Feb

5 2020

Pirkei Avot Class with Women's Table

8:30AM  

Jewish Federation of Northeastern New York The Golub Center
184 Washington Avenue Ext.
Albany, NY

Contact KB Goodkin
(518) 783-7800
kbgoodkin@jewishfedny.org

**Pirkei Avot is now VIRUTAL! Email KB Goodkin to sign up**

Women's Table proudly invites you to join us in study once again!

Wednesday mornings 8:30 am - 9:30 am Suggested $18 for the whole year course plus the cost of the textbook.

Facilitated by the amazing Rabbi Deb Gordon of Congregation Berith Sholom in Troy.

This year we will gather and begin each Wednesday by poring over the ethics of our forebearers and how they impact our lives today. Using the phenomenal scholar Dr Yitz Greenberg's version, join us as we bring Pirkei Avot, the history, the knowledge, and the rich heritage into the forefront of our thoughts and daily lives!

Rabbi Debora S. Gordon was ordained at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in 1997 and came directly to Congregation Berith Sholom.  In her two decades in New York's Capital District, she has guided Berith Sholom into a dynamic congregation of learners and leaders, while the congregation has nurtured Rabbi Gordon in practices of Tikkun Olam, deeds that repair the world.  Music and Jewish text are passions she inherited from her grandfathers, and she infuses these loves into her teaching and davvening (praying) to make them meaningful, full of life, and grounded in reality.  

Rabbi Gordon attended Carleton College in Minnesota and Indiana University, graduating with a degree in Near Eastern Language and Literature (Hebrew). Her senior thesis in rabbinical school addressed the topic of “disqualified witnesses" in Jewish law, seeking to understand how Jews whose behavior does not follow halachic norms have been viewed by Jewish tradition.

She grew up in the Reform Movement, attending Oconomowoc (OSRUI) and Camp Swig, and she has served as faculty at URJ Crane Lake Camp in West Stockbridge for many years.  Her family's roots, however, are in the Conservative movement, and she is as at home davvening a traditional service as she is leading Debbie Friedman melodies with guitar.  She teaches 4th-7th grade, leads weekly adult Torah study, runs an Adult B'nei Mitzvah and beginning Hebrew program, and has facilitated a Sacred Aging group for caretakers of elderly adults.  In 2017 she founded Smarter Than Abraham, a support group for local Jewish parents facing exceptional parenting challenges, in partnership with Jewish Family Services of NENY.  Rabbi Gordon is a founding member of the local chapters of Sisterhood of Salaam Shalom, member and past president of the Capital District Board of Rabbis, past member of the Sidney Albert Lectureship Board at the College of St. Rose, and on the Board of Troy Area United Ministries.  She has taught in the Religion Department at Siena College and served as part-time spiritual leader of the Nassau Synagogue.  She was a 2012 Brickner Clergy Fellow at the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism.  

When she is not doing any of those things, she lives on a few acres in Brunswick with her wife, their children, and an assortment of dogs, cats, birds, goats, chickens, and ducks. 

You can find her on Facebook.com/RebDebGordon, Twitter @RebDebGordon, and Instagram as RebDebGordon.