[Editor's note:  Yacov Fruchter will be one of several speakers coming to Winnipeg as part of Limmud:Festival of Jewish Learning on March 12-13. A  listing of other out of town speakers plus a samplinjg of  local speakers is given at the end of this article]

As many synagogues across North America struggle to attract and retain young adults to services, the Annex Shul has no such difficulty. The synagogue, founded in Toronto four years ago, easily attracts a crowd of up to 180 twenty and thirty somethings to its bimonthly Friday night Sabbath services. At present, these services are held at the Wolfond Center on Harbord Street in the heart of the Annex neighbourhood.

On the weekend of February 12-13, the Annex Shul will be holding its first ever milestone celebration. The weekend events, a Saturday morning Shabbat service and Kiddush and a Sunday evening cocktail party, will honour the shul’s founders, commemorate the shul’s achievements to date, and welcome the shul’s first full time spiritual leader. 

That spiritual leader is Yacov Fruchter, a gregarious 28-year-old who grew up in a Modern Orthodox home in Montreal, attended the Hebrew Academy there, and studied at a Yeshiva in Israel for one year. He learned to lead services and read Torah at the age of nine at a ‘shtiebel,’ a small participatory minyan that he attended with his father. 

Fruchter initially joined the Annex Shul as a part time lay leader in the summer of 2009, two years after moving to Toronto to assume the position of Director of Emerging Campuses with Hillel Canada. He already knew the founders of the shul, Richard Meloff and  Bram Belzberg, because they had also been among the student founders of Montreal’s Ghetto Shul  a few years before. 

Both Torontonians, Meloff and Belzberg, had recently moved back to Ontario and were anxious to mimic the success of the Ghetto Shul in their hometown. That success relied on creating a warm, welcoming environment in which young professionals, young families and students, could connect with their Judaism, participate in services, celebrate Shabbat and holidays, and enjoy a meaningful Jewish experience.  They knew that Fruchter could help them achieve that ambience. 

“After a year and a half of incredible successes at the shul,” Fruchter says, “we collectively decided it was time for me to come on full time.”
Fruchter is very excited about this new opportunity and intends to make use of much of the knowledge and many of the skills he gained at Hillel in his new position.  

“The most important nugget of knowledge that I gained through my work as a Jewish educator for Hillel is that young Jews yearn for the opportunity to have open and authentic conversations in which they can grapple with their own connection to Judaism within the framework of a trusting relationship,” he says.

As such, he is determined to make the Annex Shul the place that provides this opportunity by making it as comfortable, accepting and accommodating as possible. 

Although traditional in nature, the shul is also progressive. Women are active participants in services, and seating is divided into three sections, for men, for women and for men and women together. The shul also hosts family programs once a month, holiday parties and social events, and Tikkun Olam opportunities throughout the year. 

As well, Fruchter will be offering informal study classes as a means of keeping young adults, especially those living and working downtown, connected to and rejoicing in Jewish life and all it has to offer.  

For further information about the Annex Shul and the Milestone Weekend Celebrations, visit www.annexshul.com  
  

Please see the schedule of speakers for  Limmud in Winnipeg

                         Limmud: Festival of Jewish Learning is Coming to Winnipeg!