Blogroll | Congregation Darchei Noam

What inspired us to get together in that gathering of like-minded people? Even before the first time we came together ‎with others in a Toronto Reconstructionist service, Lil had a good feeling when she made the first phone call and connected ‎to Rhonda Schild. When Rhonda outlined plans for the first Rosh Hashanah service, Lil told her that we wanted to be there ‎but could not find a babysitter for our year-old daughter, Aurora. Rhonda assured Lil that several of the families had young ‎children and that co-op babysitting among the parents would be arranged. That first gathering, Rosh Hashanah, 1973, was ‎warm and welcoming. Everyone seemed eager to help with the service, childcare or Kiddush setup. We felt we could ‎relate to many of the people whom we met because of our mutual desire to be part of a Reconstructionist service, and ‎that we could relax there as a family. The fact that the community was being listed as a congregation, not a chavurah, nor a ‎study group inspired hope for us in a future as a shul.‎

Phyllis Angel Greenberg and David Friendly in front of the downtown,

original Reconstructionist Rabbinical ‎College.
Photo from the files of Eric and Lillian Mendelsohn

Lil had already met Mordecai Kaplan at Brandeis Camp Institute and we both had been to a Reconstructionist seder at ‎Rabbi Lavy Becker’s as grad students in Montreal. We had found the Toronto community most unwelcoming at the time ‎and so were excited when she got a warm response from Rhonda. I suggested we start once a month services after that ‎wonderful encounter with a great group of people and the idea it would become a synagogue eventually.‎

Memories of those early days: ‎

• Mitch, Eric, Danny and Danny schlepping prayer books to the next Shabbat service or to a shiva house. ‎
• Lil recalls the shiva service arranged by Danny after the death of her father. It was an exceptional occasion in those ‎early days (1975) to be able to get a minion in order to hold services on a weekday evening. ‎
• The board meeting at which it was decided not to disband but to continue on. We knew we had reached a level of ‎legitimacy that encouraged us to begin some serious outreach.‎
• The hiring of our first regular-part-time student rabbi
• The hiring of our first graduate rabbi
• The participation of a number of congregants at a JRF conference in Philadelphia. We enjoyed learning skills at ‎workshops and were able to see some of our struggles around shul growing pains as mirrored in the experiences ‎of other congregations
• The time we had Simchat Torah and someone forgot to bring the Torah
• Meeting immigration at the airport when a student rabbi forgot that Canada was a different country
• Davening from extremely cold siddurim which had been in the trunk of a car for a week
• Intermediate rabbi first or building first meetings including a meeting about an available shtible on Barse Street ‎only to find we couldn’t meet there because hydro was cut off and the furnace wasn’t working
• As for the evolution of the synagogue, I always liked the quote “Judaism is the religion of the Jewish people and not the ‎other way around”. We, as we were in the beginning, should be striving to be ahead of the curve and very different from ‎other egalitarian synagogues through our unique message. We should do this through social action, adult education, and ‎distinct Reconstructionist flavour in all our services and endeavours.