Lunch & Learn: Religious Freedom & Pluralism in Israel
Wednesday, Dec 23, 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM
The CBST, the Middle East, & Me team and the New Israel Fund ([ Ссылка ]) invite you to join Join Rabbi Ayelet Cohen and Brit Yakobi for a discussion about Israel's struggle for religious freedom and pluralism, and learn how activists and organizations across the religious spectrum are fighting for social change. Rabbi Ayelet Cohen served at CBST as Cooperberg-Rittmaster Rabbinical Intern from 2000-2002, and as Associate/Assistant Rabbi from 2002-2010, and is today the Senior Director of NIF’s NY / Tri-State Region. Brit Yakobi is the New Israel Fund's Director of Religious Freedom.
Rabbi Ayelet S. Cohen is the Senior Director of NIF’s NY / Tri-State Region. Prior to joining NIF, she was Director of The Center for Jewish Living and The David H. Sonabend Center for Israel at JCC Manhattan. Rabbi Cohen served for a decade at Congregation Beit Simchat Torah, the world’s LGBTQ synagogue serving Jews of all sexual orientations and sexual identities. Ordained at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, she is the author of Changing Lives, Making History: Congregation Beit Simchat Torah, the First Forty Years, and co-editor of Siddur B’chol L’vavcha. She serves on the board of T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights.
Brit Yakobi is the Director of Religious Freedom and Gender at Shatil, the New Israel Fund’s action-arm in Israel. In her role, Brit leads the Forum Against the Exclusion of Women, a directors’ forum of 13 civil society groups fighting the exclusion of women from public spaces in Israel; works with the haredi public; develops civil society organizational strategies and projects; and builds capacities of social change organizations. Brit holds a BA in Talmud from Tel Aviv University, and teaches in several educational frameworks. Prior to joining Shatil in 2018, Brit was the director of the Masorti movement’s Jewish Pluralism Watch, an NIF grantee. Brit is a social entrepreneur in the field of Jewish culture. She founded and directs Free Space, which brings culture and art to abandoned synagogues in Tel Aviv. Brit also curates exhibitions and events that connect the Israeli public to radical Jewish culture.
