Eli Rubenstein

Eli Rubenstein OC^[1] (born in 1959) is a Holocaust educator, writer, filmmaker, and activist. He is currently the religious leader of Congregation Habonim Toronto,^[2] a Toronto synagogue founded by Holocaust survivors, served as the Director of Education for March of the Living International since 1988, and currently serves as National Director of March of the Living Canada from 1988 to 2024.

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 nee 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 (1860-1945), 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.^[3][4][5]

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.^[6][7]

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.^[8]

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^[9] (for their annual Passover Seder for the Homeless), Sara and Chaim Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre,^[10] Free the Children, the Polish Consulate, the Toronto Partnership Minyan,^[11] 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.^[12]

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.^[13] Congregation Habonim has archived some of Rubenstein's sermons online.^[14]

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 [Alec] 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.”^[15]

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.”^[16]

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:

"I think of Pinchas Gutter, a man who lived through the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, and survived the Majdanek death camp…‘I tell my story,’ he says, ‘for the purpose of improving humanity, drop by drop by drop. Like a drop of water falls on a stone and erodes it, so, hopefully, by telling my story over and over again, I will achieve the purpose of making the world a better place to live in.’ Those are the words of one survivor – performing that sacred duty of memory."^[17]

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.^[18]

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.^[19]

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.^[20]

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".^[20]

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 (during the COVID-19 pandemic, the in-person March was cancelled that year). 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."^[14][21][22]

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.^[21][22]

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."^[23][24][25]

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.^[26]

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.^[27]

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:

"I asked a survivor I knew from Toronto what today was like for him. He said that, 'this was the most wonderful gesture a government could ever express', and this was echoed by a number of other survivors I spoke to. What a mitzvah, what a good deed, was done here today by our government! Elie Wiesel, of blessed memory, once said: Many people die twice. Once when they die, and once again when they are forgotten. So thank you, dear Prime Minister, and indeed all our political leaders, for making sure that the over 250 victims of St Louis, many who perished in Auschwitz/Birkenau, Sobibor, and other places, are never forgotten, so that they don't die a second death."

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.)"^[28]

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."^[29][30]

In 1993, "For You Who Died I Must Live On...Reflections on the March of the Living" was published by Mosaic Press. The book was edited by Rubenstein, and featured the experiences from participants on the March from its first four years. It was subtitled, "Contemporary Jewish Youth Confront the Holocaust." The book won the 1994 Canadian Jewish Book Award.^[31]

In 2015, Witness: Passing the Torch of Holocaust Memory to New Generations, authored by Rubenstein, was published by Second Story Press. The book was "inspired by a 2014 United Nations exhibit of reflections and images of Holocaust survivors and students who traveled on the March of the Living since 1988."  Spanish, Polish and Hebrew were also subsequently published. In 2020, a special edition of Witness appeared, commemorating the 75th Anniversary of the end of WWII and the liberation of Europe from Nazi tyranny, and included a section dealing with liberation stories of Holocaust survivors. The new edition also featured an afterword by Steven Spielberg, founder of the USC Shoah Foundation, as well as content from Pope John Paul II and Pope Francis related to the March of the Living and stories concerning the Righteous Among the Nations.

About the significance of storytelling in Rubenstein's book,Witness: Passing the Torch of Holocaust Memory to New Generations, former president Obama said:

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). It was screened at the Edmonton Jewish Film Festival in May 2016 as well.^[32]

• I Am Anne Frank^[33]
• Anne Frank:70 Years Later^[34]
• To Live and Die with Honor: The Story of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising^[35]
• Requiem for the Warsaw Ghetto^[36]
• Lay Down Your Arms^[37]
• Auschwitz-Birkenau: 70 Years After Liberation; A Warning to Future Generations^[38]
• Candles of Kindness^[39]
• Twice Liberated^[40]
• Czeslawa & Olga^[41]
• 100,000 Souls: The Legacy of Raoul Wallenberg^[42]
• Without a Doubt - The Story of Franciszek Pasławski^[43]
• Kindred Strangers - Matylda Liro & Michael Bulik^[44]
• 7 Days of Remembrance and Hope^[45]
• It Was The Right Thing To Do^[46]
• The Choice is Ours: Courageous Acts of Medical Professionals During the Holocaust^[47][48]
• Full Circle – Ukrainian Family Saves Jewish Woman During Holocaust – 80 Years Later Kindness Repaid^[49][50]
• United We Stand: Black Soldiers Liberating Hitler's Camps and Jewish Activists in Civil Rights Movement^[51]
• Point of No Return: The Nuremberg Laws^[52]
• Nuremberg Trials – Staying the Hand of Vengeance^[53]

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.^[54]

Rubenstein co-produced a short film, edited by Naomi Wise commemorating 85 years since the start of the first Kindertransport, when countries helped ship thousands of children out of Nazi occupied areas to safety. The film was released by International March of the Living, airing on Jewish Broadcasting Services in January, 2024. The film was titled, "If We Never See Each Other Again."^[55]

• 1994 Canadian Jewish Book Award
• 2008 Ve’ahavta Tikkun Olam Education Award^[56]
• 2013 Miklos Kanitz Holocaust and Human Rights Education Award ^[57]
• 2022 Officer of the Order of Canada^[1]

• Sacred Search - curated content of work by Eli Rubenstein

Media related to Eli Rubenstein at Wikimedia Commons