Rabbi Leigh Lerner, who spent 23 years as senior rabbi of Temple Emanu-El-Beth Sholom and became an influential figure in Montreal’s Jewish and interfaith communities, has died.
The congregation announced his death in a message to members, describing Lerner as “deeply learned and equally compassionate” and a beloved leader of the community. Funeral services are expected to be held in Minnesota in the coming days, followed by a shiva at the Montreal temple.
Lerner was appointed senior rabbi at Temple Emanu-El-Beth Sholom in 1989 and served until 2012, when he became rabbi emeritus. The congregation credits him with helping shape its religious and community life, including the development of a bilingual English-French-Hebrew prayer book, expanded outreach and educational programs, a High Holiday food drive, and a friendly-visitors program.
He was also an advocate for inclusion and social justice. During his tenure, he supported changes opening temple membership more broadly to the LGBTQ community and championed a committee addressing human trafficking. The congregation later became recognized for its work in that area.
Lerner held a number of leadership positions beyond his congregation. He served as president of the Montreal Board of Jewish Ministers, now the Board of Rabbis, from 1992 to 1995; president of the Canadian region of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the Reform rabbinical organization; and vice-president of the Association of Reform Zionists of Canada. He also twice chaired the Christian-Jewish Dialogue of Montreal and served on the editorial contributors’ board of the Montreal Gazette.
Born in Minneapolis, Lerner earned an undergraduate degree from Duke University and was ordained at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati. His first pulpit was at Mount Zion Temple in St. Paul, Minn., where he became senior rabbi and served for 17 years before moving to Montreal.
Lerner remained active after retiring from the Montreal pulpit. He served as a visiting rabbi with Reform Jewish congregations in Florence, Milan, and Rome, teaching and leading services in Italian. He also spent part of a 2012 sabbatical in Jerusalem working with the Israel Religious Action Center’s Freedom Rides program, which sought to promote women’s rights on public buses.
In 2017, Lerner published The Mossad Messiah: A Novel of Israel, a work of fiction centred on the growth of Israel’s ultra-Orthodox population and its implications for the country’s democracy, economy, and social fabric. He described the book as the product of decades of concern about Israeli social policy.
Lerner also continued teaching and writing in retirement, including work on Jewish ethics as well as biblical and Talmudic subjects. His own professional profile described his retirement as a transition from four decades in the rabbinate to work with Reform communities in Europe.
The temple did not immediately provide further details about Lerner’s death.
“May Rabbi Lerner’s memory always be a blessing,” the congregation said.