Val has been a Rabbi in New York City for the last 28 years. Rabbi Val was born in Indianapolis, Indiana to a family of six. As a child, Val always found comfort in Judaism. She enjoyed attending Hebrew school and participating in Jewish youth travel groups in her area. Despite valuing her Judaism, Val never thought she would be a Rabbi. She had always dreamed of being a lawyer and thought that her path would take her to law school. While at college, however, Val felt there was something missing from her life and realized she didn’t like the negative environment of law. Val wanted to be with people at transitional and meaningful times in their lives and to contribute in a positive way. She thought back to Hebrew school and remembered how she always enjoyed learning about Judaism and appreciated the multifaceted nature of the Rabbi’s role in the community. So she decided to transfer to Hebrew Union College to begin studying as a Rabbi herself. She studied abroad in Israel for a year, where she improved her Hebrew, before returning to the U.S. She then began exploring the Jewish community in Arkansas and other parts of the nation as a Jewish instructor. She traveled large parts of the country before coming to New York City in the 1990s.

In 1995, Val got her first official job as a Rabbi in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, presiding over a Jewish community consisting of two congregations that had recently merged. Val struggled to unite the newly formed community, learning a lot along the way about how to be a leader. She came to thrive in her role and is still close with many of the kids from the Synagogue to this day, and has even officiated some of their weddings. After about 7 years working with the Bensonhurst community, Val moved to a different synagogue in Jamaica, Queens, working with an older community that was having difficulty revitalizing. She never loved this congregation and six years later, Rabbi Val decided to switch to Kane Street Synagogue (the synagogue that I attend) and ultimately fell in love with the community there. At Kane Street, she found her passion in education. The community consisted mostly of younger families, and Val realized that at both her previous jobs her favorite part was working with kids. At Kane Street, she got the opportunity to spend her time focused on kids, leading the synagogue’s Hebrew school and youth services. During the school year, Val spends her days overseeing the classrooms to make sure everything is going well. During the summers, she focuses on preparing the year’s curriculum for the kids. Val loves seeing the progression of the students and families and values the connection they make over time. She has managed to build community and connections with many families and has watched her students grow up.

Having worked with kids over many years, Val has come to learn that everyone works or learns in a unique way and has adapted her methodologies. She’s also learned to accept people’s differences, especially when it comes to Torah study. She’s observed that some people are very rigid about the way they approach the texts, and while that is not her approach, she has come to accept it. As a female Rabbi, Val has had to grapple with some discriminatory passages from the Torah and once found teaching them to be a struggle. But over time, Val has become more comfortable confronting the Torah and saying “I don’t agree with that”. She also researches commentaries made by other rabbis to expand her methods of explaining what the text means. Val hopes to continue as a Rabbi at Kane Street until her retirement and never wants to leave the amazing community she has made and found there.