Rabbi Marisa Elana James (she/her/hers) is a graduate of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and a long-time member of CBST, the largest (and second-oldest!) LGBTQ+ synagogue in the United States. She currently serves as Director of Social Justice at CBST, where she oversees the Ark Immigration Clinic and several other active social justice initiatives, leads services, teaches Torah, and accompanies community members through all kinds of rituals marking lifecycle moments. While living in Jerusalem for more than five years, Marisa worked for Encounter Programs (bringing American Jewish students on two-day trips to the West Bank to meet and learn from Palestinians in Bethlehem, Hebron, and Ramallah), taught Introduction to Judaism classes in Jerusalem and Bethlehem, studied at a wide variety of schools (including Reform, Conservative, Orthodox, secular, and non-Jewish settings), and helped create and lead the rabbinical student program for T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights. Marisa and her wife, contrabassoonist and translator Barbara Ann Schmutzler, live in New York City.
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