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April Shabbaton Weekend with Rabbi Matthew Leibl
April 12 @ 6:00 pm - April 13 @ 9:00 pm
Let’s welcome Rabbi Matthew Leibl to the OJC. Rabbi Leibl has served as the pulpit rabbi for Winnipeg’s Shaarey Zedek Synagogue, as well as a freelance community rabbi performing lifecycle events and providing spiritual support for Jewish seniors’ organizations.
We’ll enjoy Rabbi Leibl’s dynamic and musical approach to Judaism (and his magnetic radio voice!) with a Kabbalat Shabbat service on Friday night and a Shabbat service on Saturday morning.
As ever, we’ll come together for a community potluck dinner before the service (6pm) on Friday evening and we’ll share a potluck Kiddush luncheon after the service on Saturday. We encourage attendees to bring a dairy or pareve side dish to share at each meal.
We look forward to celebrating with you!
Friday, April 12
6:00 pm – Potluck Shabbat dinner
7:00 pm – Kabbalat Shabbat service
Saturday, April 13
10:00 am – Shabbat morning service
12:00 pm (ish) – Potluck Kiddush luncheon
7:00pm – KaffeeHaus – A delicious and delightful evening discovering the stories behind Jewish music and Passover traditions.
This weekend’s visit is made possible by a generous grant from the Zacks Family Foundation of Vancouver.
Rabbi Leibl Bio:
Born and raised in Winnipeg, Rabbi Leibl’s career has been something of a breakaway.
Once, when he was 23, long before even thinking about becoming a rabbi, he spent a summer touring North America, attending a game at every baseball stadium in the major leagues.
He isn’t positive, but he thinks he’s the first sports radio host ever to become a rabbi. After studying journalism at the University of King’s College in Halifax and spending six years on air in the mornings on TSN Radio in Winnipeg, Leibl said goodbye to the microphone and hello to the pulpit, studying with Rabbi Blane of JSLI in New York–ordination class of 2017–and assuming rabbi duties in his hometown at Congregation Shaarey Zedek.Leibl was quite familiar to the congregation: he’d been a part-time Torah reader, bar and bat mitzvah tutor, keyboard accompanist, and Chazzan Sheini for 12 years, throughout his undergraduate university studies and his radio career, before becoming a rabbi.In the summer of 2021, Leibl left Shaarey Zedek to spend more time with his wife and sons. He continues to take gigs as a freelance rabbi–weddings, funerals, and bar and bat mitzvahs. He also leads his own services for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, and works part time at the Simkin Centre, a Jewish personal care home in Winnipeg.