Every community needs a leader, and Rabbi Matthew Ponak, a CJA Grade 9, 2000 graduate, is one of them. He has built a career as an author, spiritual counsellor, and teacher of Jewish mysticism. Whether that community is online or in person, Matthew is there to offer guidance to those who need it. He currently lives in Victoria, BC, with his wife and two children.
Matthew’s first experience of true community was at the CJA. “It is something very special,” he has realized, “that all of the people in my grade growing up felt like family.” That connection with them has remained strong; whenever he reconnects with them, it’s easy to pick up right where they left off. Although his higher education has taken him across the world to Boulder, Colorado; Boston, Massachusetts; and Israel, Matthew acknowledges that the CJA is where his foundational education began – and his sense of community – was first established. He also credits CJA’s strong Alberta and Judaic studies curriculum with giving him a solid academic foundation that prepared him well for university, graduate studies, and ultimately rabbinical school.
The CJA also introduced Matthew to competitive athletics, where he discovered the value of discipline, teamwork, and showing up for others. CJA’s pluralistic approach to Jewish education broadened Matthew’s understanding of what it means to be Jewish and sparked a lifelong curiosity about different Jewish traditions. This curiosity and passion for spirituality led him to be ordained as a rabbi in 2020. His unique perspective informs his teaching style, combining aspects of all of them while staying true to the roots of Judaism. His classes and counselling are intentionally open to people of any background. Many of the people he works with are spiritual seekers who have, in some way, felt alienated from the community, wisdom, or practice of Judaism.
Today, Matthew brings that same spirit of empathy, inclusion, and belonging to his teaching, counselling, and family life. The lessons he first learned in the halls of CJA continue to shape the way he leads, serves others, and helps people find connection within Jewish life and beyond.