Erwin Schild, is a Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 Conservative

Conservative Judaism

Conservative Judaism is a modern stream of Judaism that arose out of intellectual currents in Germany in the mid-19th century and took institutional form in the United States in the early 1900s.Conservative Judaism has its roots in the school of thought known as Positive-Historical Judaism,...

 rabbi

Rabbi

In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...

 and author.

Born in Cologne

Cologne

Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, a Holocaust survivor of the Dachau concentration camp, he is the author of World Through My Window (ISBN 0-9696226-0-0) and his autobiography The very narrow bridge: a memoir of an uncertain passage (ISBN 0-9696226-1-9). In September 1947, he became the Rabbi of Adath Israel Congregation

Adath Israel Congregation (Toronto)

Adath Israel Congregation is a Conservative synagogue located at 37 Southbourne Avenue in Toronto, Canada.It was founded around 1903 by Jewish immigrants from Romania as the First Roumanian Hebrew Congregation Adath Israel...

 in Toronto, Ontario and was appointed Rabbi Emeritus upon his retirement in 1989.

In 2001, he was made a Member of the Order of Canada

Order of Canada

The Order of Canada is a Canadian national order, admission into which is, within the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, the second highest honour for merit...

, Canada's highest civilian honour, for "improving dialogue between the Christian and Jewish faiths, promoting harmony at home and abroad". In 2000, he was awarded the Officer's Cross (Offizierkreuz) of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany

Bundesverdienstkreuz

The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany is the only general state decoration of the Federal Republic of Germany. It has existed since 7 September 1951, and between 3,000 and 5,200 awards are given every year across all classes...

.