WINNIPEG — The departure of Rabbi Ari Ellis and his family at the beginning of July has left a void not only at his synagogue, Herzlia Adas-Yeshurun Congregation, but also in kashrut supervision in Winnipeg’s Jewish community.

Rabbi Ellis, the shul’s spiritual leader for the past seven years, left a couple of months before his contract was up to take a position as a teacher at a Jewish school in Detroit. The move was not unexpected, however: his congregation was informed last November of his decision.

In addition to his duties as a congregational rabbi, and the only Orthodox congregational rabbi in Winnipeg other than Chabad rabbis, Rabbi Ellis served as the mashgiach, under the auspices of the Orthodox Union, for popular local providers Gunn’s Bakery and Desserts Plus, and, more recently, the Gwen Secter Creative Learning Centre, a seniors drop-in centre that also supplies kosher meals on wheels city-wide. 

In 2008, the OU, represented by Rabbi Dov Jenkins, who is based in New Jersey, became the kashrut supervising authority for Winnipeg, replacing the community’s va’ad hakashrut. The OU, however, will not supervise local suppliers, only regional and national food processors. Thus, for instance, the OU certifies Coty Bread because the kosher bakery only makes bread products (no baked goods) and ships nationwide – but not Gunn’s, a bakery and baked-goods institution in Winnipeg for more than 70 years.

Desserts Plus is Winnipeg’s only exclusively kosher grocer, and it’s also a caterer.

Desserts Plus co-owner Ed Riess said he’s confident there will be a new local certification arrangement. “We have to wait and see who Herzlia hires next and hope that he can do kashrut supervision.”

Up until a year ago, Gwen Secter had a full-time mashgiach working in its kitchen and didn’t need independent supervision. Since the mashgiach quit for health reasons, the kitchen has only had a mashgiach for a couple of hours a day, working under Rabbi Ellis.

Marilyn Regiec, the centre’s executive director, may have found a solution to the centre’s kashrut dilemma that ties in with Herzlia’s temporary fix for its empty pulpit.

Herzlia president Earl Hershfield said the shul has established a search committee to look for a new spiritual leader, but, in the interim, it’s made arrangements with former Winnipegger Rabbi Yossi Benarroch to be acting rabbi and fly in from Israel from time to time to lead services. Rabbi Benarroch grew up and finished high school in Winnipeg and still has parents and two brothers here.

Regiec has tentatively made arrangements with the mashgiach at the Simkin Centre, Winnipeg’s Jewish seniors residence, to supervise Gwen Secter’s kitchen under the auspices of Rabbi Benarroch.

Whether that will work for Gunn’s and Desserts Plus remains to be seen.

Hershfield, however, is not entirely happy that the congregation of about 100 families is shouldering kashrut supervision for the community. 

“We don’t pay our rabbi to supervise kashrut,” he says. “We think kashrut supervision should be the responsibility of the Jewish Federation [of Winnipeg].”

Originally from Los Angeles, Rabbi Ellis and his wife Tikvah came here from Israel in 2008 when he was 29. He received his smichah in 2007 from Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, chief rabbi of Efrat, and Herzlia was his first congregation.

Rabbi Ellis said he and his family were very happy in Winnipeg, but his children are getting older and the options for Jewish education here are limited. 

“When we first came to Winnipeg, our kids were enrolled at Ohr HaTorah and Tikvah worked at Ohr HaTorah,” he said, referring to an Orthodox day school that once operated out of Herzlia synagogue. 

In 2009, its grade school was closed and it was left with only its preschool and kindergarten classes, totalling about 40 students. In June 2011 the school shut down due to low enrolment.

“Also, now that our kids are older and don’t need as much attention at home, Tikvah is looking to work more outside the home. There just aren’t opportunities for her to work in the Jewish community here,” Rabbi Ellis said. “So with my current contract ending in August, we mutually decided that now’s the right time to pursue a position in a larger Jewish community in the United States or Canada.”