The Bayit Board

Rachel, a fellow of Rabbis Without Borders, was named in 2016 by the Forward  as one of America’s Most Inspiring Rabbis . She holds dual ordination as rabbi and mashpi’ah (spiritual director). Since 2011 Rachel has served as spiritual leader of Congregation Beth Israel (North Adams, MA). She also served as past co-chair of ALEPH and interim Jewish chaplain to Williams College.  She holds an MFA in Writing and Literature from the Bennington Writing Seminars, and is author of six volumes of poetry, among them 70 faces: Torah poems (Phoenicia Publishing, 2011), Open My Lips  (Ben Yehuda Press, 2016), Texts to the Holy (Ben Yehuda 2018), and Crossing the Sea (Phoenicia, 2020). Since 2003 she has blogged as The Velveteen Rabbi, and in 2008 TIME named her blog one of the top 25 sites on the internet. Her work has appeared in Reform Judaism, The Wisdom Daily, The Forward, and anthologies ranging from The Bloomsbury Anthology of Contemporary Jewish American Poetry (Bloomsbury) to The Women’s Seder Sourcebook (Jewish Lights). Her downloadable Velveteen Rabbi’s Haggadah for Pesach has been used around the world. She is visiting faculty at the Academy for Spiritual Formation (teaching both at two-year and at five-day retreats) and has also taught (among other places) at Beyond Walls, a writing program for clergy of many faiths at the Kenyon Institute.

Pamela received rabbinic ordination and an M.A. in Jewish Education from the Jewish Theological Seminary. Believing the essential meaning of rabbi is “my teacher,” she strives to help individual students reach their potential. She serves at Congregation Bet Haverim, focusing on adult education, outreach to unaffiliated Jews and mentoring conversion candidates. Prior to 2019, she was a Judaics teacher and department chair of Jewish Studies at The Weber School. As an artist, Pamela often incorporates creative expression and message-driven art in her teaching of teens and adults. Pamela is a fellow of Rabbis Without Borders and a member of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association, and she serves on the Clergy Advisory Group at MACoM. Deeply committed to social justice, Pamela is an activist and volunteer in the LGBTQ community, working with SOJOURN, Georgia Equality, and Faith in Public Life, as well as the KINO Border Initiative and New Sanctuary Movement of Atlanta. She is the author of Found in Translation: Common Words of Uncommon Wisdom, and is currently working on a collection of creative nonfiction that includes stories and poems about her 25+ years as a parent and rabbi. In addition to attending Spiritual Poetry Writing classes, she spends her free time reading novels, solving crossword puzzles, and taking walks with her spouse and their two canine companions.

Cyn, a writer, intellectual, and teacher, started Rabbinical School at The Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies, and holds dual ordination from ALEPH as rabbi and mashpi’ah (spiritual director).  Cyn attended graduate school in English at UC Berkeley, where they served as Production Director for the early internet zine bad subjects. Their work has appeared in bad subjects, Tikkun Magazine, and Zeek, among others, and in anthologies ranging from The Bad Subjects Anthology (NYU) and Technologies of Writing (Prentiss Hall) to Beside Still Waters, a recent publication of Bayit and Ben Yehuda Press. Disability has taken them out of the public arena, but they continue to write and teach as often as possible. Among their current projects, Cyn is working with their rebbe Burt Jacobson on his book on The Mystery of the Ba’al Shem Tov. In addition, they are working on two books of their own: one on the philosophy and poetry of the commentary and teachings attributed to the Besht, and another on Mysticism in the Mediterranean Basin, 1200-1500.

David brings extensive experience as pulpit rabbi, lawyer, public official, educator and nonprofit leader.  He is rabbi and spiritual leader of Temple Beth El of City Island (New York, NY); past co-chair of ALEPH (the Jewish Renewal movement’s umbrella organization); faculty at the Academy for Jewish Religion; faculty in spiritual direction for the ALEPH seminary; and blogger for multiple national platforms (My Jewish Learning, The Wisdom Daily, The Forward, The Jewish Studio).  A fellow of Rabbis Without Borders, David publishes widely on governance, management, liturgy and spiritual development in Jewish contexts, and has an active spiritual direction practice specializing in clergy development.  By day, David presides in the New York courts in a parallel public service career that also included presidential campaigns, all branches and levels of government, and graduate faculty in government and public administration for Fordham and Pace Universities.  David holds dual ordination as rabbi and mashpia (spiritual director) from ALEPH; a Juris Doctor magna cum laude from Harvard Law School; and a Masters in Public Policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, which named David a global “Innovator in Public Service.”