Rabbi Rory Katz
Chevrei Tzedek welcomed Rabbi Rory Katz as our Spiritual Leader in August 2019. Rabbi Katz served as Chevrei Tzedek’s student rabbi through the Gladstein Fellowship for Entrepreneurial Rabbinics while she completed her last two years of rabbinical school. As our student rabbi, Rabbi Katz demonstrated expertise in many areas including teaching, community organizing, systems analysis, and pastoral care.
Rabbi Rory Katz was ordained by the Jewish Theological Seminary in May 2019, where she also earned a Master of Arts in Jewish Studies and a Certificate in Pastoral Care. Through her chaplaincy residencies, she worked with formerly incarcerated individuals in the Bronx, home-bound seniors in the Lower East Side, and homeless individuals in the East Village. She completed congregational internships at Chevrei Tzedek, at Congregation Eshel Avraham in Beer Sheva, and Congregation Agudath Israel of Riverdale (CSAIR), where she organized a conference on Judaism, the Imagination, and the Arts. She is an alumus of many rabbinic training programs including JOIN for Justice's Community Organizing Fellowship, the Shalom Hartman Rabbinic Student Fellowship, and American Jewish World Service's Global Justice Fellowship.
Rabbi Katz grew up attending a Congregation Ohev Shalom, a Conservative synagogue in Wallingford, Pennsylvania, and she earned her B.A. at Vassar College in Philosophy. She is an alumus of Avodah's Jewish Service Corps, through which she studied Jewish social justice while working as a case manager on the South Side of Chicago. She also spent a year studying at Yeshivat Hadar in New York City, which is where she first fell in love with the Talmud. Prior to Rabbinical School, Rabbi Katz spent several years working as an educator and volunteer coordinator in both secular and Jewish contexts. She has studied abroad in both Israel and Nepal.
Rabbi Rory Katz was ordained by the Jewish Theological Seminary in May 2019, where she also earned a Master of Arts in Jewish Studies and a Certificate in Pastoral Care. Through her chaplaincy residencies, she worked with formerly incarcerated individuals in the Bronx, home-bound seniors in the Lower East Side, and homeless individuals in the East Village. She completed congregational internships at Chevrei Tzedek, at Congregation Eshel Avraham in Beer Sheva, and Congregation Agudath Israel of Riverdale (CSAIR), where she organized a conference on Judaism, the Imagination, and the Arts. She is an alumus of many rabbinic training programs including JOIN for Justice's Community Organizing Fellowship, the Shalom Hartman Rabbinic Student Fellowship, and American Jewish World Service's Global Justice Fellowship.
Rabbi Katz grew up attending a Congregation Ohev Shalom, a Conservative synagogue in Wallingford, Pennsylvania, and she earned her B.A. at Vassar College in Philosophy. She is an alumus of Avodah's Jewish Service Corps, through which she studied Jewish social justice while working as a case manager on the South Side of Chicago. She also spent a year studying at Yeshivat Hadar in New York City, which is where she first fell in love with the Talmud. Prior to Rabbinical School, Rabbi Katz spent several years working as an educator and volunteer coordinator in both secular and Jewish contexts. She has studied abroad in both Israel and Nepal.
Our Rabbi Emeritus:
Rabbi Avram Israel Reisner joined us in August 2005, and stepped down from his position in 2015 when Chevrei Tzedek became a Gladstein Fellowship congregation. He holds a PhD in Talmud and Rabbinics from the Jewish Theological Seminary, as well as an MA in Bioethics from the University of Pennsylvania. Rabbi Reisner is a longstanding member of the Conservative Movement’s Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, where he is a leading voice on biomedical ethics for the Conservative Movement, and serves on the Maryland Stem Cell Research Commission.
Rabbi Reisner also helped spearhead Magen Tzedek, the ethical certification of kosher food, and co-authored the responsum that paved the way for ordination of gay rabbis, as well as liturgy for same-sex wedding ceremonies.
Rabbi Reisner also helped spearhead Magen Tzedek, the ethical certification of kosher food, and co-authored the responsum that paved the way for ordination of gay rabbis, as well as liturgy for same-sex wedding ceremonies.
