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Rabbi Shelley Goldman (she/ her)
Rabbi
Conservative;Reconstructionist
Kalamazoo, Michigan
United States

About

I am a proud queer Jewish woman. Before joining the rabbinate I trained as a community organizer and worked at the LGBT Community Center in New York City. Before that I was on staff at JFREJ: Jews for Racial and Economic Justice.

I was born into a secular/ politically progressive family in Chicago. We joined a Reform Temple when I was 10 and by 14 I was actively involved in radical politics. I learned of the Reconstructionist movement in college, regularly spent Shabbatot in various Orthodox communities, and have lived in Jerusalem at three different points in my life. I am now the rabbi of a Conservative congregation in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Listing Details

Clergy answered "Yes" to the following

  • Experience officiating conversions for transgender and nonbinary individuals with a sensitivity to the wide range of relationships to gender and embodiment that transgender and nonbinary individuals may have
  • Experience officiating gender-expansive b-mitzvah
  • Familiar with gender-expansive Hebrew liturgical and linguistic options
  • Approaches the presence of LGBTQ+ people as the norm rather than an exception in Jewish communal life
  • Person-centered and LGBTQ+ positive approach to Jewish law and tradition
  • Comfortable consistently using they/them pronouns and neopronouns
  • Speaks or writes regularly on LGBTQ+ themes
  • Experience in pastoral/spiritual care of LGBTQ+ individuals

Clergy answered "No" to the following

  • Trained on LGBTQ+ identities within past five years
  • Experience in end-of-life care for LGBTQ+ individuals

Clergy answered "I'm Still Learning" to the following

  • Experience celebrating LGBTQ+ specific life-cycle rituals such as coming out and renaming
  • Experience officiating LGBTQ+ weddings