Alma

she/her

Philadelphia ~ Lenapehoking

Alma knows herself to be a human being born from the Source of Life. Alma is a child, parent, descendant, ancestor. Understanding is her kavannah. Simplicity is also her intention. What is the priority? How can she best serve life? Alma has chosen to become a stay-at-home mother. Alma understands interdependence. As a dear rabbi friend said to her years ago, “when in doubt, do the thing that is harder not to do.” May the road rise to meet you. May the wind be at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face, the rains fall soft upon your fields, & until we meet again, until we meet again, May God/dess hold you in the palm of their hand.

Cara Rock-Singer

Cara is in the final months of a Ph.D. in Religion at Columbia University. Her dissertation, Prophetesses of the Body: American Jewish Women and the Politics of Embodied Knowledge, focuses on how women are using embodied spiritual practices to transform American Jewish life. As a participant and observer in Kohenet, Cara has spent the past three years researching, teaching, and writing about its innovative ritual, theological, and textual work. She lives in Philadelphia, PA, with her husband and daughter.

Bekah Starr

she/her

bekahstarrart.com

Kohenet Bekah Starr is a multimedia Sacred Artist exploring ancient & weaving new connections between Jewish Mysticism and the Divine Feminine. Through her artistry she is a witness to the sacredness that is life, source, and creation. As a Kohenet, Bekah offers spiritual support through inspirational artwork and embodied ritual. Bekah’s artwork has been featured by the Jewish Arts Salon, the Every Woman Biennial, WomansWork.Art, Haggadot.com, the Parliament of World Religions, LabShul, and is held in private collections. She is the illustrator of Hamsas for the Divine Feminine, Illuminating the Moon, The Book of Becoming, Wonderful Whimsical Winter, & Divining Pleasure: an oracle for SephErotic liberation with Rav Kohenet Taya Mâ Shere. She lives with her amazingly supportive husband and their two inspiring children on the lands of the Lenapehoking First Nation people, also known as Phoenixville, PA.

Socials: @bekahstarrart

Angelique YA Rivera

Kohenet/Priestess Angelique "YA" Rivera: A Neurodivergent Jewyorican Poet and Advocate for Decolonial Healing & Liberation.

she/her

Angelique Rivera, affectionately known as YA, is a neurodivergent Jewyorican who has dedicated her life to empowering others and dismantling oppressive ideology, and systems. Owner of Priestessing Liberation, her innovative coaching and consulting business, she has drawn on over 25 years of experience helping numerous individuals and organizations on a path towards healing, reclaiming agency, and shaping a decolonized future.

An esteemed poet in residence, Angelique teaches poetry as a powerful tool for healing trauma to children and teens. Her transformative classes in county prisons have brought hope and inspiration to countless individuals, while her decolonial trainings and workshops have challenged traditional paradigms and empowered communities.

Widely respected for her work in decolonizing the practice of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Angelique has extensive experience in trauma awareness, mental health, and decolonial liberation. She holds numerous certifications and is an ordained Hebrew Priestess, a Certified Integrative Somatic Trauma Therapy Practitioner, and a Quantum Human Design Reader in Training.

Above all, Angelique is a mother to two powerhouse comrades. When she's not challenging the status quo, and envisioning a free Boriken you can find her savoring a slow morning with her beloved café or unwinding with a cigar at her favorite spot. Visit PriestessingLiberation.com for more information.

Ella Gluckman

Ella Gluckman is a weaver of multiple modalities. She has experience as an artist, educator, birth worker, herbalist and natural perfumer. She began crafting and creating with a variety of mediums as a child. Her art work currently focuses on the creation of ecologically sustainable clothing, ritual textiles, and sustainably made jewelry. Her perfume and herbal work draw upon Ashkenazi and Jewish traditions, with a deep desire to decolonize plant work and honor the healing practices of her ancestors.

Ella attended college at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. It was there that she began her journey with plant and ancestral medicine through classes and self guided studies. Upon leaving university, she decided that she wanted to deepen her knowledge of holistic health practices and shortly after trained and worked as a birth doula. She studied plant medicine on her own before attending Ohlone Herbal Center, where she completed their clinical herbalism program. She also completed a massage program in Oakland, CA that focused on working with people living with chronic illness and trauma. Ella has also trained with Mandy Aftel, a natural perfumer, in Berkeley CA and has trained as an aromatherapist as part of her herbalism training. Ella is currently studying Community and Trauma counseling with an Art Therapy concentration at Jefferson University in Philadelphia PA so that she can offer ritualized, community folk art therapy practices to communities impacted by trauma.

Shoshana Bricklin

she/her

Kohenet Shoshana Bricklin is a political priestess whose kohenet training grounds her work as a lawyer, local public policy expert and electoral activist. She creates new chanted prophetic texts, haftarot, that combine the ancient calls for justice with the words (and sometimes music) of the change-agents of today. She crafts haftarot to empower those working for transformative change and justice by weaving words of the Prophets with more modern voices including Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Audre Lorde and many others, and has re-framed a Jewish liturgical mainstay to address critical geo-political issues such as rape, sex trafficking, economic justice, climate change the call for justice for the Palestinian people and reparations for slavery. Her Priestess name “Oreget ba’chochim” (knitter in the thorns) serves as a descriptor of her haftarah creations which connect and knit together many voices across time and space to speak truth to power, even and especially, at the most uncomfortable (i.e. “thorny”) moments. Kohenet Shoshana is also an avid knitter and crocheter and has incorporated these passions into her spiritual practice. To mark each day of the Omer (the 49-day counting period between Passover and Shavuot,) she knitted a yoni for each day of the Omer (see "Yoni Omer, Shechinah's Journey through the Wilderness") as an exploration of craft, color, texture and the explicit infusion of the divine feminine on the Omer path to revelation.

Nancy Handwerger

Nancy is a mother of four, a vocal activist and artist.  Her spiritual practice began as a teacher of Yoga 50 years ago as an LCSW and graduate of the Barbara Brennan School of Healing Therapy,  By special request, she offers integrated therapy and energy healing sessions along with workshops on Jewish Meditation, Kabbalah and Hebrew Letters. Her inspiration through music, then art, comes through paintings of the Letters in her book: The Hebrew Letters Speak. She leads monthly and holiday services for a local senior residential center, and is active in Jewish communities in both San Diego and in the suburbs of Philadelphia.   Her new inspiration is to integrate biblical and/or contemporary Jewish women in paintings with a Hebrew Letter. Now at the age of 80 years, she looks back upon a lifetime and continuation of varied learnings and offerings.

Keshira haLev Fife

she/they

Pennsylvania

Kohenet Keshira haLev Fife (she/they) sprinkles sparkles, disrupts expectations, and offers blessings wherever she goes. She serves as Founding Kohenet of Kesher Pittsburgh, Program Director for Beloved, inaugural Faculty Fellow with the Institute for Jewish Spirituality and also enjoys working with the Jewish Learning Collaborative. Additionally, she delights in serving as a shlichat tzibbur, life spiral ceremony/ritual creatrix, teacher, facilitator, liturgist and songstress. Her work in these realms is informed by her lived experience as a queer, bi-racial, Jewish person, her belief that Book, Body and Earth are equal sources of wisdom, the quandaries she has encountered as a scholar of the Orphan Wisdom School, and her deep commitment to a thriving, liberatory Jewish future. Keshira received Kohenet smicha in 2017 and earned her BS 2000 and MS 2001 at Carnegie Mellon University. After many years of traveling and living in Australia, in 2018, she and her beloved returned home to Osage and Haudenosaunee land, also called Pittsburgh, PA.

www.keshirahalev.com

Socials: @LovingFife

Geela Rayzel Raphael

she/her

www.shechinah.com

Geela Rayzel is your basic wild woman Shechinah Priestess, an Unorthodox visionary rabbi An artistic soul, called to adventure and the transformation of Judaism, she is your basic wild woman Shechinah Priestess. Rabbi Rayzel currently has a private practice for lifecycle, ceremonies, prayer gatherings, oracle reading/spiritual counseling She serves as Director of Spiritual Arts at Aleph Jewish Renewal, curating special programs to enhance community and shine a light on Jewish creativity. Previously she has served four congregations and has held many positions in the Jewish community. Reb Rayzel, as she is affectionately called, is also a singer/songwriter/liturgist (with 6CDS to her name); and author of two children’s books: (Angels for Dreamtime and New Moon). Rabbi Rayzel offers musical Shabbat services, concerts, and leads Jewish spiritual travel adventures to exotic places. She is the founder of the Nechama Minyon which meets nightly at 9 pm eastern. For more information on all her many projects, including the forthcoming Shechinah Oracle deck, see her website www.Shechinah.com.