Toronto rabbi creates online Secular Synagogue

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This article was published 05/12/2020 (2113 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It would be natural to think the term secular synagogue is an oxymoron. A synagogue, after all, is the house of worship in which Jewish people gather for religious services and practice, while the adjective secular refers to ideas and interests that have no connection to religion.

But Toronto Rabbi Denise Handlarski clearly doesn’t see any contradiction in the term. After all, when she founded a new online community to express and share her unique vision of Judaism, she chose to call it the Secular Synagogue.

Handlarski initially planned to become a literature professor, but she changed her career plans about a dozen years ago and decided to become a rabbi instead.

“I decided I wanted to be in the business of inspiring others,” she recalls.

In 2010, Handlarski began rabbinical studies at the International Institute for Secular Humanistic Judaism. Following that, she worked as a program director at a Toronto synagogue devoted to humanistic Judaism, officiating at weddings, creating holiday celebrations, writing liturgy and leading services.

She started searching for a comparable online community about two years ago, and when she couldn’t find one, she decided to create her own.

“At the time, there was no way for secular or cultural Jews to be connected with congregations in most places in the world outside of a few major cities,” Handlarski explains. “And even those of us who lived near such a congregation, found that we couldn’t (always) make it to programs, or the congregational setting wasn’t quite what we needed.

“So,” she adds. “I created an online community for secular and cultural Jews and their loved ones.”

In doing so, she clearly filled a void.

Since its inception, that online community has attracted secular and cultural Jews from across the United States and Canada, including Winnipeg, and from around the world. Many of its congregants are interfaith couples, or individuals who identify as Jews of Colour, Jews by Choice, or as Queer, Trans or Non-binary. Some consider themselves to be spiritual, but non-religious, while others, for various reasons, have just not felt comfortable in traditional Jewish faith-based spaces.

“One of our greatest strengths,” Handlarski says, “is that we attract people from all walks of life. We don’t think of diversity and inclusion as boxes to check. Our whole mission and ethos is about creating welcoming spaces.”

The Secular Synagogue, she continues, is a dynamic, grassroots congregation with lots of member-driven content designed to sate participants’ cravings for purpose, meaning and belonging. It is a gathering place, a house of learning and study, and a place for conversation, celebration and community.

It is, as well, a community that makes social justice a priority. Every Monday is devoted to a mitzvah, or charitable, project, such as cleaning up a neighbourhood park or advocating for government action on climate change.

While Handlarski acknowledges that many traditional synagogues are now offering online options because of COVID-19, she emphasizes that the Secular Synagogue has always been and will always be online.

“We are online, on purpose,” she says. “That is, online before, during and after COVID, and using the online space to fulfil our purpose, which is to use Judaism to enrich our lives, and then for us to become better forces for goodness and justice in the world.”

 

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