Affiliation

Our shul does not belong to any of the streams of Judaism. We are independent, and our membership is drawn from diverse backgrounds. Some grew up Orthodox, some Conservative, some Reform, some unaffiliated with the Jewish community at all, and we also have many converts in our midst.

One of the things that makes our shul special is our serious commitment both to preserving the Jewish traditions of the past and to honouring the egalitarianism which is characteristic of our own time. Some ways in which our traditionalism is expressed include our use of an Orthodox siddur, our recitations of the prayers and the full Torah reading in their original Hebrew, our kosher kitchen, and our observance of the laws of Shabbat in our building. Some ways in which our egalitarianism is expressed include men and women sitting together, women leading prayers and reading from the Torah, women counting as part of a minyan, the inclusion of the matriarchs in our prayers in addition to the patriarchs, and our affirmation and celebration of same-sex weddings.