Rabbi Michal Shekel

In addition to her role at Temple Sinai, Rabbi Michal Shekel is the executive director of the Toronto Board of Rabbis and spiritual leader of Har Tikvah in Brampton. She is the Rabbinic Director of the Reform Beit Din and Jewish Information Class, and is the mesaderet gittin (divorce officiant) for the Reform Rabbis of Greater Toronto Beit Din.

Ordained at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York, she began her rabbinic studies as a member of the first class of women accepted to the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. She has served congregations in Ontario, Boston, and New Jersey.

Rabbi Shekel is passionate about adult learning. In addition to teaching adult classes in a variety of settings, she is the original co-editor of the holiday section of myjewishlearning.com. She is the author of numerous religious school textbooks and has contributed articles to a variety of online and print Jewish publications such as The Mussar Torah Commentary (ed. Barry H. Block, CCAR 2020).

Over the course of her career, Rabbi Shekel has served as a board member of the Central Conference of American Rabbis and as the chairperson of the Reform Rabbis of Greater Toronto. She has also been a board member of the Canadian Council of Christians and Jews, and the Christian Jewish Dialogue of Toronto as well as on the boards of organizations dealing with Jewish continuity and education, outreach, poverty, interfaith issues, racism, and drug and substance abuse.

She and her husband Carl Ehrlich are the proud parents of two sons and enjoy spoiling their two grandchildren.