I started as a social worker, earned an MSW. After the death of my sister I became a chaplain and immersed myself in the study of suffering, earning Masters degrees in Jewish Studies and Bioethics. When my mother could no longer live alone I moved back home and lived with her for five years as she lived with dementia. I currently work as the chaplain and as a social worker in a Continuing Care Retirement Community. My two grown daughters are the joy of my life.
Naomi Joy Gershman
Joy is a life-long learner and a Seeker. She was raised Orthodox and worked as a School Psychologist and School Administrator. She was recently ordained as an Interfaith Minister and as a Life Coach. Joy is studying Shamanism for the SOPHIA Institute. She has devoted her life to personal and spiritual growth. Her goals is to create practices that elevate the mundane through dance, movement, meditation, spirituality, somatic and ancestral work and through psychotherapy/coaching. Joy's next chapter is emerging, and she looks forward to taking her next steps within the Kohenet community.
Nancy Wolfson-Moche
she/her
Kohenet Nancy Wolfson-Moche, Kindler of Sacred Sparks, weaves together prayer, Torah, ritual and earth-based practices to guide people toward a path of deep listening, reframing eating and all forms of self-nourishment as a spiritual practice to transform and strengthen health. A certified practitioner of macrobiotics, yoga and Torah yoga, she offers food as blessing, medicine, edible art, symbolic sacred expression and magic. Nancy is a candidate for a MS in Nutrition Education.
Shoshana A Brown
Kohenet Shoshana A Brown, LMSW is a healer, educator, and organizer. She organizes to transform the prison system as well as organizing with Jews of Color. As an educator, Shoshana works is a Dean/Social Worker in a 6-12th grade school in the South Bronx, and is also an adjunct professor at (Hunter) Silberman School of Social Work teaching the class she once advocated and organized to create: Practice Lab on Anti-oppressive Social Work Practice. She has facilitated and planned conferences and convenings of more than 200 prison activists, smaller workshops and retreats on the Paulo Freire methodology, social work engagement, trauma, and group work. Shoshana is an Infinite Possibilities trainer and supports individuals working on taking action in their life and creating their dreams. As a healer, she is trained in Reiki I and weaves earth based spiritual practice into Judaism through her training from the Urban Atabex and Kohenet Institute for Hebrew Priestesses. Shoshana is fierce, loving, and energetic. She is a Black- mixed race Jewish femme who hails from the Bronx and has made her home in Washington Heights while still working in Hunt’s Point, New York.
Rayna Daniela
Rayna Daniela, also known as Ryn, is a Ph.D. candidate in Cultural Studies at Stony Brook University, where her research focuses on queer relationality through the lens of detective fiction. She holds a graduate certificate in Women’s and Gender Studies, and an M.A. in Cultural Studies, also from Stony Brook University, where she taught undergraduate film studies courses for five years. Ryn is a ritual leader in the Jewish Voice for Peace havurah network, planning and leading Kohenet-style Shabbat services for the Brooklyn Shabbat Kodesh community. She is currently at work on a queer fantasy detective novel about diaspora that draws inspiration from Jewish ancestral magic, and her latest essay is forthcoming in the Jewish issue of the renowned lesbian literary and art journal Sinister Wisdom. Ryn can be found online on Instagram and Twitter @batpriestess.
Sarah Chandler
she/her
Sarah Chandler is a Brooklyn-based Jewish educator, artist, activist, healer, and poet. She teaches, writes and consults on issues related to Judaism, earth-based spiritual practice, respectful workplaces, mindfulness, and farming. An ordained Kohenet with the Hebrew Priestess Institute and Taamod trainer since 2018, she is also is an advanced student of Kabbalistic dream work at The School of Images. Previously, Sarah served as the Director of Romemu Yeshiva, Chief Compassion Officer of Jewish Initiative for Animals, and Director of Earth Based Spiritual Practices at Hazon's Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center. Currently she is the CEO of Shamir Collective, as a coach and consultant to high profile artists and authors to launch new music and books.
Ri J Turner
Rachel Leah Bello
Rachel Leah Bello supports healing for body and spirit as a board certified holistic registered nurse at the Mount Sinai Health System, as an integrative health consultant in private practice and as a mystic crafting healing rituals, sacred songs, and blessings. She offers the Jewish mystical traditions of her Yemenite and Turkish ancestors and an extensive education and training in Nursing, Holistic Medicine and Torah.
Paula (Puah) Freedman
Judy Hollander
Elizabeth J. Berger
Kohenet Elizabeth J. Berger, MS, APBCC is an Advanced Practice Board Certified Chaplain in private practice. She witnesses and supports the spiritually curious in the comfort and privacy of your own home or office via teleconference. Elizabeth's secular/scientific upbringing, multi-faith training and commitments to inclusivity make her especially well-suited to assisting anyone with an emerging interest in spiritually informed approaches to well-being.
A Columbia University-trained narrative medicine specialist, Elizabeth has presented internationally on clinician well-being and spirituality in Western medicine. Elizabeth’s special programming for houses of worship is oriented to navigating spirituality in a secular world.
As a marriage officiant, Elizabeth begins with your life story to create unforgettable ceremonies. Elizabeth draws from the sacred and the secular to uniquely mark life transitions, using your narrative to shape and refine ceremonies and special blessings for new babies, new homes and business ventures. Elizabeth also offers meaningful rituals of release for separation and divorce, empty nest ceremonies, funerals, unveilings, shiva minyan support and pet memorials.
Elizabeth is located on Long Island, a short distance from New York City. As required by New York State law, Elizabeth is a registered marriage officiant with New York City’s Office of the City Clerk, eligible to perform marriages in NYC’s five boroughs and beyond.