Rabbi Rachel Hersh has done it all, from more than a quarter century of leadership at Adat Shalom Reconstructionist Congregation to singing in multiple languages and social work.
She earned her bachelor of arts degree in music and master of social work from the University of Maryland and a master of Judaic studies from Baltimore Hebrew University.
Hersh was ordained by the Cantorial Assembly in 2002. She is a certified yoga instructor and serves on the executive council of the Washington Board of Rabbis.
Hersh is also the director of Jewish enrichment and engagement at Jewish Social Service Agency, a role she took on in November 2022. She lives in Bethesda with her husband and they have three young adult sons.
Tell me about your Jewish upbringing and background.
I grew up in Baltimore in Maryland and my family was part of a Conservative synagogue. When it was time for me to become a bat mitzvah, the rabbi of the synagogue said, “I think we’re ready to call girls to the Torah” for the first time. So my mother stuck my hand in the air and said, “My daughter would love to do that.” In hindsight, it was an important moment, realizing that I could participate fully and that there were a lot of interesting and beautiful and rich things in Jewish tradition for me to explore and to develop my own interests.
I always loved singing, and the synagogue where I grew up started asking me to fill in for the cantor when he was on vacation and learn the prayers as I went. I had no idea that it was going to evolve into something that I would do in a much more professional way later on, but it really was an important connection for me as a young person.
How did you get to where you are today?
For many years, I was one of the clergy: I was cantor and then rabbi at Adat Shalom Reconstructionist Congregation, which is still my home community. I still enjoy being with the community; I sometimes lead services there and teach. But before I got involved in all of that work, as a younger adult, I studied and worked in social work and was really interested in the different ways that social work and spiritual life intersect.
A couple years ago, JSSA created a new position for a rabbi. They have had rabbis on staff before, but not for many years, and the agency has gone through a period of incredible growth and evolution, moving from an agency that was really focused mostly on the Jewish community to one that serves the whole community: neighbors of all backgrounds in D.C., Maryland and Virginia. We want to keep serving all the people that we can and we want to be strong in who we are as a Jewish organization. So they created the [director of Jewish enrichment and engagement] position, and I was fortunate to be offered the opportunity to take it. After many, many years focused on synagogue work, I had this big new door open.
What are your responsibilities as director of Jewish enrichment?
My work is split into two main pieces. Internally, I work with our staff — we have a really incredible and diverse staff of over 500 people and most of them are not Jewish. So as part of our commitment to uphold our Jewish values and our Jewish history, some of my work is in connecting with our staff, teaching them, engaging with them, providing training opportunities, helping them understand the ways that Jewish values and Jewish wisdom are the founding inspiration for the work we do, even though our staff and our clients come from all backgrounds. That was the main thing that drew me to this work; I really love working with people from all backgrounds and it’s not every day a rabbi gets to do that.
I also work with the Jewish community on behalf of JSSA, helping to make sure that people in the Jewish community have access to our services, listening for needs in the Jewish community that JSSA could respond to, services that we could develop, and supporting synagogues in a variety of ways. We have a Jewish community chaplaincy program, which sends Jewish chaplains out into hospitals and continuing-care communities where there are Jewish residents and patients, to provide culturally specific support to them.
Who inspires you?
I have to say that the staff at JSSA really inspires me with the work that they do. When you work at a place like JSSA, you’re doing it out of a sense of mission; it’s like a calling. You’re choosing to be with clients and patients through some of their most vulnerable moments.
One of the things that’s been especially challenging and engaging has been how we have come together as a Jewish community in the last year and a half in a particularly challenging historical time. I think a lot of people in the Jewish community have been experiencing a feeling of insecurity, lack of safety, antisemitism. I’m just really grateful that there’s people like JSSA staff around — not just JSSA — but for sure, JSSA, which is focused on helping us move through times of vulnerability with as much strength and security as we can.
