Our Clergy
Rabbi Debra Landsberg
Rabbi Debra Landsberg has served Temple Emanu-El since 2001. She is a member the executive team of the Canadian Rabbinic Caucus and is a Senior Rabbinic Fellow of The Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem. She is currently completing her Doctorate of Ministry in Pastoral Counseling through Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. She has served as president of the Toronto Board of Rabbis and Chair of the Reform Rabbis of Greater Toronto, and was the Rabbinic Chair on the Coalition of Canadian Rabbis for Same Sex Marriage.
She received her Bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Harvard University in 1988 (serving as counselor and co-director of the Harvard/Radcliffe Response Rape Crisis Center). After moving to New York, Rabbi Landsberg worked as the senior educator/counselor at the CAPABLE Project in the Bronx Psychiatric Center, before being ordained from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (1996). While in Rabbinic school, she served as Steinhardt Scholar/Rabbinic intern at Vanderbilt University and pastoral counselor at the Momentum AIDS Project in New York. Rabbi Landsberg served 5 years at The Temple in Atlanta, Georgia before joining us here. She is married to Adam and the mother to triplets Efi, Noa, and Elie.
Cantor Judy Adelman Gershon
Cantor & Composer in Residence
Temple Emanu-El has played a large role in Judy’s family life as well as her musical life. It was here that Judy became a Bat Mitzvah, was confirmed, married her husband David, and celebrated the arrival of her three children, Jared, Abigail and Zevy.
Although Judy is most often seen with her guitar at services, her formal studies were in piano, voice and music theory at the Royal Conservatory of Music (A.R.C.T., piano performance) and the University of Toronto (Mus.Bac., B.Ed.). She is a prolific recording artist and is the composer of a wide range of music including choral, liturgical, musical theatre, and children’s songs. Judy’s work in children’s music and television with her husband, David, has garnered her some of the top distinctions in the industry including the Juno Award, The SOCAN Award, and the Parent’s Choice Gold Award.
Judy is a highly respected choral conductor in Canada and beyond. In 2009, she founded the Toronto Jewish Chorus, a critically-acclaimed choir of 70 voices from across the GTA Jewish community. Judy credits her early experience in our synagogue's junior choir with igniting her passion for song, for choir and especially for Jewish music.
Learn more about our Composer in Residence Program here.
Rabbi Arthur Bielfeld
Rabbi Emeritus
Rabbi Bielfeld retired in June 2001 after serving as the spiritual leader of Temple Emanu-El for 33 years. During his long history with the Congregation, Rabbi Bielfeld was an inspiration and the catalyst for innovative programming and Social Action endeavours. A native of Worcester, Massachusetts, Rabbi Bielfeld graduated Yale University with a Bachelor of Arts in History. He was ordained from Hebrew Union College in 1964. Rabbi Bielfeld is the founding Chair and present Chairman of the Leo Baeck Day School, the first community-sponsored Reform Jewish Day School in North America, Past Chairman of the Board of the Energy Probe Research Foundation - Probe International, Founding Chair of MAZON Canada - a Jewish response to Hunger, a Founding Member of KOLEL - The Adult Centre for Liberal Jewish Learning, Founding Chair of The Campaign Against Child Poverty - a national coalition as well as a Past Board Member of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, Talbert House (Cincinnati, Ohio), North York Committee on Community, Race & Ethnic Relations, United Way of Greater Toronto and Casey House Hospice and Casey House Foundation. On July 1, 2012 Rabbi Bielfeld was awarded the Order of Canada for his contributions to Toronto’s Jewish community and his social justice work.
Cantor Anna Trubashnik
Cantor Emerita
Cantor Trubashnik served Temple Emanu-El from 1990 until her retirement. She was born in Moscow, Russia and with her parents immigrated to Israel where she joined the Israel Philharmonic Professional Chorus under the direction of Zubin Mehta. The family then moved to Belgium where she graduated from the Brussels Conservatory in Voice and Piano Performance and Choral Conducting. Shortly after Ms. Trubashnik joined the Brussels Opera Theatre La Monnaie and became a regular cast member. She studied with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Elizabeth Schwarzkopf and Paulette Daloze.
The family immigrated to Canada and together with her parents, oboist, Senya, and pianist, Lara, where they formed the Toronto Lyric Trio, performing in Canada, Europe, Japan and The United States. Ms. Trubashnik continued her studies with Marilyn Horne in New York and in Toronto with Maureen Forrester and Lois Marshall.
Cantor Trubashnik holds Bachelor’s Degrees in French and Italian Language, Voice and Piano Performance, Master’s Degree in Voice Performance and a Choral Conducting Diploma; is a Certified Cantor from the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York. She is a member of the American Conference of Cantors and the Toronto Council of Hazzanim. She is also fluent in seven languages.