Rabbi Yosef Benarroch was born in Spanish Morocco in 1957. His family moved to Winnipeg in 1963 where they were received with open arms by the Jewish community. The family lived in the North end on Lansdowne Avenue. They attended the Talmud Torah Synagogue and Yosef went to Talmud Torah elementary school and graduated from Joseph Wolinsky collegiate in 1976. He attended U of M where he got a degree in Phys Ed.
In 1982 Yosef went to Israel to study in Yeshiva for a year but ended up studying for ten. In that time he made aliyah, met his wife Elana, started a family and was ordained as a Rabbi. He served in the IDF in 1989.
His first Rabbinic position was in Phoenix. He then served as Rabbi of Congregation Beth Hamidrash a Sefardic synagogue in Vancouver for 8 years. The family returned to Israel in 1999. He served as Rabbi in the Old City of Jerusalem at the Sefardic Educational Center. In the year 2010 Rabbi Benarroch along with a partner started the first post high school seminary for Sefardic women in the Old City of Jerusalem. In 2016 he took the position of Rabbi in Winnipeg at Herzelia synagogue.
His wife Elana and himself I are big time Zionists. They have seven amazing children, 3 boys and 4 girls. They are blessed with 14 grandchildren. They live in the beautiful hills of Gush Etzion in Efrat.
Al Benarroch holds a BA (Hons.) in Psychology and Master’s degree in Clinical Psychology. Al operated a private counselling practice for 10 years, working exclusively with Indigenous peoples, on and off reserve, Indigenous child welfare agencies, schools, and communities. Al’s graduate research focused on health psychology in mental illness, including the impacts of prenatal drug and alcohol exposure on development. Al is certified Master Trainer in ASIST (Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training), the world’s leading suicide first-aid intervention training program. Al joined Jewish Child and Family Service (JCFS) in 1999 as Clinical Director, and in 2014, assumed the role of Executive Director (currently President & CEO), moving the agency into new areas of growth and service expansion through innovative planning and creative programming. Al’s passion is in finding the interconnection between Judaism and clinical practise. Synagogue and community service is in the Benarroch blood. Al sat/sits on community boards and committees both within the Jewish community (Board of Jewish Education, Herzlia Synagogue, Simkin Centre, etc.) and in the Jewish Family Service world as a board member of the Network of Jewish Human Service Agencies. Al is presently the board chair of the Saul and Claribel Simkin Centre. Al is very active in synagogue life and ritual communal life. He is an active synagogue member at the Adas Yeshurun-Herzlia Synagogue and also serves as the lay spiritual leader and cantor of the Chevrah Mishnayes Synagogue. Al is married to Brenlee Sucharov, the father of 2 adult daughters, Amber and Simone, and is also raising his 12-year-old twin nieces, Miley and Macey Sucharov.