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Kohenet Directors

Rabbi Jill Hammer, PhD is an author, educator, midrashist, myth-weaver and ritualist. She is the co-founder of Kohenet Hebrew Priestess Institute . She is also the Director of Spiritual Education at the Academy for Jewish Religion, a pluralistic Jewish seminary. Rabbi Hammer is the author of Sisters At Sinai: New Tales of Biblical Women, The Jewish Book fo Days: A Companion for All Seasons, and the co-author of The Hebrew Priestess and Siddur HaKohanot: A Hebrew Priestess Prayerbook.  Rabbi Hammer conducts workshops on ancient and contemporary midrash, bibliodrama, creative ritual, kabbalah, Jewish dreamwork, and Jewish cycles of time. She was ordained at the Jewish Theological Seminary and holds a doctorate in social psychology from the University of Connecticut.

 

www.rabbijillhammer.com

Taya Shere plays passionately in the realms of transformative ritual, mystical movement and embodied vocalization. She co-founded the Kohenet Hebrew Priestess Institute and serves as rabbi/spiritual leader at Olney Kehila Congregation in Olney, MD. Her chant albums Torah Tantrika, Halleluyah All Night and Wild Earth Shebrew have been heralded as "cutting-edge mystical medicine music" and rock devotional tribe world-wide. Taya is a practitioner of the body-awareness-based healing art Somatic Experiencing. She looks for yeses everywhere.

 

www.holytaya.com

Kohenet Faculty

Shoshana Jedwab is a prize-winning Jewish educator and the Jewish Studies Coordinator at the A.J. Heschel Middle School in New York City. She is the founding facilitator of the Makom Drum Circle at the JCC in Manhattan and is a percussionist and performance artist who has trained in bibliodrama and psychodrama. Shoshana has provided empowering drum circles to singles, student, training and bereavement groups. Shoshana has performed with Storahtelling, Chana Rothman, Debbie Friedman, Akiva Wharton, A Song of Solomon, Hebrew Mystical Chant with the Kirtan Rabbi Andrew Hahn, and seasonal events. She is Kohenet's ritual drummer and also serves on the Kohenet faculty.

Kohenet Students

Our students serve:

 

  • As officiants at weddings, funerals, unveilings, baby namings, and other rituals;

  • As prayer leaders and givers of sermons around the country— in addition, a number of our graduates serve as leaders of High Holiday services;

  • As teachers of Bible classes, classes on Jewish holidays, classes on the sacred feminine in Judaism, and classes on biblical women;

  • As leaders of Rosh Chodesh circles in places including Jerusalem, Dublin, Minnesota, New Jersey, Colorado, California, and Toronto;

  • As liturgists whose work is published in anthologies and used in prayer;

  • As chaplains in hospitals and in the community (one ordained kohenet is petitioning the National Chaplain Certification Committee for membership;

  • As the Director of Earth-Based Spirituality at the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center;

  • As contributors to PunkTorah.org and Darshan Yeshiva;

  • As bloggers of Jewish spirituality, liturgy, and poetry;

  • As members of the chevra kadisha, the sacred burial society;

  • As creators of sacred art, music, poetry, and drama;

  • As ritually-informed midwives, doulas, and death doulas;

  • As trained dream interpreters;

  • As sacred storytellers in London, Virginia, and North Carolina;

  • As sacred artists: fabric artists, potters, amulet-makers, woodcarvers;

  • As teachers of workshops in a variety of Jewish venues;

  • As teachers of Jewish workshops at interfaith, earth-based, and pagan spirituality festivals, drawing Jews to understand and own the indigenous rituals of their own people.

  • As ritual-rich yoga instructors.

 

Our students have led prayer and ritual at:

 

  • Synagogues, prayer groups, and retreats throughout the country;

  • The Pardes Institute, an institution of Modern Orthodox learning in Jerusalem;

  • OneShul.org, a popular on-line Jewish prayer community;

  • P’nai Or, the flagship Jewish Renewal congregation in Philadelphia, PA;

  • Moishe Kavod House, a social justice community-building project in Boston, MA;

  • The National Chavurah Institute;

  • LimmudPhilly;

  • Chavurat Shalom, a founding Renewal congregation in Boston, MA;

  • The ALEPH Kallah;

  • The Toronto Feminist Seder;

  • Becoming, an interfaith earth-based spiritual community in Washington DC.

 

Our students’ accomplishments include:

 

  • A book on the meditative aspects of the Hebrew letters: Nancy Handwerger’s The Hebrew Letters Speak;

  • A Passover haggadah, liturgy for Jewish holidays, and Ruby Red Seeds, Ketzirah Lesser’s collection of poetry, prayer, and midrash (see peelapom.com);

  • A program called Night Without a Moon at the Miles Nadal Jewish Community Centre in Toronto: an educational and musical event that teaches about Rosh Hodesh and weaves together performances by local Jewish women artists. The program has run three times over 2 years;

  • A Wise Women circle at The Red Shoes, a women’s center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana;

  • A dialogue group for Jewish and Arab women in Boulder, Colorado;

  • A collection of contemporary haftarot, combining the words of biblical prophets with modern poetry, for occasions from Martin Luther King Day to International Women’s Day;

  • An invocation for the national AFL-CIO Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King celebration/ conference of labor union members in Philadelphia— the invocation was delivered to over 450 union activists;

  • The founding of Wise-Hearted Women, a group of women who gather to  collaborate on sacred fabric art;

  • A communal dream interpretation website;

  • Participation in a community-wide panel discussion, sponsored by the Jewish Federation, entitled “Does God Exist: Why Should You Care?”— representing the Jewish Renewal movement and the Kohenet Institute;

  • A collaborative art project called Censu(red): Blood and the Body (http://elsaasher.com/censuredproject/);

  • Publication in the anthology Talking to Goddess, edited by Dvorah J. Grenn;

  • The first Jewish AA meeting in Seattle, WA;

  • Annual lectures at Sophia University in San Francisco;

  • A shrine built inside a private home, meant for contemplation and for meeting with spiritual seekers.

 

Since their ordination, in order to improve their priestessing skills, our students have also studied:

 

  • At DLTI, the Davvenen Leadership Training Institute of the Jewish Renewal movement;

  • In rabbinical and cantorial school at Hebrew College;

  • At the Pardes Institute in Jerusalem;

  • At the Gamliel Institute, a program in Jewish end-of-life practices;

  • In the Sustainability Education M.A. program at Prescott College;

  • With Kol Zimra, Shefa Gold’s Chant Leaders Professional Development training program.

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