The AJRCA Clergy and Alumni Association invites all graduates of AJRCA to reconnect with each other, and to share how Elul can prepare us for the High Holy Days as we journey toward Teshuvah, Return/Repentance. Both zoom meetings are free for all AJRCA alumni.
Deborah Lynn Lewis graduated from Gratz College with a BA in Jewish Studies. She is a member of Congregation Bnai Brith (CBB) in Santa Barbara and credits her congregation for instilling within her a great love of Judaism and the Jewish people.
Jamie Hyams received her BA in History from Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon and her BFA in Textile History from California College for the Arts in Oakland, California. She lived in Israel for three years and studied at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Donna Shapiro earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Sanford University in 1986, graduating with honors and Distinction. She attended Harvard Law School from 1986 to 1987, and earned her Juris Doctorate from Stanford Law School in 1989.
Reed is a hospice chaplain, educator and bodyworker. They received their Bachelor of Arts with Honors from Brandeis University in Women’s and Gender Studies. Reed received high honors for their undergraduate thesis entitled From Margin to Off-Center: Queer Women Rabbis from 1976 to 2008.
Judy received her BS in Psychology from UCLA, followed by a Master’s from USC in Special Education, with honors. She worked as an early intervention specialist at USC’s John Tracy Clinic, serving hearing-impaired infants, toddlers, preschoolers and their parents. She also served as an adjunct associate professor at USC’s Graduate Program in Special Education.
Ian Perry graduated from the College of Creative Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara with a BA in Literature, emphasis in Creative Writing. As an undergraduate, his poetry was published in the student publication Into The Teeth of The Wind.
Chaplain Adam B. Ruditsky, BCC holds a degree in Composing and Arranging from Dick Grove School of Music in LA (1982), and attended two Christian liberal arts schools, receiving a BA in Religion (MBI, Chicago, 1994) and an MA in Intertestamental/New Testament Studies (ATS New York, 2006).
Rabbi Cantor Marcelo Gindlin has published several scholarly papers in the field of music therapy and has presented at international conferences and seminars.
Rabbi Arthur Stern is the rabbi and spiritual leader of Temple Israel. He earned an MBA and a master’s degree in Spiritual Psychology, a Doctorate in Psychology, as well as a master’s degree in Rabbinic Studies.