Rabbi Hannah Goldstein’s X bio says she’s “trying to make the world a little bit better,” something she does through a Jewish lens at Temple Sinai in the District.
The Washington, D.C., resident has worked at the Reform synagogue since 2013, where she took on her first job out of rabbinical school.
Goldstein is active in many avenues of social justice at Temple Sinai. She mobilizes congregants for marches, including a D.C. interfaith rally for tax justice; runs The Davis Center for Social Justice; strives to create a welcoming community with the Multiracial Sinai Working Group; and participates in the Washington Interfaith Network.
Temple Sinai is more than a place of work for Goldstein, who sends her three daughters to Sinai Nursery School.
“It feels like this real sense of alignment — this is where I work, and it’s also where I pray and it’s where my kids go,” she said.
Tell me about your Jewish upbringing and background.
I grew up in Andover, Massachusetts, and my dad was a rabbi. I went to summer camp at URJ Eisner Camp. I had a really strong Jewish identity. Definitely as a rabbi’s kid in that kind of community, we were very visibly Jewish. Then, I went to Phillips Academy – Andover for high school. I think people sometimes have this perception that prep school isn’t really a Jewish place, but there are a fair amount of Jewish students there. It wasn’t a very religious place and certainly [didn’t have] a strongly identified Jewish scene, but I was involved in the Jewish Student Union and always thought about becoming a rabbi.
I went to Brandeis for undergrad, which was a very different environment for me; I’d never been in such a Jewish-dominant space. [I] encountered parts of the Jewish world I had never really seen or experienced before [having] grown up in this New England upbringing. When I was studying abroad in Scotland my junior year, I decided to apply to rabbinical school. I went back and forth; I wasn’t sure if I wanted to spend my whole life in the Jewish world. I thought about being a lawyer.
Ultimately, in Scotland, I missed Jewish community. St. Andrews, Scotland, doesn’t have a large Jewish community, and I missed being able to celebrate Shabbat, having people who understood that part of my life and being part of a community where Judaism was the common factor. I was one of the only Jewish students in the program, so I found myself explaining Judaism to a lot of people who didn’t know a lot of Jews. I really liked being a Jewish translator [or] explainer for people. For those reasons, I felt like, “OK, this is who I am. This is what I want to do.” I came back and applied [to rabbinical school], took a gap year and went to Hebrew Union College.
How did your dad’s career as a rabbi influence you?
The synagogue was a huge part of our lives. I grew up in a synagogue; I knew where all the snacks were in his office. I felt so at home there and had a wonderful, robust intergenerational community. I also just liked being there. I sang in our junior choir, I cared about services, I did our youth group. I was connected in those ways. So I could imagine myself growing up and doing the things I saw my dad do on a regular basis.
There were times when I was like, “This feels too obvious and maybe I need to be thinking about something that’s more my own thing and charting my own path,” but I just kept coming back to it.
What do you enjoy about your work at Temple Sinai?
I’ve been so lucky to land here. It’s an incredibly smart community with really thoughtful congregants, and I love that they keep me on my toes. It’s not a place where you can phone it in; you have to be very thoughtful. I’ve met wonderful people, and I get to do incredible work in a lot of different areas. Being a rabbi, you wear so many different hats. Sometimes, a day will include leading Shabbat Sing with tiny children singing and dancing like they’re at the greatest concert of their lives, and then going to a funeral and then finishing up a sermon for Shabbat. It’s so many different things, but that is so exciting to me.
How are you working to improve the world?
It’s a really painful time in the world, and I see our job at the Davis Center and at Temple Sinai as trying to help our congregants have meaningful outlets for their Jewish values, living their Jewish values. D.C. is a place where lots of people are plugged in to what’s going on in the world. They don’t need us to tell them about the ways people are suffering or about the kinds of challenges that immigrants and migrants are facing in this country right now. But we can help organize them, bring them together, act together, and that’s powerful.
Why is social justice work important to you?
I think about Isaiah, the text we read about “this is not the fast I desire.” This idea that piety in and of itself is not the goal. Judaism can enhance your life in a lot of different ways: It can connect you to others, it can give you a meaningful rhythm to live by, and I think at its best, it informs the way that we act in the world and our obligation to other people. So to me, just doing the ritual pieces feels like it’s not enough. I want my Judaism to be about more, and I feel so proud to be at a congregation where I’m in a long tradition of rabbis who felt that way.
