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Rabbi Laura Geller
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Rabbi Laura Geller is Senior Rabbi of Temple Emanuel in Beverly Hills, California. She is the first woman to be selected to lead a major metropolitan synagogue. She has twice been named as one of the 50 most influential rabbis in America by Newsweek/the Daily Beast.

Prior to beginning her tenure at Temple Emanuel, Rabbi Geller served as the Hillel director at the University of Southern California. While at Hillel, Rabbi Geller was a co-organizer of the award-winning national conference “Illuminating the Unwritten Scroll: Women’s Spirituality and Jewish Tradition.”

Rabbi Geller has been a a longtime Trustee and is now a Fellow on the Corporation of Brown University and she served on the Board of Governors of the Hebrew Union College. She was the founding Chair of the City of Beverly Hills Human Relations Commission, is a Rabbinic Fellow of the Hartman Institute in Jerusalem and was one of the first graduates of the Institute of Jewish Spirituality. Rabbi Geller was honored as “Woman of the Year” by the California State Legislature in 1994, named as one of “The Hundred Most Distinguished Brown University Alumni of the Past Century” in 2000, and named in 2007 by the Forward newspaper as one of the “Forward 50.” She was featured in the PBS documentary The Jewish Americans and has been named as one of the 50 most influential woman rabbis in America by the Forward newspaper.

A popular speaker and teacher recognized throughout the Jewish world, Rabbi Geller is a frequent contributor to books and magazines. She has been featured in several documentaries and was invited in 2009 by the Union of Reform Judaism to write the online Weekly Torah Commentaries for the entire Book of Exodus, used in synagogues and schools throughout the U.S. and beyond.

Rabbi Geller graduated from Brown University in 1971 and was ordained by Hebrew Union College in 1976. She was the third woman in the Reform Movement to become a rabbi. She is married to Richard A. Siegel, and she is the mother of two children and two stepchildren.

Blog Entries by Rabbi Laura Geller

Death Cafe or Sacred Conversation?

(2) Comments | Posted April 16, 2013 | 1:29 PM

A recent article in The Huffington Post described a new phenomenon called a Death Cafe, a place to discuss difficult questions connected to the end of life. This week the front page of the LA Times ran an article called "Passing Thoughts at LA's first Death...

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What Is Enough Freedom?

(3) Comments | Posted April 3, 2013 | 7:39 AM

The weeklong Festival of Passover just ended, not with a bang but a whimper. There was no big ritual, no loud family gathering, no singing, no telling the powerful story of our journey out of Egypt, Mitzrayim, the narrow place.

Why not? Maybe because the journey doesn't really end.

Passover...

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The Personal Is Political

(1) Comments | Posted March 7, 2013 | 12:54 PM

Earlier this week I had dinner in a very crowded hotel dining room with more than 100 women rabbis at the 124th Annual Conference of the Central Conference of Reform Rabbis. The dinner was sponsored by the Women's Rabbinic Network. I couldn't help but remember an earlier CCAR conference, the...

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Could You Have Danced All Night?

(2) Comments | Posted January 24, 2013 | 1:31 PM

My daughter, now 24 years old, worked as a volunteer over the inauguration weekend. She also managed to get herself an invitation to the Inaugural Ball. As she set out for the Ball, she texted me a picture. She looked beautiful in a dress she borrowed from me; it was...

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Women at the Wall: Wrapped in Light Like a Garment

(2) Comments | Posted December 21, 2012 | 9:12 AM

We approached the entrance to the Western Wall (Kotel) Plaza a little before 7:00 A.M. on December 14, Rosh Hodesh (the new month of ) Tevet. In my bag was my tallit, the beautiful purple and blue one that was hand woven as a gift from the students and faculty...

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What Do You Pray for at This Stage of Your LIfe?

(20) Comments | Posted December 6, 2012 | 6:10 AM

Our prayers change as we grow older. We see that clearly in the biblical stories of Jacob, who utters two very different prayers at two important moments in his life. The first was when he was young, as he is running away from home to escape the fury of his...

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Much Obliged: Why We (Should) Say Thank You

(1) Comments | Posted November 21, 2012 | 11:41 AM

Anne Lamott's new book describes prayer in three steps: "Help; Thanks; Wow." Others have taught that the secret to a satisfying life is to have an attitude of gratitude.

Psalm 107 begins: Hodu L'Adonai -- "Give thanks to God." At this season of thanksgiving (especially since Hodu is also...

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Arrested for Praying Out Loud?

(52) Comments | Posted October 19, 2012 | 1:13 PM

It's hard to believe, but you can be arrested for singing the Sh'ma out loud at the Kotel, the Western Wall in Jerusalem, the place that is considered to be the holiest site in the Jewish world. You can be arrested -- if you are a woman. If you are...

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Fighting the Internal Enemy: Reflections on Another 9/11 Anniversary

(5) Comments | Posted September 10, 2012 | 1:42 PM

This 11th anniversary of 9/11 falls during the month of Elul, the month of preparation for the Jewish New Year. Our work during this time is Cheshbon HaNefesh, an accounting of the soul, as individuals and as a community. Each morning, we hear the sounds of the shofar, the ram's...

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Why People Cry at Weddings

(3) Comments | Posted August 10, 2012 | 12:46 PM

This past week marked Tu B'Av, the 15th of the month of Av, a day described in Talmud as a day when the women of Jerusalem would go out to the vineyards in borrowed white dresses to find their life's partners. It is the season to think about weddings and...

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On Tisha B'av, Move Beyond the Place Where We Are Right

(4) Comments | Posted July 26, 2012 | 1:00 PM

This Saturday night is Tisha B'av, the anniversary of the destruction of both the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem. Why were the Temples destroyed? The ancient rabbis explain that the First Temple was destroyed because of three things that occurred in it: idolatry, unseemly sexual behavior, and bloodshed. And...

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Shavuot and Ruth: Beyond the Letter of the Law

(9) Comments | Posted May 25, 2012 | 8:02 AM

On Saturday night the Jewish holiday of Shavuot begins. It is the anniversary of the giving of Torah at Mt. Sinai. Strange, isn't it, that on the holy day we celebrate the Giving of the Law, we traditionally study a book about breaking the law! We read the Book of...

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10 Jewish Women Every Person Should Know

(80) Comments | Posted March 19, 2012 | 11:02 AM

The Talmud tells us: "We were redeemed from Egypt because of the righteousness of the women of that generation." But it doesn't tell us which women. Which women would it be? Who are the women in the story? The first to be mentioned are Shifra and Puah, the midwives to...

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Blot Out the Memory - A Purim Reflection

(0) Comments | Posted March 6, 2012 | 11:51 AM

Purim is every child's dream holiday; the story is like a fairy tale. Little girls dress up like Esther; little boys like Mordecai. In synagogues around the world we chant the story from the Scroll of Esther, and boo every time the evil Haman's name appears. It is a wonderful...

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Asking Forgiveness: A Difficult Conversation

(30) Comments | Posted October 3, 2011 | 10:02 AM

The conversation is supposed to begin like this: "Will you forgive me for anything I might have said or done this year that has hurt you?" You are sitting with a friend over coffee, during the days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, and you ask this question. Not easy....

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Where Does the Passover Story Begin?

(4) Comments | Posted April 18, 2011 | 7:08 PM

Every year at our Passover seder we ask four new questions. This year the questions will be prompted by the changes in our world, our fascination with the Arab spring and the courage necessary to take risks for change.

Passover is so powerful because it works on four different...

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Acts of God? A Jewish Perspective on Natural Disasters

(483) Comments | Posted April 2, 2011 | 9:02 PM

There's a famous joke that purports to describe the difference between religions. I'll clean it up a little so this can be published:

TAOISM: Bad things happen.
BUDDHISM: If bad things happen, it isn't really bad.
HINDUISM: This bad thing happened before.
ISLAM:...

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Garment Workers To Rabbis: The (Ongoing) Advancement of Jewish Women

(6) Comments | Posted March 14, 2011 | 9:13 PM

On this 100th anniversary of International Women's Day, there is much to remember. I remember in particular the story of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of March 25, 1911, a fire that killed more than 140 workers, most of them Jewish and Italian young women immigrants. This tragedy focused national...

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The Miracle(s) of Hanukkah

(26) Comments | Posted December 1, 2010 | 6:08 PM

A story is told about a father asking his daughter what she learned in religious school. She answers excitedly: "The rabbi told us the story of how the Jews escaped from Egypt and the evil pharaoh. It was amazing. There was this giant airplane that flew down, and thousands of...

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Technology in Temple: Spirituality in 140 Characters or Fewer

(15) Comments | Posted October 30, 2010 | 6:48 PM

I am with my congregants on a Jewish study tour of Morocco following "the footsteps of Maimonides." There in the old city of Fes is the Kairaouine Mosque, constructed in 857 C.E. and connected to what might be the oldest ongoing university in the world. Maimonides was a student there....

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