Eli Rubenstein Bio Updated as of January 2013

National Director, Canada, Jewish Federations of Canada- UIA Director of Education, March of the Living International Founder & Director, March of Remembrance and Hope Canada - Jewish Federations of Canada-UIA Religious Leader, Congregation Habonim Chairman, Guide Dog Center for the Blind Member, 2013 Canadian Advisory Council for the International Task Force on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research

Eli Rubenstein is National Director of the March of the Living, an annual educational program that gathers thousands of youth in and Israel to mark Holocaust Remembrance Day and Israel’s Independence Day. He is also Director of Education for March of the Living International organizing their annual commemorative ceremonies in Poland as well as overseeing the organization’s international educational efforts. Since its inception in 1988, more youth have travelled to Poland and Israel on the March of the Living than on any other educational program.

Eli Rubenstein was the founder of the March of Remembrance and Hope program in Canada (and co-founder of the international program), an educational initiative for university students of diverse faiths and backgrounds designed to teach about the grave consequences of prejudice through the study of in Eastern Europe. He also serves as the educational consultant for the American program, “The March: Bearing Witness to Hope” which was created on the model of the March of Remembrance and Hope.

Eli Rubenstein is the editor of “For You Who Died I Must Live On...Reflections on the March of the Living”, the recipient of a Canadian Jewish Book Award, and the producer of “Songs for March of the Living”, a collection of Holocaust songs, and “Lay Down Your Arms”, a video on the theme of peace.

Mr. Rubenstein is the religious leader of Congregation Habonim, a Toronto synagogue founded by , a position he has held for 25 years.

He is a celebrated Jewish storyteller, and a key member of the team that organizes "Because God Loves Stories" , the annual storytelling concert in memory of his mentor, Alec Gelcer, which is part of the Annual Toronto Festival of Storytelling.

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As a speaker and storyteller, Mr. Rubenstein is a popular local guest appearing at various venues (Luminato, the Toronto Festival of Storytelling, , etc.), as well as across Canada, United States, Europe, Africa and Israel ( in Jerusalem, “Poland in the Rockies” in Alberta, Oxford University in England) speaking to diverse groups and audiences, and for various charitable causes and concerns. For the better part of the last decade, he has been the keynote speaker at Toronto's Holocaust Education Week program, on the topic of “Tales of Courage From the Shoah”, highlighting the role of the Righteous Among the Nations, most recently sponsored by the Azrieli Foundation

He is also a writer – he is a frequent contributor to the Canadian Jewish New and his work has been featured in the National Post, the Montreal Gazette, on CBC radio and TV, and in many other media outlets.

Mr. Rubenstein assisted the Show with the segment featuring ’s visit to Auschwitz, which was seen by tens millions of viewers around the world. He also helped organize a March of the Living benefit dinner in California, hosted by Larry King, honoring Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, as well as worked with Topol (from Fiddler on the Roof) and Branko Lustig, Academy Award winning producer of Schindler’s List, on the past March of the Living ceremonies on Yom Hahoah.

In addition to his work with Holocaust education, Mr. Rubenstein is Canadian Chairman of the Israel Guide Dog Centre for the Blind. He has contributed his assistance to Ve’ahavta, the Canadian Jewish Humanitarian Relief Organization, helping them organize their annual Passover Seder for the Homeless, and traveling on their behalf to Guyana and Zimbabwe to assist in their humanitarian work there.

In 2008 Eli Rubenstein was honored with the Ve'ahavta Tikkun Olam Education Award. The programs that Eli Rubenstein has initiated in Canada in the areas of Holocaust, Genocide and antiracist education, have changed the lives of thousands of young people in Canada and elsewhere, and have been recognized world-wide as model educational programs.

Mr. Rubenstein in the process of composing, "The Heart Brokenly Lives On", an anthology of reflections, essays, and poems from diverse religious traditions and literary sources that aims to provide comfort and solace for those who are grieving the loss of a loved one.

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Recent Projects:

In addition to the ongoing projects mentioned above, a few more recent developments include:

In the fall of 2011, Mr. Rubenstein, in cooperation with the Poland Jewish Cemeteries Restoration Project, helped restore a Jewish cemetery in Tarlow, Poland, and also funded scholarships for children in the same village writing essays on the Holocaust and pre-war life in Poland.

In the winter of 2012, Mr. Rubenstein did a cross-country lecture of Canada, speaking about the Holocaust, including stops in Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg, Hamilton, Ottawa and Montreal. In Calgary, he addressed the topic, “The Whole World is a Narrow Bridge: Building the Relationship Between Poles and Jews in the 21st Century”, co-sponsored by Calgary Jewish Federation, Canadian Polish Congress, and the Consulate of the Republic of Poland.

In the spring of 2012 Mr. Rubenstein initiated the first ever visit of blind Israelis – accompanied by their guide dogs - on the March of the Living. A documentary on Israeli television will soon tell the dramatic story of this courageous delegation - highlighting the symbolism of blind Jewish people from Israel and their helpful guide dogs, visiting the very places where the Nazis murdered not only Jews, but people with disabilities, often training dogs to assist them in their murderous pursuits.

In the summer of 2012, Mr. Rubenstein appeared in the Canadian documentary Not Wanted: The Tragedy of the M.S. St. Louis, which explores the lessons of Canada’s inaction during that fateful voyage.

In the fall of 2012, Mr. Rubenstein was honored by Congregation Habonim for 25 years of dedicated communal service to the synagogue and to the Canadian Jewish community at a gala event that raised substantial funds for the many charities he is involved in.

Mr. Rubenstein is also working on a project to digitize and make accessible Canadian Holocaust survivor testimonies in a manner that will be available for future generations, when survivors will no longer be able to accompany the March of the Living. (Mr. Rubenstein’s Holocaust related channel is approaching 200,000 views.)

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A selection of Mr. Rubenstein’s speeches and articles may be viewed on line at: http://marchoftheliving.org/from-the-desk-of-the-national-director/

His youtube channel is: http://www.youtube.com/user/uiaeli

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