Rabbi Hara Person
Rabbi
Hara Person is the Chief Executive of Central Conference of American Rabbis. Previously, she was the CCAR's Chief Strategy Officer. In that capacity, she oversaw the Communications Department and served as Publisher of CCAR Press, and worked with leadership on overall organizational strategy.
Rabbi
Person was ordained in 1998 from Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of
Religion, after graduating summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Amherst
College (1986) and receiving an MA in Fine Arts from New York University’s
International Center of Photography (1992).
She served as Educator at the Brooklyn Heights Synagogue from 1990-1996, and was the Adjunct Rabbi there from 1998-2019. Since 1998, Rabbi Person has been the High Holy Day Rabbi of Congregation B'nai Olam, Fire Island Pines, NY.
Before coming to the CCAR, Rabbi Person was the Editor-in-Chief of URJ Books and Music, where she was responsible for the revision of The Torah: A Modern Commentary (2005) and the publication of many significant projects, including the Aleph Isn't Tough adult Hebrew series and Mitkadem: Hebrew for Youth as well as several award-winning children's books. While at URJ, she was also the Managing Editor of The Torah: Women's commentary, named the National Jewish Book Award Book of the Year in 2008.
Rabbi Person is also the co-author of Stories of Heaven and Earth: Bible Heroes in Contemporary Children's Literature and as well as co-editor of That You May Live Long: Caring for Your Aging Parents, Caring for Yourself, and Editor of The Mitzvah Healing. Her essays and poems have been published in various anthologies and journals, including Bridges: A Jewish Feminist Journal, upstreet, Encyclopedia of Jewish American Popular Culture, Women and Judaism, The Continuum Encyclopedia of Children's Literature, and The Women's Haftarah Commentary. Links to her many OpEds are listed below.
Rabbi
Person lives in Brooklyn, NY, and is the mother of two young adults.
Want
to meet Rabbi Person? To schedule an author event, please contact CCAR Press at
info@ccarpress.org or
212-972-3636 x243.
Op-Eds:
- Times of Israel: The Immorality of anti-LGBTQ Discrimination
- Ms. Magazine: It’s Time to Give Working Moms the Gift of Economic Equality
- Religion Dispatches: The Moral Outrage of Comparing Abortion to the Holocaust
- Ms Magazine: The Injustice of Unequal Pay
- The Forward: The Reform Movement Is Struggling With Gender Equity, Says First Female Leader Of CCAR
- The Times of Israel: Sukkot: A Season of Empathy
- JTA: How to Understand the Kavanaugh Allegations, According to Rabbis
- The Forward: What Jews Should Watch For In The Kavanaugh Confirmation Hearings
- The Times of Israel: Beware of ‘Biblical’ Policies
- My Jewish Learning: Hashkiveinu: Seeking Comfort and Protection Through the Night
- The Times of Israel: Israel Has to Stop Naming Things After Trump
- PopSugar: The Problem With Mother's Day
- The Times of Israel: The Political Is Personal
- Jewish Telegraphic Agency: When Women Rabbis Say ‘#MeToo,’ Communities Must Pay Attention
- The Forward: Why Women’s Torah Commentary Matters Today More Than Ever Before
- Motto: Rabbi: President Trump’s Birth Control Mandate Is an Attack on Religious Liberty
- CNBC: Gay Marriage Violates Religious Rules? Not True.
- Huffington Post: The Equality Act Would Provide Comprehensive LGBT Civil Rights. It's About Time
- The Forward: The Choose-Your-Own-Adventure High Holidays Prayer Book
- eJewish Philanthropy: How Far We’ve Come – and How Much Farther We Still Need to Go: Four Decades of Women in the Rabbinate
| Meet the Editors of Mishkan HaNefesh: Rabbi Hara Person |
CCAR
Press
works
include:
