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meet Rabbi Yoel Kahn
Rabbi Yoel Kahn A native of the Bay Area, Kahn grew up spending weekends and summers at Camp Swig and lived on a kibbutz in Israel during his sophomore year of high school. After graduating with honors from UC Berkeley, he returned to Jerusalem to study at the Hebrew University and begin rabbinical school. He was ordained at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in 1985. As a student, he served as the first rabbi of Hevreh of Southern Berkshire in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. Upon ordination, in 1985, he moved to San Francisco to become Rabbi of Congregation Sha’ar Zahav. During his eleven-year tenure, the congregation was known for its liturgical innovation and commitment to social justice. Kahn left in 1996 to complete his graduate studies, receiving his Ph.D. through the Center for Jewish Studies at the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, California, in 1999. He also served as the Executive Director the Hillel Foundation at Stanford University and as Visiting Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies at the Graduate Theological Union. Rabbi Kahn and his family remain active members of Congregation Sha’ar Zahav. Prior to coming to Congregation Beth El, he served as the Associate Director of the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco and Director of its Taube Center for Jewish Life where he is responsible for Jewish education and Jewish life as well as the arts and lectures programs of the Center. Kahn has always been connected to synagogues and synagogue life. He has served, on a part-time basis, as Rabbi/Scholar-in-Residence at Congregation Sherith Israel in San Francisco, Interim Rabbi at Congregation Shir Shalom in Sonoma and the Jewish community of Kauai. He formerly served as Director of Curriculum for Synagogue 2000, a trans-denominational institute dedicated to helping synagogues become spiritual and communal centers. As a specialist in the history and practice of liturgy, Rabbi Kahn advises clergy, ritual committees and congregations on liturgical innovation and renewal, and works directly with groups who are editing or creating new prayer books or liturgical materials. Rabbi Kahn currently serves on the Liturgy Committee of the Central Conference of American Rabbis and has been a member of the Responsa [Law] Committee and the Editorial Committee for the new Reform new prayer book. He is the former Chair of the Legislative Affairs Committee of the Jewish Community Relations Council and former host of Mosaic, the Jewish community’s monthly public affairs TV program on KPIX. Kahn has published and spoken widely on Reform decision making, spirituality, and issues of sexuality, feminism, and theology. He has taught at the conferences and conventions of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, the American Academy of Religion, Graduate Theological Union, Stanford University, and at synagogues and campuses around the country. His articles have appeared in Sh’ma, Bridges, CCAR Journal, Out/Look and other journals. He was awarded a Koret Foundation Publications Award for the manuscript of his forthcoming book, Who We Are—Not! - Censorship, Polemics and Identity in Jewish Liturgy. Rabbi Kahn and Dan Bellm recently celebrated twenty-five years of marriage and have one child, Adam, who is fifteen. Get to Know Rabbi Kahn Video Clips
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