Rabbi Yehoshua Ellis

Rabbi Yehoshua Ellis has been appointed to be the Rabbi of the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue of Montreal in 2023. Rabbi Ellis was born and raised in Kansas City, he earned a Bachelor of Art in writing and poetics from Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado. After university he worked as a Jewish environmental educator at the Teva Learning Center.

His passion for Jewish education and connection took him to Poland in 2003, where he served as a volunteer for the Jewish community of Poland under the auspices of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. After a year in Poland Rabbi Ellis moved to Jerusalem to pursue Smicha to better serve the Jews of Poland. Rabbi Ellis earned Smicha as a Rabbi and Schochet from the Shehebar Sephardic Center in Jerusalem. He was also trained in practical rabbinic and diaspora specific skills at the Straus-Amiel Rabbinical Emissary Institute.

After finishing his training Rabbi Ellis served in Katowice, Poland from 2010 to 2015 as the Rabbi of Katowice and Silesia. Later Rabbi Ellis moved to Warsaw where he served as the assistant Rabbi to the Chief Rabbi of Poland and Director of the Rabbinic Commission for the Cemeteries in Poland. Rabbi Ellis's work in Poland has given him extensive experience in various fields including Kosher food production and supervision, Jewish education and outreach, interreligious dialogue and projects aimed at settling and integrating Ukrainian refugees into the local Jewish communities throughout Poland.