Английская Википедия:Eli Rubenstein

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Файл:Eli Rubenstein in 2012.jpg

Eli Rubenstein at Congregation Habonim

Eli Rubenstein Шаблон:Post-nominals (born in 1959) is a Holocaust educator, writer, and filmmaker. He is currently the religious leader of Congregation Habonim Toronto, a Toronto synagogue founded by Holocaust survivors.

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 spearheaded partnered programs with many other organizations, including Ve’ahavta (for their annual Passover Seder for the Homeless), Sara and Chaim Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre, Free the Children, the Polish Consulate, the Toronto Partnership Minyan, and 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 over 12 million dollars. Groundbreaking took place in the summer of 2018, and the new building was opened in the fall of 2019.

March of the Living

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Tarlow Synagogue Ruins- Eli Rubenstein-Sep. 14, 2011 - SAM 0055

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 encountered Elie Wiesel.

Wiesel features prominently in Rubenstein's published works, and he also produced the music for the TV special featuring Elie Wiesel's return to Auschwitz with Oprah Winfrey.

In April 2017, Elisha Wiesel, the only son of Elie Wiesel, accepted an invitation from Rubenstein to attend the March of the Living, where he lit a torch in memory of his father and delivered a speech to the estimated 10,000 participants. "It is a reminder to all of us that we are the next generation. We must all pick up the torch," Rubenstein commented, in an article in The New York Times that appeared after the event.

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. He also currently serves as the Director of Education for March of the Living International.

In 2019, Rubenstein spearheaded a partnership between the USC Shoah Foundation and the International March of the Living. The initiative involves the recording of Holocaust survivor testimony on location in Europe, using 360-degree filming techniques at the physical locations of their pre-war and wartime experiences, as well as their places of liberation. The purpose of this project is to ensure that March of the Living participants continue to benefit from survivors' stories relevant to the locations they visit during the March of the Living in Poland.

“This outward-facing radial filming technique in the very locations of the survivors’ personal experiences provides a potent pathway for audiences to experience the survivors' stories in a way that words alone could never encapsulate,” Rubenstein said.

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 life in Poland, pioneering Polish-Jewish dialogue on the March of the Living, as well as working to recognize the heroic actions of 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.

St. Louis Apology

On Wednesday, November 7, 2018, the Canadian government led by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, issued a historic apology for Canada's Holocaust-era record toward Jews, including its turning away of MS St. Louis and its cruel 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 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 (repentance.)"

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.”

Published works

• Witness: Passing the Torch of Holocaust Memory to New Generations
• For You Who Died I Must Live On: Reflections on the March of the Living, Mosiac Press 1994. The book was the recipient of a Canadian Jewish Book Award.

Notable Films as Producer/Director

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Blind Love trapsheet front

Blind Love: A Holocaust Journey to Poland with Man's Best Friend, a documentary that follows six blind Israelis traveling to Poland with the help of their guide dogs, to learn about the Holocaust. The film premièred in November 2015, at a special screening organized in conjunction with the Toronto Jewish Film Festival, and aired on CBC's Documentary Channel (Canada).

• I Am Anne Frank
• Anne Frank:70 Years Later
• To Live and Die with Honor: The Story of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
• Requiem for the Warsaw Ghetto
• Lay Down Your Arms
• Auschwitz-Birkenau: 70 Years After Liberation; A Warning to Future Generations
• Candles of Kindness
• Twice Liberated
• Czeslawa & Olga
• 100,000 Souls: The Legacy of Raoul Wallenberg
• Without a Doubt - The Story of Franciszek Pasławski
• Kindred Strangers - Matylda Liro & Michael Bulik
• 7 Days of Remembrance and Hope

Rubenstein introduced a number of Canadian Holocaust survivors to Justice Thomas Walther (lawyer), Germany's last Nazi hunter. In 2015, with the testimony of these survivors at the trial of Oskar Gröning, a German SS member in Auschwitz, Walther successfully prosecuted Gröning. Known as the "bookkeeper of Auschwitz", Gröning was convicted of being an accessory to the murder of over 300,000 Hungarian Jews and was sentenced to four years in prison by a German court.

Rubenstein also interviewed Canadian residential school survivor, Chief Rodney Monague (1943-2013) of Christian Island.

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Eli Rubenstein speaking at the government organized event for the MS St. Louis apology, flanked by Liberal MPs Anthony Housefather and Michael Levitt

Awards

• 1994 Canadian Jewish Book Award
• 2008 Ve’ahavta Tikkun Olam Education Award
• 2013 Miklos Kanitz Holocaust and Human Rights Education Award
• 2022 Officer of the Order of Canada