Justin Jaron Lewis, associate professor in the University of Manitoba department of religion, was enthusiastic about an upcoming evening devoted to the early career of Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, the founder of the Jewish Renewal movement.

The event hosted by the Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada (JHC)  was also to look at how, when he lived in Winnipeg, Rabbi Schachter-Shalomi began to develop his concepts for Jewish Renewal, a movement that aims to reinvigorate Judaism with kabbalistic, chassidic, musical and meditative practices.

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It was scheduled to take place Dec. 12 as part of the JHC’s ongoing Winnipeg Synagogues Exhibition.

“I spread the word throughout the college,” Lewis said. “There is still a lot of interest in Zalman in the Jewish community here.”

Lewis launched the Winnipeg Jewish Renewal Oral History Project, which highlighted Rabbi Schachter-Shalomi’s time in Winnipeg, in the summer of 2014, shortly after the rabbi died in Boulder, Colo. Thus far, Lewis, his wife, Jane Enkin, and research assistant Alexandra Granke, have interviewed 30 people from as far away as Toronto, Ottawa, Vancouver, California and Israel who knew the rabbi, either through his role as Hillel director, or as a Judaic studies professor in Winnipeg.

“We hope to do more,” Lewis said. “This is an ongoing project. We are hoping that as a result of the JHC evening, more people will come forward and there will be some lively discussion.”

One of the original Lubavitch shluchim (emissaries), Rabbi Schachter-Shalomi came to Winnipeg in 1956. He raised his first family here, and in the 1960s,  he began pulling away from Chabad and creating his own new religious path, founding the chavurah movement, which is based on fellowship in prayer, and Jewish Renewal. In 1975, he left Winnipeg for a professorship at Temple University in Philadelphia. He spent his last years in Boulder, where he continued to teach and write well into his 80s.

The presenters at the JHC evening  were to be Lewis, Granke and Rabbi Alan Green, spiritual leader of Winnipeg’s Shaarey Zedek Synagogue.

“Zalman was a modern spiritual master,” said Rabbi Green who came to Winnipeg through the Jewish Renewal movement. “Chassidim have their rebbes or yeshiva heads. For Liberal Jews seeking Jewish spirituality outside of the far right side of the spectrum, Zalman was the only alternative.”

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Rabbi Green recalled in 1980 asking David Lieber, then-president of the University of Judaism in Los Angeles, where Green was a student, where he could find a spiritual leader outside of the Orthodox movement. Lieber didn’t have an answer for him.

“I was frustrated by his answer,” Rabbi Green said, “but I did find Zalman, who became my mentor and teacher.”

Rabbi Green noted that Schachter-Shalomi’s years in Winnipeg were very important in the development of his concept of Jewish Renewal. “Justin and Alexandra have done a magnificent job in highlighting Zalman’s time in Winnipeg.”

For Lewis and Granke, the evening was their first opportunity to update Winnipeg’s Jewish community on the results of the oral history project to date, although they have presented at some academic conferences.

Lewis and Granke are the first to be doing scholarly work related to  Schachter-Shalomi’s time in Winnipeg.

“My colleague, Prof. Ben Baader, pointed out to me the lack of references to Winnipeg in the obituaries,” Lewis said in an interview two years ago.  “Since I was on research leave, I had some time to tackle this project.”

The oral history interviews will be added to the Schachter-Shalomi archive at the University of Colorado and will be available online, Lewis said.  The university will have a separate Winnipeg Jewish Renewal Oral History Project page on its website.

“We are hoping to eventually transcribe the material and provide copies for the Jewish Heritage Centre,” Lewis said. “It would be easier for researchers to work with.”

Lewis said his and Granke’s efforts for the Schachter-Shalomi oral history project have been funded largely by private donations, but they have applied for a grant.

Readers who would like to share their memories of Rabbi Schachter-Shalomi can phone Lewis at 204-772-5518 or contact him by e-mail at [email protected].