Baruch Frydman-Kohl
Beth Tzedec Congregation
Rabbi Emeritus
Toronto
Baruch Frydman-Kohl is Rabbi Emeritus of Beth Tzedec Congregation. During his leadership of the largest synagogue community in Canada, he focused on family education, life-long learning and care for the housebound, hospitalized and homeless. Rav Baruch initiated the development of a "synaplex" of ritual and educational opportunities to encourage participation in synagogue life.
Rav Baruch is past president of the Toronto Board of Rabbis and currently serves as vice-chair of the Canadian Rabbinic Caucus. He is a co-organiser of Path of Abraham missions to bring Jews, Christians and Muslims to the Holy Land to explore three religions, two nations and one land.
Rav Baruch was featured in “The Secret of San Nicandro” for CBC and “Amazing Communities” for Israel television. He offered a prayer to open a session of the United States Senate and helped to organize the Solidarity Vigil and Memorial following the Yonge Street killings in April 2018. His service to the community was recognized in 2016 with the Gordy Wolfe Award for Lifetime Jewish Communal Professional Leadership.
Rav Baruch served on the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Rabbinical Assembly for two decades. He was awarded a Coolidge Fellowship to pursue research in an interfaith community at the Episcopal Divinity School at Harvard University, received a doctorate in Jewish Philosophy from the Jewish Theological Seminary, is a Rabbinic Fellow of the Shalom Hartman Institute and was awarded a LLM degree in Dispute Resolution by Osgoode Hall/York University. He is the author of scholarly articles in the area of Jewish philosophy and mysticism.
