City Shul was founded to serve the growing Jewish population in downtown Toronto. It is part of the Downtown Jewish Community Council of Toronto. City Shul includes members who are
visible minorities,
LGBT,
Jews-by-choice and people with no Jewish background. The Shul also includes members who were raised in different Jewish traditions, such as
Ashkenazi or
Sephardi Jews, and those who come from a variety of
Jewish religious movements including Orthodox, Conservative, and Reconstructionist. City Shul accepts non-Jews as voting members, with the requirement that members of the Leadership Team be Jewish (by birth or conversion). Men and women participate equally in services at City Shul. The service is conducted primarily in Hebrew, and the shul uses a prayer book called
Siddur Shirat Halev (Song of the Heart), which was developed in a four-year project with more than 70 congregants involved, and designed by Baruch Sienna.
Shirat HaLev includes commentary, art and poetry, and is adapted with permission from the
Central Conference of American Rabbis prayer book ''
Mishkan T'filah, World Union Edition: A Progressive Siddur.'' City Shul was formally accepted as a member of the
Union for Reform Judaism in December 2013. ==References==