Rabbi Keren Gorban joined Temple Beth El in July 2022, after serving as the Associate Rabbi of Temple Sinai in Pittsburgh for seven years. Rabbi Gorban brings more than a decade of experience leading Shabbat and holiday services, officiating at lifecycle events, and educational leadership for both youth and adults. She is deeply committed to ensuring that Jewish communities are inclusive and welcoming, with a particular focus in recent years on LGBTQ+ and disabilities inclusion. Rabbi Gorban earned her B.A. with High Honors in Health: Science, Society and Policy from Brandeis University, focusing on the intersection between health and religion. She received her M.A. in Hebrew Letters and rabbinic ordination at Hebrew Union College in Los Angeles, and earned an award for Excellence in Bible for her work on Psalm 77. She was also one of the leaders of an annual interfaith retreat for students of six Los Angeles area seminaries. In 2018, she completed an M.A. in Religious Education at Hebrew Union College in New York, focusing on the dynamic tension between love and literacy in Jewish education. That same year, she was invited to participate in Harvard Business School’s Young American Leaders Program as part of Pittsburgh’s inaugural cohort of ten up-and-coming leaders. Before going to Pittsburgh, Rabbi Gorban served as the Assistant Rabbi at Temple Sinai in Denver. As a student rabbi, she served student pulpits in Montana, British Columbia, and Arizona; taught Jewish History as a teaching assistant at the University of Southern California; and worked as a chaplain in nursing homes in California and at a hospital in Denver. In addition to her rabbinic and academic interests, Rabbi Gorban enjoys hiking, trying different types of art and crafts (papercutting, jewelry-making, micrography, etc.), doing puzzles of all sorts, and introducing her two-year-old to the little joys of life. While she is an equal-opportunity animal lover (yes, even snakes, mice, and spiders), she has two cats of her own and has fostered almost thirty cats and kittens over the years. She is currently on the board of Associated Ministries.