Eli Rubenstein


Eli Rubenstein is a Holocaust educator, writer, storyteller, filmmaker, and activist. He is currently the religious leader of Congregation Habonim Toronto, a Toronto synagogue founded by Holocaust survivors, and Director of Education for International March of the Living. He served as National Director of March of the Living Canada from 1988 to 2024. Rubenstein was the President of the Israel Guide Dog Centre for the Blind, and was appointed to the Order of Canada in December 2022.

Background

Rubenstein was raised in Toronto's orthodox Jewish community by parents of Hungarian and Polish Jewish lineage. He attended Eitz Chaim School as a child. His mother, Esther Rubenstein née Greenblatt, was a Holocaust refugee from Szatmárcseke, Hungary, who escaped to the United States in the spring of 1941 at age eight on one of the last trains permitted to leave Hungary. His great-grandmother, Amalia Malka Greenblatt, was deported to Auschwitz from Debrecen, Hungary, in 1944 but ended up at a forced labour camp in Austria due to the bombing of the  Auschwitz train tracks. She survived the war and was carried back to Debrecen by family members but died on July 6, 1945.
Rubenstein's father, Isadore Israel Rubenstein, was born in Toronto, Canada. His grandfather, Nechemia Charles Rubenstein, emigrated to Canada from Tarlow, Poland, in 1913. Nazi Germany destroyed the Jewish community of Tarlow, Poland, in the Holocaust, a subject Rubenstein addressed in a sermon he delivered to his congregation following his visit to Tarlow in 2011.
Rubenstein's first cousin is Jason Greenblatt, the former chief legal officer of the Trump Organization and former President Donald Trump's special representative for international negotiations. Holocaust survivor and anti war activist Robert Greenblatt is Rubenstein's first cousin, once removed.

Congregation Habonim

Rubenstein has served as the religious leader of Congregation Habonim Toronto since 1988, succeeding Rabbi Allen Veaner, who followed Rabbi Reuben Slonim.
He has helped facilitate collaborative initiatives with numerous organizations, such as Ve'ahavta, Sara and Chaim Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre, Free the Children, the Polish Consulate, the Toronto Partnership Minyan, and various other organizations.
In 2015, amidst a growing membership and religious school, Rubenstein, together with Rabbi Cantor Aviva Rajsky, led the synagogue in a new building campaign to replace its decaying structure, which eventually raised the needed funds. Groundbreaking took place in the summer of 2018, and the new building was opened in the fall of 2019.
A member of Congregation Habonim, Canadian actor, musician, and producer Shaina Silver-Baird credits the original idea for her comedy web series "Less Than Kosher" to her earlier days out of theatre school, recruited by Rubenstein as a substitute cantor for weddings and children's services at the synagogue. Congregation Habonim has archived some of Rubenstein's sermons online.

Storytelling

Rubenstein is an avid storyteller and speaker and has done so across Canada, the United States, Europe, Israel, and Africa. He was a co-organizer of "Because God Loves Stories," an annual storytelling event in memory of mentor, Alec Gelcer. The concert was part of The Annual Toronto Festival of Storytelling. An article in CJN with Rubenstein interviewed reads, "Under Gelcer's influence, he introduced stories into his sermons. He noticed that sermons on theology sometimes had his congregation squirming in their seats. “But as soon as I launched into a story, people were sitting on the edge of their seats.” One article quoted, "Eli brings his guitar, a wealth of stories and folk-tales, and a relaxed and joyful approach to services and programs at Habonim."
Rubenstein has been the keynote speaker for Holocaust Education Week in Toronto. Speaking about storytelling in 2011, he said, “When you hear a story you become part of the story. You place yourself in the shoes of the person in the story and you develop, probably the most important human quality, which is empathy. If you have empathy, that is the key to making the world a better place.”
In Rubenstein's book,Witness: Passing the Torch of Holocaust Memory to New Generations, on the subject of the significance of storytelling and passing stories on, former president Obama said:

March of the Living

Rubenstein has been involved with March of the Living since its inception in Canada in 1988. It is an annual educational program that brings together thousands of youths in Poland and Israel to mark Holocaust Remembrance Day and Israel's Independence Day. He assumed the role of National Director in 1989 and led his first Canadian delegation on the March in 1990, where he first met Elie Wiesel, whom he has prominently featured in his published works.
In 2017, Elisha Wiesel was invited by Rubenstein to attend the March of the Living to light a torch in memory of his father, Elie Wiesel, where he delivered a speech to many thousands of participants. "It is a reminder to all of us that we are the next generation. We must all pick up the torch," Rubenstein commented.
Over the years, Toronto has brought the largest delegation for the March of the Living, and Canada is among the countries with the largest delegation.
In 2019, Rubenstein led an effort to bring together the USC Shoah Foundation and the International March of the Living. The joint project involved capturing the testimonies of Holocaust survivors in Europe, using 360-degree filming techniques at the locations where they experienced life before and during the war and where they were liberated. This project aims to ensure that those participating in the March of the Living in Poland can benefit from the survivors' stories relevant to the places they visit.
Commenting on this project, Rubenstein added that "by using emerging technologies, the project is transforming the way the stories and lessons of the Holocaust are learned by people around the globe".
In one of Rubenstein's sermons titled, "Rescuing the Memory of the Six Million: One by One by One," he wrote about the 2021 Virtual March of the Living. The March of the Living commemorated Yom Hashoah with a special online program on the theme of "Medicine and Morality: Lessons from the Holocaust and COVID-19."
During the memorial program,  a candle lighting ceremony was performed honoring the medical professionals who opposed the Nazis in the Holocaust. A  candle was also lit in memory of the victims of COVID-19.  One of the six candles was lit in honor of Dr. Benedykt Ziemilski – one of the six million victims of the Holocaust. It was lit by Dr. Allen Nager, Director, Division of 1 Emergency and Transport Medicine and Professor of Clinical Pediatrics at the Keck School of Medicine of USC.

Building Bridges: Polish Jewish Relations

In an interview with Polcast in 2016, Rubenstein was called, "a charismatic and devoted bridge-builder." Rubenstein, speaking about Poland, said his mission , working with the March of the Living, had transformed since the original inception of the program in 1988. He referred to three developments:
  1. The first was one that transformed from focusing solely on the Holocaust, to a broadened understanding of what the Polish people had undergone, because “the Poles suffered tremendously as well.” This transformation led to an appreciation of the sacrifices they went through in their history.
  2. “The March began to understand the complexity of Polish-Jewish relations, both the beauty and the remarkable civilization that centuries of Jewish life in Poland was able to flourish because of the welcoming fertile ground that Poles presented to the Jews, but also the difficult parts of that relationship and to look at both sides with an objective and fair-minded eye."
  3. "To appreciate the tremendous thousand-years of Polish-Jewish history that preceded the Holocaust."
Subsequent to all of those changes, Rubenstein explained, “We also decided the following: that whatever conclusion you come to about the history of Polish Jewish relations, because it's a complicated subject, there is no excuse for not building bridges today. And we have had so many experiences, year after year after year, where people in Poland have reached out their hands to the Jewish community, and when we respond, it is something wonderful to behold.”

Interfaith and Intercultural Work

In the area of Holocaust education, Rubenstein has advocated for positive relations between Poland and Jews of Polish heritage, emphasizing the 1,000 years of Jewish history in Poland, introducing Polish-Jewish dialogue on the March of the Living, as well as working to recognize the heroic actions of the Righteous Among the Nations, especially those of Polish origin.
He has been quoted as saying, "We can debate the history of Jewish life in Poland over the centuries – and there are many divergent views on this subject. But there is no excuse now for not reaching out to today's Poland, building bridges and fostering positive relations. We may not be able to forge a consensus about the past, but it is in our hands – indeed our obligation – to create a harmonious present and future for Jews and Poles."
As part of Toronto's annual Holocaust Education Week, he has spoken at a number of interfaith programs, including ones at the Holy Trinity Armenian Church and St. Ansgar Lutheran Church in Toronto.

The St. Louis Apology

On November 7, 2018, the Canadian government led by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, issued a formal apology in the House of Commons for Canada's Holocaust-era record toward Jews, including its turning away of MS St. Louis and its None is Too Many policy.
Speaking in Ottawa at a special ceremony after the event, where the Prime Minister, several ministers and a survivor of the St. Louis spoke, Rubenstein praised the Canadian government in his closing remarks:
Rubenstein also commended the decision in the Canadian Jewish News, where he wrote: "Let us applaud our country and our elected officials for their ability to acknowledge Canada's errors and forge a new path forward. Countries, just like people, can perform the mitzvah of teshuvah."
Speaking on January 27, 2019, in Ottawa, at a Library and Archives Canada event marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Rubenstein said: "I was never more ashamed to be a Canadian, than when I first read "None is Too Many" as a student attending York University in the early 1980s. But I was never prouder to be a Canadian, than when our government issued its apology for this historic wrong."