Steven C. Wernick, at The Blogs

Jun 12, 2026, 8:03 PM

Last Sunday, sixty thousand people filled Bathurst Street in Toronto — parents and students, Holocaust survivors in wheelchairs, clergy from communities not our own. The sound of Am Yisrael Chai rose over the city. I felt something I had...

May 30, 2026, 12:33 AM

Anatevka Had No Fourth Path. We Do.

Monday night I saw Fiddler on the Roof. In Yiddish. Part of it was intellectual curiosity. Yiddish was the lingua franca of that world. Sholem Aleichem wrote in Yiddish. Tevye der Milkhiker — Tevye the Dairyman — was born in...

May 25, 2026, 11:59 PM

They Argue Narrative. We Argue Fact. What Torah Knew

At our Tikkun Layl Shavuot last week, Bruce Elman — a retired law professor and dean, an expert on Constitutional law — asked a deceptively simple question: Why does the Ninth Commandment use two different words? In Shemot, the prohibition...

May 16, 2026, 10:15 AM

Tzedek Tzedek Tirdof: Two Reports, One Standard

Tzedek tzedek tirdof. "Justice, justice you shall pursue" (Devarim 16:20). The rabbis ask: why is tzedek doubled? Because the pursuit of justice is not selective. Because justice for the powerful and justice for the powerless are the same justice. Because...

May 8, 2026, 6:54 PM

The Mountain Doesn’t Blink. Neither Do We.

Last Thursday night, Beth Tzedec hosted a panel that gave urgent shape to questions this Shabbat's Torah portion has been asking all along. Bruce Elman, Co-Chair of CIJA's Legal Task Force and a member of our own Board; Mark...

May 3, 2026, 6:29 AM

Ancient Alliance: What Jewish & Persian Students Know

Not all distance is the same. There is the distance of genuine conflict — of peoples whose interests are irreconcilable, whose histories are defined by what each has done to the other. Closing it, when it can be closed at...

Mar 31, 2026, 3:44 AM

Featured Post

The yellow candle and the price of fear

When a symbol reclaimed from persecution became, to frightened Jewish eyes, a sign that persecution had returned

Mar 27, 2026, 6:48 PM

What We Do When We Open the Door?

A Reflection for Shabbat Hagadol: There is a moment at every Passover seder that no one fully rehearses. The meal is winding down. The children are restless. Someone has found the hidden piece of matzah and is negotiating aggressively. And then...

Mar 18, 2026, 8:03 PM

30 Percent More Showed Up. Antisemites, Take Note

The rabbis of the Mishnah preserved a teaching that has always guided me: "Mitalmidai yoter mikkulam" — from my students I have learned more than from all others. That teaching arrived with fresh force this week through Dan Stern,...

Mar 11, 2026, 6:16 AM

Three Synagogues in One Week. Canada, This Is Your Crisis Too.

This post is co-written by Rev. Jason Byassee, Senior Pastor of Timothy Eaton Memorial Church, Toronto and Rev. David Larmour is Senior Pastor of King Street Community Church, Oshawa. Three Toronto-area synagogues. One week. That is where we are. A...

About Me

Rabbi Steven C. Wernick is the Anne and Max Tanenbaum Senior Rabbi of Congregation Beth Tzedec in Toronto. He writes about Jewish values, leadership, peoplehood, and Israel, inviting thoughtful conversation in moments of moral complexity and uncertainty. Rabbi Wernick is a Jewish communal leader who has been named one of Newsweek’s 50 Most Influential Rabbis in America and was on the Forward's List of 50 Influential Jewish Leaders.

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