Please join us on Shabbat morning, October 3rd, 2026, as we celebrate Sylvia Izzo Hunter and David Last as our Kallat Bereshit and Chatan Torah. Come hear the stories of their personal spiritual journeys as they each share a d’var with the Congregation. Later that day at 5:30 pm, our celebrations continue with our annual Simchat Torah Celebration where Sylvia and David will be called upon for the aliyot of the final and first words of the Torah.
Sylvia, born and raised in Calgary (as well as Bucharest, Ann Arbor & Sevilla) until relocating to Toronto for university in 1992, has been a very active member of Congregation Darchei Noam since 2013, serving on more than half-a-dozen committees, as well as on the DN Board. This culminated in Sylvia serving as our President from 2022-2024. Sylvia is also a frequent Zoom host for Shabbat & other festival services and events. Professionally, Sylvia has worked in scholarly communications including editorial and production, and marketing & communications for 30 years, as well as a freelance editor, proofreader, and a novelist.
David, a member of Congregation Darchei Noam since 2018, is descended from the Judells of Ororoo, South Australia, who emigrated from Schleswig-Holstein in 1870. He was born in Australia, grew up in Scotland, and became Canadian in 1975. He graduated from the Royal Military College of Canada, and served for 30 years in the Canadian Army, with NATO and UN tours in Germany, Cyprus, the former Yugoslavia, the Middle East, West Africa, and elsewhere. He is an associate professor of political science at the Royal Military College in Kingston, and has helped to organize and lead the weekly Torah Study for Darchei Noam since 2022.
