Author

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    Rabbi Ilana Garber graduated from the Double Degree program of List College (Talmud) and Barnard College (Religion) in 2000, and received her MA from the Wm. Davidson Graduate School of Jewish Education in 2003. She was ordained by the Jewish Theological Seminary in 2005, and immediately became an active volunteer in our RA (co-chair of Women’s Committee, served on Nominations Committee, Convention Committee, Zera’im: Seeds of our Future) while serving as Rabbi and Rabbinic Director of Lifelong Learning & Community Engagement at Beth El Temple (West Hartford, CT) from 2005-2020. A visionary Jewish educator, she created SULAM (Seek, Understand, Learn, Act, Marvel) in a complete overhaul of Beth El Temple’s religious school. Passionate about the mikveh, she wrote the curriculum to train mikveh guides for Boston’s Mayyim Hayyim: Living Waters Community Mikveh. Currently, she serves on the boards of Greater Hartford’s Mikveh Bess Israel and the Hartford Region’s Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

Rabbi Ilana Garber graduated from the Double Degree program of List College (Talmud) and Barnard College (Religion) in 2000, and received her MA from the Wm. Davidson Graduate School of Jewish Education in 2003. She was ordained by the Jewish Theological Seminary in 2005, and immediately became an active volunteer in our RA (co-chair of Women’s Committee, served on Nominations Committee, Convention Committee, Zera’im: Seeds of our Future) while serving as Rabbi and Rabbinic Director of Lifelong Learning & Community Engagement at Beth El Temple (West Hartford, CT) from 2005-2020. A visionary Jewish educator, she created SULAM (Seek, Understand, Learn, Act, Marvel) in a complete overhaul of Beth El Temple’s religious school. Passionate about the mikveh, she wrote the curriculum to train mikveh guides for Boston’s Mayyim Hayyim: Living Waters Community Mikveh. Currently, she serves on the boards of Greater Hartford’s Mikveh Bess Israel and the Hartford Region’s Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

My Posts

5 Kavanot for Elul

5 Kavanot for Elul

Here are 5 kavanot, intentions, for the days and weeks of Elul, approaching the Holy Days. This includes poems, books, and self-reflection.

What If I Can’t (or Don’t Want to) Fast on Tisha B’Av?

Rabbi Ilana Garber offers us her nine ways to make the 9th day of Av meaningful that do not involve fasting.
blurry image of someone cleaning a table with the words When the COVID Plague Threatens Your Seder (Again)

When the COVID Plague Threatens Your Seder (Again)

Here are 10 tips on how to make Pesah meaningful and kosher (enough) even when the plague of COVID continues to threaten our celebrations.
blurry image of a book with the words The Sunflower on Our Seder Table

The Sunflower on Our Seder Table

The Sunflower on Our Seder Table by Rabbi Ilana Garber on behalf of the people in Ukraine in 2022.