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MAY 11, 2022

Paving the Path Ahead: Creativity and Innovation

with

Rabbi Dr. Laurie Coskey, CEO/Executive Director San Diego College of Continuing Education Foundation

Maharat Ruth Balinsky Friedman, Ohev Sholom, the National Synagogue, 

Rabbi Rebecca Ratner Kamil, Staff Chaplain at M Health Fairview in Minneapolis

Rabbi Sara Luria, Executive Director, Beloved Builders




As a Jewish child, Rabbi Dr. Laurie Coskey remembers her mother and father giving of themselves in the community -- trying to create a more just world. Today she is an accomplished community leader with over 35 years of experience developing and directing programs to positively impact the lives of San Diego residents. Rabbi Laurie continues her urban ministry dedicated to diminishing poverty in San Diego through largescale workforce development initiatives as the CEO of San Diego College of Continuing Education Foundation. She completed her undergraduate studies at Stanford University, was ordained at HUC-JIR Cincinnati and she earned her doctorate in Leadership Studies at the University of San Diego.


Maharat Ruth Friedman is a member of the inaugural class of Yeshivat Maharat, which is the first institution to ordain Orthodox women as spiritual leaders and halakhic (legal) authorities. She serves as Maharat at Ohev Sholom - The National Synagogue® in Washington, DC.


Maharat Friedman’s responsibilities include overseeing the conversion program, supervising the operation of the community mikvah, directing adult education, providing pastoral counseling, teaching in the community, and more.


She is a proud member of the Washington Boards of Rabbis, and sits on the Executive Committee of the board of the International Rabbinic Fellowship, of which she is also a member. Maharat Friedman is also a founding member of the Beltway VAAD. She and her husband Yoni are the proud parents of their sons Ezra and Jobe, and their four-legged princess, Cocoa.



Rabbi Rebecca Kamil, BCC was ordained from HUC-JIR in Cincinnati in 2016. She currently works as a critical care chaplain at M Health Fairview, the University of Minnesota Medical center. Rebecca has previously worked as a hospice chaplain, in pediatric/adolescent inpatient mental health, and in transplant ICU. Rebecca finds deep meaning in the relationships that are built with patients and families as they navigate spiritual and emotional distress as a result of illness or pain. Rebecca became board certified as a chaplain through Neshama: Association of Jewish Chaplains in 2018. , She also serves on the executive board of NAJC, and leads the Anti-Bias task force, a group of interfaith chaplains working towards more diversity and sensitivity of the varied faith traditions both amongst professional chaplains and in patient care. Rebecca lives in Minneapolis, MN with her husband Rabbi Ricky Kamil, and her two year-old son Matan.


Sara Luria is a rabbi, founder, and, at her best, cultivator of ideas and dreams. She is currently leading Beloved, a network of spiritual leaders planting new projects and communities, after her 4 years as spiritual leader of Beloved Brooklyn. Prior to Beloved, Sara was the founder and executive director of ImmerseNYC: A Community Mikveh Project, now part of the JCC Manhattan. Sara recently moved from Brooklyn, NY to Northampton, MA with her husband, 3 kids, and their pandemic puppy.

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TUESDAY, MARCH 22, 2022


On the Front Lines: Jewish Women Seeking Justice

A Panel Discussion with Rabbi Felicia Sol, Rabbi Susan Talve and Rabbi Lauren Tuchman


 

Rabbi Felicia Sol has served as a rabbi at BJ since 2001, becoming the first woman to serve as a rabbi to the community in the congregation’s almost 200-year history. In June 2021, she was appointed as a senior rabbi of the congregation, also a first in the congregation’s history.


Rabbi Sol began her initial involvement with the BJ community when she was still a rabbinical student at Hebrew Union College. While serving as Family and Youth Director, she created Pnei Shabbat, B’nai Jeshurun’s families’ prayer book.


After Rabbi Sol’s ordination, she became a Marshall T. Meyer Rabbinic Fellow at BJ. During that time, Rabbi Sol edited Zimrat Yah: Prayers and Songs for Shabbat and FestivalsAfter two years under the mentorship of Rabbis J. Rolando Matalon and Marcelo Bronstein, Rabbi Sol joined her teachers in their rabbinic partnership. She received the 2005 PaceSetter Award and was honored in 2006 as a Partner in Justice by Avodah: The Jewish Service Corps. Rabbi Sol was featured in the documentary All of the Above: Single, Clergy, Mother and has an essay in the book Faithfully Feminist: Jewish, Christian and Muslim Feminists on Why We Stay.


Rabbi Sol earned a BA in Developmental Psychology and Education from Tufts University, a Masters in Jewish Education from the Rhea Hirsch School of Education of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York, her Masters of Hebrew Letters (1996) and rabbinic ordination (1999) also from HUC-JIR.


She served on the board of Bend the Arc for 15 years, and is a member of the rabbinic council of Jews for Racial and Economic Justice.


Raised in Connecticut, Rabbi Sol has a son and a daughter and lives on the Upper West Side.


 


Rabbi Susan Talve is the founding rabbi of Central Reform Congregation of St. Louis. When other congregations were leaving the city for the suburbs, Rabbi Talve joined with a small group to keep a vibrant presence in the city to be on the front line of fighting the racism and poverty plaguing the urban center. This core value of radical hospitality has made CRC a safe home for many individuals and groups that have been marginalized. She has led her congregation in promoting radical inclusivity by developing ongoing relationships with African-American and Muslim congregations, and by fostering civil liberties for the LGBTQ community.  As part of a committed pro-choice congregation, Rabbi Talve continues to stand on the front line of abortion and reproductive rights issues.


In 2007 Rabbi Talve became a founding member and president of Missouri Health Care for All, a statewide grassroots advocacy organization that is building a strong coalition for groups and individuals working to bring health care access to all Missourians. 


Rabbi Talve was ordained by Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati in 1981, where she earned a Master's Degree in Hebrew Letters and a Doctor of Divinity. She was honored with the college's Stephen Levinson Award for Community Service after founding the Jewish Early Learning Cooperative, Ohio's first licensed infant childcare program in the workplace. She was the first non-Christian to receive an honorary Doctorate from Eden Theological Seminary in 2011 for a career of visionary and bold leadership and supporting interfaith relations in the St. Louis community. She was awarded honorary degrees from Washington University, St Lawrence University and has received many awards for her efforts on behalf of the Jewish and non-Jewish community.


 

Rabbi Lauren Tuchman is a sought after speaker, spiritual leader and educator. Ordained by The Jewish Theological Seminary in 2018, she is, as far as she is aware, the first blind woman in the world to enter the rabbinate. She provides consulting to individuals and organizations across the Jewish community on a variety of matters pertinent to disability access and inclusion.  She has taught in numerous synagogues and other organizations across North America. She was named to the Jewish Week’s 36 under 36 for her innovative leadership concerning inclusion of Jews with disabilities in all aspects of Jewish life. In 2017, she delivered an ELI Talk entitled We All Were At Sinai: The Transformative Power of Inclusive Torah. She is a participant in the Institute for Jewish Spirituality’s Clergy Leadership Program. In 2020, she was honored by the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance (JOFA).
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FEBRUARY 24, 2022

Do We Now Take Women Rabbis for Granted? Promise and Reality of Rabbi Sally J. Priesand's Ordination 50 Years Ago

with Rabbi Carole B. Balin, PhD


As a prolific writer and teacher, Rabbi Carole B. Balin, Ph.D. is known for her fresh ideas, authenticity, and way with words. She is the chair of the board of the Jewish Women’s Archive and professor emerita of history at her alma mater, Hebrew Union College, where she was the first woman at the New York campus to earn tenure. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Wellesley College, she earned a doctorate at Columbia University and speaks and publishes widely on gender and the Jewish experience. Carole is currently at work on a book about bat mitzvah anchored in the stories of the pioneering girls who sparked a gender revolution in Jewish life. Her work on bat mitzvah has been featured in The New York Times , Huffington Post , Adventures in Jewish Studies (podcast), and the Jewish press.


This series is generously supported by Women of Reform Judaism’s YES Fund.


WRN is also a proud grantee of the Jewish Women’s Fund of Atlanta and the SRE Network.

                                       


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