Rachel Kohl Finegold is the Education & Ritual Director at Anshe Sholom B’nai Israel Congregation, where she holds the Dr. Carol Fuchs Kaufman Rabbanit Chair. She completed the Scholars Circle at the Drisha Institute in New York, an intensive graduate-level program in Talmud, Jewish Law, and communal leadership, and received her B.A. in Religion from Boston University. Rachel served as Congregational Intern at Ohev Shalom – The National Synagogue – in Washington, DC and has studied at Midreshet Lindenbaum and MaTaN in Jerusalem. Her numerous years as a staff member at Camp Nesher in Pennsylvania, as well as other camp and theater settings in the U.S. and abroad, have given her a firm grounding in informal Jewish education. Rachel is a member of the Advisory Board of the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance (JOFA), serves on the Spiritual Advisory Council of Midreshet Devora (a new modern Orthodox yeshiva for post-high school girls in Israel), and is on the board of the Lakeview Action Coalition (LAC). She has taught the MaTaN Bat Mitzvah program, and has spoken at various Hillels, at the Spertus Institute, and at synagogues across the east coast. In her spare time, Rachel practices yoga (she has been a yogi for 10 years), plays piano, or lets loose at improv comedy. Rachel hails from Brooklyn, NY and currently lives in Chicago with her husband, Rabbi Avi Finegold.
