- Our People
Leadership & Staff
City Shul is shaped by a partnership between clergy, staff, lay leaders, volunteers, and members. That spirit of shared leadership has been part of City Shul since its founding and remains one of its defining strengths today.
- Clergy
Clergy
Rabbi Stephanie Crawley
Rabbi
Rabbi Stephanie Crawley became City Shul’s spiritual leader in 2026 following an extensive international search that reflected the congregation’s commitment to thoughtful and visionary leadership.
Known for her warmth, scholarship, and deep commitment to community-building, Rabbi Crawley brings a passion for creating Jewish experiences that are meaningful, participatory, and accessible. Before joining City Shul, she served as Associate Rabbi at Temple Micah in Washington, D.C., where she developed innovative programs that brought Jewish learning and community into new spaces and reached people seeking alternatives to traditional institutional models.
A graduate of Case Western Reserve University and Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Rabbi Crawley is a recipient of the prestigious Tisch Rabbinical Fellowship and has served Jewish communities throughout North America, Israel, and beyond.
Born and raised in St. Louis, Rabbi Crawley now calls Toronto home together with her husband, Rabbi Jesse Paikin, and their daughter, Ruthie. She is inspired by the power of Jewish community to help people live rooted, hopeful, and fully human lives.
Hazzanit Tara Abrams
Hazzanit
An experienced and beloved Jewish musical leader, Tara joined City Shul in 2021, previously serving as Hazzanit of Temple Har Zion for two decades. She believes deeply in the power of music to elevate prayer, build community, and help people connect with Jewish tradition in meaningful ways. Throughout her career, she has been committed to creating worship experiences that are spiritual, participatory, inclusive, and enriched by music.
Hazzanit Abrams is passionate about the ancient tradition of Cantillation, frequently teaching it to members, and supporting them both on and off the Bimah.
Connecting with those in need, she is an integral member of the City Shul clergy team, and her dedication to the well-being of congregants is apparent in all her interactions, demonstrating compassion and empathy.
Hazzanit Abrams enjoys partnering with Rabbi Stephanie Crawley and collaborating with other City Shul musicians, as well as singing with her colleagues in the RCCC (Reform Cantors and Cantorial Soloists of Canada), where she currently sits on the Board.
Tara is married to David, and they are blessed with their adult children and two grandsons.
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Rabbi Elyse Goldstein
Rabbi Emerita
Rabbi Elyse Goldstein is the founding rabbi and visionary spiritual leader of City Shul. Following her retirement in 2024, she was named Rabbi Emerita in recognition of her extraordinary contributions to the congregation and to Jewish life in Canada.
Widely respected as a teacher, author, speaker, and community leader, Rabbi Goldstein has spent decades helping make Jewish learning more accessible, inclusive, and relevant. She founded Kolel: The Adult Centre for Liberal Jewish Learning, one of North America’s most innovative Jewish adult education programs, and was awarded the Covenant Award, the highest honour in Jewish education in North America.
A prolific author and leading voice in Jewish feminism, Rabbi Goldstein has written extensively on Torah, Jewish identity, and contemporary Jewish life. Her leadership has influenced generations of students, rabbis, and community builders.
The values that helped shape City Shul from its earliest days, participation, learning, inclusivity, and spiritual depth, remain central to the congregation today.
Staff
Staff
Barb Wiseberg
Synagogue Operations Manager
Barb is often the first point of contact for members and visitors alike. With a background in marketing and communications, she brings warmth, practicality, and an extraordinary talent for problem-solving to the day-to-day life of the congregation.
Whether helping members navigate a challenge, answering questions, or keeping countless moving pieces running smoothly behind the scenes, Barb plays a vital role in ensuring that City Shul remains a welcoming and responsive community.
Rae Szereszewski
Director of Jewish Education
Rae joined City Shul in 2023 and has played an important role in expanding and strengthening the congregation’s youth and educational programming. Drawing on experience in Jewish youth leadership, education, and community-building, she is committed to creating engaging learning environments where people feel empowered to ask questions, explore ideas, and grow.
Her work reflects City Shul’s belief that Jewish learning should be accessible, inclusive, and meaningful for learners of all ages.
- Board
Board Leadership
Liron Taub
Chair
Liron Taub is a lawyer in the Government of Ontario, where he has served as a Legislative Counsel and as a Crown prosecutor. Liron was born in Toronto and as a child was raised in a grassroots liberal Jewish community in the west end. Liron serves as a gabbai and sings in the Shira Harmony Group.
Liron believes that liberal Judaism is not “Judaism lite” but rather demands genuine active, critical, and creative engagement with Jewish text, practice, and ethics.
Liron is the besotted father of Yitzhak Shalev, a baby, and husband of Miriam Ginzberg, a chemist.
Anne Sealey
Vice-Chair
Anne grew up in and around Toronto, with a brief foray in Ohio, where she solidified her love of Judaism and buckeyes. Anne and her family have been members of City Shul since 2012 (or in one case, since birth). Anne was one of the first head ushers for the Shul, which was a hands-on effort in community building and audacious hospitality. After “retiring” from being a head usher after the birth of her daughter, she is excited to contribute to the City Shul community in a new way and to help grow and solidify our inclusive, vibrant community.
On Saturdays, Anne can often be found in the prayground or being assisted in reading Torah by her daughter Naomi. On non-Saturdays, she works for the provincial government and can often be found in playgrounds or reading books.
Barbara Wade Rose
President
Barbara Wade Rose has been a member of City Shul for many years and president for three years. She is a former award-winning journalist and book author. When not plotting and planning for City Shul, she enjoys her family, in particular grandson Ari (nearly 4) and granddaughter Dani (newly minted).
Ottie Lockey
Vice-President
Ottie Lockey is a retired arts consultant and former managing director of Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and Choir where she shared leadership responsibility with music director Jeanne Lamon from 1981 to 2000. Then as an independent consultant, she advised some of Canada’s leading arts organizations including The Writers’ Trust, National Arts Centre, Banff Centre for the Arts, Toronto Dance Theatre and Early Music Vancouver. In a coaching capacity, she worked with artistic directors, executive directors, and boards of directors of performing arts organizations in Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States, the Netherlands, and Germany.
About three years ago, prompted by the death of her cousin/sister in New York, Ottie felt the need for Jewish community and joined City Shul. For the past 47 years Ottie’s home has been in Toronto with her life partner trailblazing feminist writer, Eve Zaremba. Since Eve’s recent death, Ottie feels even more grateful to be involved in Jewish life and learning at City Shul. She has served on the Leadership team since 2024, has chaired the Transition Task Force, and regularly tries to read Torah.
Rob McCready
Chief Technology Officer
Rob grew up in small-town Ontario an hour north of Toronto. He earned a BASc in Computer Engineering from the University of Waterloo, followed by an MASc from U of T. Since then he has worked as a software developer and consultant in the industrial machine vision industry.
Rob converted to Judaism through Rabbi Goldstein (then at Kolel) in 2001 before marrying his partner Carly Ziniuk and starting on the journey of raising two boys together. After going to Kolel classes and high holiday services for over a decade, Rob and Carly jumped at the chance to join the City Shul experiment when it began. Rob has served on the LT as Treasurer since June 2020.
Peter Levitt
Treasurer
Peter Levitt is a seasoned financial executive with over four decades of leadership experience in treasury, finance, and risk management. From 2012 to 2022, he led CIBC’s Treasury division, overseeing all treasury functions, tax, global funding, capital optimization, and external stakeholder relations, including regulators and central banks.
Prior to CIBC, he held senior executive roles at Manulife Financial, TD Bank, TD Securities, and Canada Trust.
He has led global teams across North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia, and actively contributed to regulatory and public policy development supporting financial stability. Mr. Levitt currently serves on the boards of E-L Financial, a TSX listed financial holding company (Audit Committee Chair), Empire Life (Audit Committee Chair), Fairstone Bank, and is on the Advisory Board of Global Economics Group.
Beyond finance, Mr. Levitt is deeply engaged in community and arts leadership, having served with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, United for Literacy, and the University of Toronto. He is a Senior Fellow at the C.D. Howe Institute and Principal Consultant at LevittAdvisory.ca. He holds an Executive MBA from the Ivey Business School.
Carly Ziniuk
Secretary
A teacher for over 25 years, Carly is “well-known” by the pet name her students have given her: “Zin”. Her true love is talking to kids about Math. Carly is heavily involved in Math education, presenting at conferences around the world. She has created materials for TVOntario and the National Gallery in Ottawa, and writes a regular column for The Gazette. In 2016, she was awarded the Descartes Medal for Excellence in Mathematics Education and in 2024 she received the OAME/AOEM Award for Exceptional and Creative Teaching in Mathematics. She has received certification in Science Communication from The Royal Canadian Institute for Science, Seneca Polytechnic, and Let’s Talk Science at their highest levels.
She believes strongly in the importance of relational learning. Previously the Chair and Principal of Hillel Children’s Workshop, a co-operative supplementary school, Carly was the Chair of City Shul’s Education Committee before moving to the City Shul Leadership Team as Education Liaison and Secretary.
As a member of the NASA Space Apps Collective in 2023-4 and now a NASA Navigator, Carly has demonstrated widely how to use NASA resources as part of Building an Inclusive Global Space Community. She has spoken to varied groups on Jews in Space and the Historical, Mathematical and Astronomical underpinnings of the Jewish Calendar. If you are curious about whether a given quotation is from Taylor Swift, the book of Exodus, or spoken by an astronaut (and why wouldn’t you be!), Carly will be able to tell you: that’s exactly her kind of thing.
Shelley Albert
Board Member
Shelley is an internist and nephrologist at North York General Hospital and Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. She and her partner Cindy Grief have been members of City Shul from the beginning after a decade or so of Shul-shopping. It is definitely the place they were always looking for. Her son Seth had his B’Mitzvah in 2018 and her daughter Faye had her B’Mitzvah in 2022.
Shelley grew up as a “youth grouper” in the Toronto Reform community, was previously a leader at the Downtown Reform Minyan back in the 90’s. She did some cool Kolel courses in the aughts and has been active at City Shul as a Torah reader, a member of the Shira Harmony Group and the Siddur Task Force. She is honoured to help City Shul grapple with the challenges we’re facing in the coming years.
Rochelle Dworkin
Board Member
Rochelle Dworkin and her family were founding members of City Shul and are actively involved in synagogue life. For the first 10 years she coordinated the Torah readers, is involved with the Shira Harmony Group and is an occasional volunteer for Kitchen Kiddush. She lives a life rooted in Jewish values, culture and creativity.
Rochelle is honoured to have been asked to be part of the Leadership Team.
Robert Gibbs
Board Member
Robert Gibbs is a Professor of Philosophy and Religion at the U of T. His field of teaching and research is modern Jewish Philosophy, and he was the Inaugural Director of the Jackman Humanities Institute, where he engaged in exploring new horizons for humanities research, supporting leading scholars at all career stages. His recent book, What Could a University Be? Revolutionary Ideas for the Future (UBC Press, 2025) asks What is a research university for? and focuses on the research capacities of students.
He grew up in the classical Reform world in Chicago and has been living in Toronto for over 25 years with his wife, Deirdre Baker, a specialist in Children’s Literature. Much of his life has been committed to finding ways to let the Jewish tradition speak to people today. He has taught adult education in various synagogues and at Kolel and has long been a member of City Shul.
Kaeli Macdonald
Board Member
Kaeli is a social worker/psychotherapist specializing in perinatal mental health and trauma. Much of her time is spent with new parents who are asking the question “Who am I now?” Kaeli hopes to bring enthusiasm for this beautiful question to the Leadership Team at City Shul as we continue to navigate through periods of change together.
Drawing on her work as an artist and expressive arts therapist, Kaeli is excited to engage with the City Shul community in shaping and reshaping our vision for ourselves as we continue to grow.
Kaeli and her partner, Joel Borgida, are parents & step-parents to 4 fantastic kids.
Kaeli has been a member of City Shul since 2016 and cares deeply about this vibrant and thoughtful community.
Amy Madras
Board Member
Amy grew up in Toronto as an avid reader, got a degree in Linguistics, and then turned to accounting as a more employable skill. She currently works as an accountant for a not-for-profit organization. Amy has been attending City Shul since 2018. She has volunteered as a Shul Buddy and on the Finance Committee.
During our time as “City Shul in the Cloud”, Amy was part of the security and tech teams. Amy has made excellent friends here, and hopes City Shul will continue being a home for friendly community and for the ruach they bring to davening.
A.M. Matte
Board Member
A.M. Matte is an award-winning writer, playwright and public servant. Sole parent of two boys, one who celebrated his B’Mitzvah at City Shul in 2023, and the other who is a frequent participant in City Shul’s prayground.
A.M. is often involved in City Shul’s Purim programming (you can read some of her spiels here: https://www.ammatte.ca/?page id=1264 ) Proud surrogate for another Jewish francophone 2SLGBTQIA+ family.