hot chicken soup to Friday night worshippers. \u201cBut around here they say that the weather is cold but the people are warm, and I\u2019ve definitely found it to be true. People have been extremely welcoming and generous to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Lay of the Land<\/strong>
\nEdmonton has a Jewish population of about 5,000, and about 1,000 of those are affiliated with an Orthodox synagogue. When Rabbi Friedman first arrived at the age of twenty-six, the Orthodox community was on the decline. The kollel had dwindled to one lonely participant; there was a small Chabad house; and the shul he had been asked to lead, Beth Israel, was like an anemic patient waiting for a shot of iron\u2014the young people were drifting away, and membership was dwindling. The larger Jewish community also included Conservative and Reform synagogues, but none of these entities were on speaking terms with one another.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the previous fifty years, Beth Israel had been switching rabbis about every two to three years, on average,\u201d says Rabbi Friedman. \u201cPeople didn\u2019t have a good taste of Orthodoxy in their mouths, and the Orthodoxy that was there was not inspiring or dynamic,\u201d he says. \u201cThere was some ill feeling towards Orthodoxy\u2014it was seen as divisive.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a community in need of healing,\u201d says his wife, Batya, who grew up in Brooklyn.<\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t take long for Rabbi Friedman to hone in on his mission. \u201cI set out with the goal of showing the community that Orthodox Judaism is not a dinosaur,\u201d he says. \u201cOn the contrary, I wanted to show that it is the wave of the future for the Jewish community. But first I had to get the different factions to re-establish communication with each other. \u201d<\/p>\n

Today, Beth Israel, the Orthodox Union\u2019s northernmost member shul, has grown to nearly 300 members, and Orthodox life in Edmonton is thriving.<\/p>\n

Life in the Small City<\/strong>
\nIsn\u2019t it tough for two people raised in big cities to adapt to small-town life? \u201cThere are compensations for the cold weather and smaller community,\u201d says Rabbi Friedman. \u201cIt\u2019s not a rat race here. We enjoy the warmth and the slower pace of a small community.\u201d<\/p>\n

But there are downsides to the Friedmans\u2019 life in Edmonton. For one, both their families are far away. Rabbi Friedman\u2019s parents only visit from Australia about once a year, and Batya\u2019s parents, who live in New York, try to come twice a year for yamim tovim. The transition seems to have been harder for Batya. \u201cI loved New York,\u201d she says. \u201cThe activity and energy give you a high. But I eventually learned that, contrary to popular belief, there is life outside of New York!\u201d<\/p>\n

The hardest part of the move, Batya confesses, was when the Friedmans first arrived. With no job, friends or family, Batya was completely dependent on her husband. \u201cThere were times I thought about leaving,\u201d she says. \u201cIt took time to find my place. But baruch Hashem, eventually Edmonton became \u2018home.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Batya began to settle into her new city. A financial analyst, she found a job in her field. She also started a few initiatives at Beth Israel such as \u201cIma and Me\u201d programs, Bat Mitzvah classes and a women\u2019s shiur. Today, Rabbi Friedman says she has \u201cthree full-time jobs\u201d\u2014akeret habayit (homemaker), banking professional and rebbetzin\u2014which require more than a few different hats.<\/p>\n

What about the Friedman kids? \u201cAlthough they\u2019ve visited larger communities, they\u2019re used to this life,\u201d Batya says. \u201cWe take in a lot of Shabbat guests, and the kids love it. We tell them they\u2019re lucky to be able to teach their peers and serve as an example. So far, they see only the benefits of being the rabbi\u2019s kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

Big City, Born and Bred<\/strong>
\nRabbi Friedman earned his semichah in Australia. He had lived in both Sydney and Melbourne, and served as a pulpit rabbi for two and a half years. He then moved to New York City to pursue a master\u2019s degree in Jewish history at Touro College, simultaneously serving part-time as the rabbi of Congregation Beth El in Long Beach, New York.<\/p>\n

During this time, Rabbi Friedman met Batya, who, by her own admission, \u201cnever wanted to leave the big city or marry a rabbi.\u201d She attended Brooklyn College, where she earned a degree in mathematics. Despite her initial misgivings, today she has transformed into, in her husband\u2019s words, \u201ca wonderful rebbetzin and my partner in every respect. . . . The community is thrilled with her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rabbi Friedman was looking to get back fully into community work when he was contacted by Yeshiva University. \u201cIt was supposed to be a two-and-a-half-year stint [in Edmonton],\u201d says Batya. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t an easy adjustment for me\u2014the weather, being far from family, not having a life of my own at the beginning,\u201d she says. \u201cBut I saw that my husband wasn\u2019t completely whole until he started this work\u2014it so obviously made him come alive. And we saw results that were so gratifying, as the community grew so much stronger under his leadership\u2014so much more positive and vibrant.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Friedman family has also grown. Millie (Miriam Leah) is now eight years old, Joey (Sarah Joar) is four and Jamie-Anna (Yemima Chana) is almost one.<\/p>\n

A Jew is a Jew<\/strong>
\nColor-blind people have a definite disadvantage when it comes to matching suits with ties. But Rabbi Friedman has a different kind of blindness: he manages to look beyond every Jew\u2019s origin, affiliation and political views, focusing solely on how he can bring him or her closer to Torah. This quality is what has contributed to his success in Edmonton.<\/p>\n

For example, he has launched community-wide initiatives that reach across all \u201cparty\u201d lines, such as leading the entire community to participate in the National Jewish Outreach Program\u2019s \u201cShabbat Across America\u201d project. During the Gaza War in January, he organized a prayer vigil for Israeli soldiers. \u201cThe Israelis in the community, many of whom usually never set foot inside a shul, came out in droves,\u201d says Rabbi Friedman. \u201cWe were all united in our prayers and our support for Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rabbi Friedman makes it his business to get involved with just about every Jewish organization in town. Creative community events like river cruises on Lag B\u2019Omer and pre-Shabbat sports events and barbecues in public parks help draw the community together.<\/p>\n

By buttressing the kollel, Rabbi Friedman managed to benefit the larger community as well. He helped recruit about half a dozen men and their families to join the kollel and engage in outreach via the Ner Le\u2019Elef Institute, a program that trains kollel men to become kiruv professionals. \u201cRabbi Friedman has really helped the kollel grow,\u201d says Rabbi Refael Hassan, the rosh kollel. \u201cHe has promoted us in his shul and in the community.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe work on many things together\u2014kashrut in the community, finding a youth director, running the school; for a long time, we worked as one unit. At this point the kollel and Beth Israel can each stand on its own feet, but we continue to work together,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Ba\u2019alei batim now come to learn at night in the kollel, says Rabbi Friedman, and kollel members also fan out to different synagogues\u2014Reform, Conservative and Chabad\u2014to give shiurim. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to promote unity,\u201d says Rabbi Friedman.<\/p>\n

Building Up Beth Israel<\/strong>
\nThe core of every synagogue is its capacity to connect Jews to Torah, and Rabbi Friedman has worked hard to inspire his congregants. \u201cRabbi Friedman made me observant,\u201d says Gordon Bushewsky, a retired teacher. Bushewsky recounts that his father moved to Edmonton in 1930 and joined Beth Israel, which was founded some hundred years ago. He himself stayed away until his mother passed away. \u201cI learned that the rules of Judaism have reasons behind them, and that following them could actually be enjoyable,\u201d he says. He went from being a High Holidays-only attendee to being gabbai of the synagogue.<\/p>\n

Rabbi Friedman has worked to resuscitate the shul\u2019s ties to the larger Jewish world by renewing its affiliation with the OU and its teen movement, NCSY. He is currently building up a youth program and is working on establishing an eruv. This spring, the shul\u2019s new mechitzah was unveiled, and the congregation hosted Israeli Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger and Av Beit Din of the Beit Din of America Rabbi Gedalia Dov Schwartz for the ceremony.<\/p>\n

All the More Reason . . .<\/strong>
\nWhen the Friedmans arrived in Edmonton, it was a kosher desert, without a single pizza shop. Today, due in part to Rabbi Friedman\u2019s encouragement, the town boasts two kosher restaurants, a kosher bakery and three (albeit part-time) kosher caterers. The local supermarket, which had always stocked kosher food, now employs a full-time mashgiach.<\/p>\n

As education is vital to growing a community, Edmonton has two Jewish day schools. In 1977, Talmud Torah, the non-denominational community day school, received charter school status from the Edmonton Public School Board; it is therefore able to keep tuition to about $4,000 Canadian. Menorah Academy (attended by Rabbi Friedman\u2019s children) keeps its tuition to a minimum in order to remain competitive with Talmud Torah.<\/p>\n

Into the Future<\/strong>
\nRabbi Hassan says that the challenge in Edmonton today is for its leaders \u201cto keep the momentum,\u201d to refuse to rest on their laurels. But after almost eight years of intense community work, Rabbi Friedman shows no signs of slowing down. His family has gotten used to the way of life. The bitter cold and the isolation from larger Jewish centers have become facts of life, rather than insurmountable obstacles.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe what the Chofetz Chaim said about giving oneself to Torah causes,\u201d Rabbi Friedman says. \u201cThe more you are moser nefesh for Torah, the less worries and issues you will have in other areas, be it money, health or childrearing. We believe God wants this from us, and will repay us in kind. We\u2019re honored to be doing this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barbara Bensoussan has worked as a university instructor and a social worker, and currently writes for Jewish newspapers and magazines. Her most recent novel is A New Song (Southfield, Michigan, 2007). She lives with her husband and six children in Brooklyn<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mention Edmonton, Alberta, and what comes to mind? The very name evokes a shiver, conjuring images of blizzards and bitter cold. Some may recall that the world\u2019s largest mall is located within its city limits. But Edmonton as the center of a vibrant Jewish community? 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