is a rabbi, writer, mother, activist, and song-leader in Boston. She serves as the Director of Professional Development at Hebrew College, and as a rabbinic consultant to Dayenu: A Jewish
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I’ve had a lot of names in my life. I have an English name that my parents gave me. I took on a Hebrew name when I chose to identify as Jewish. And I took on a different Hebrew name after my divorce, to symbolize becoming a new person. In the three communities where I’ve served, I’ve been called by just my first name, and by the titles rabbi and rav.
So when I encounter people, I can usually tell when and where they know me based on what they call me. I’ve also been blessed with the privilege of naming another human being. My husband and I chose a name for our daughter that reminds us of the spiritual journey of parenthood and of beloved relatives each time we refer to her. These experiences help us understand some of the mysteries within Parashat Shemot.
When you don t have a menorah .
December 18, 2020
(JNS) -So you don t have a menorah. And you don t have access to supplies that would enable you to create a reasonable facsimile of one. This was the position my mother, Rachel, was in when she was 15 years old.
A great miracle had occurred four months earlier - Rachel had been selected to leave Auschwitz for a slave labor camp. After two-and-a-half months in the shadows of the gas chambers and crematoria, she was sent to Christianstadt, a Frauenarbeitslager (women s work camp). Three weeks later, another miracle: An SS officer chose her to work in the kitchen - a privileged post of war..
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Rabbanit Jenna Englender dances with the Torah during her graduation ceremony from Yeshivat Maharat in New York, June 17, 2019. (Shulamit Seidler-Feller/Maharat/via JTA)
JTA When Danielle Kranjec committed to using only Jewish texts written by women and queer people in the classes she taught for Hillel International’s Springboard Fellowship, a program that places recent college graduates in positions at college campus Hillels across the country, she knew she was taking on a challenging task.
After all, for most of Jewish history, women weren’t encouraged to take on religious leadership roles or write commentaries on the Torah or Talmud.