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Podcast: North Star with Ellin Bessner
Episode: A conversation with Canadaβs oldest Conservative rabbi, Erwin Schild, on the occasion of his 103rd birthday
Description: Adath Israel's emeritus rabbi, Erwin Schild, turns 103 on Mar. 9.
Schild, who proudly lives in the same Toronto home he bought soon after he first took the pulpit job in 1947, may be Canada's oldest living Conservative rabbi. He is nearly as old as the large egalitarian congregation itself, which is marking its 120th year. He served for 42 years, retiring in 1989, after which he wrote four books.
Schild was a teenage yeshiva student in his native Germany and was captured by the Nazis on Kristallnacht in 1938. He survived the Dachau concentration camp. He was freed thanks to...