Rabbi Jennifer Lewis

Rabbi Jennifer Goldstein Lewis was an urban conservationist with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service in San Francisco when she began to engage in Torah (Hebrew Bible) study with fellow Jews at synagogue and at a Jewish meditation center. As she learned Biblical Hebrew, the technique of one-on-one study (chavruta), and the writings and practices of Jewish mystics, she found herself connecting more deeply with her Jewish faith — and discerned a path towards becoming a rabbi.

Having been born in New Jersey and raised on Galveston Island, Texas, Rabbi Jennifer’s vocabulary is a mashup of northern and southern lingo.  She attended George Washington University in Washington DC and the University of Texas at Austin for undergraduate work in Government and Economics, worked in politics in New Jersey, and pursued graduate studies in Agricultural Economics at UC Davis.  After graduate school, her political work extended into environmental economics before her transition to rabbinical studies at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Jerusalem and Cincinnati (HUC-JIR.) Towards the end of her Year-In-Israel with HUC-JIR, she participated in student seminars at the Shalom Hartman Institute, a group committed to religious pluralism.  Rabbi Jennifer retains a strong interest in the interface between holy texts and environmental conservation, social justice, and sustainability.  She also loves music and (especially) musical theater.

Ordained in the Reform movement of Judaism, Rabbi Jennifer considers herself a Jewish pluralist, valuing both intra- and inter-faith learning experiences.  She has training in clinical pastoral education and served as a community-based rabbi and chaplain before joining the CFJ.  She is a member of Neshama Association of Jewish Chaplains, the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the Greater Cincinnati Board of Rabbis, and the Women’s Interfaith Network of Cincinnati Suburbs.  She lives with her husband and daughter in Mason.