Rabbi Rachel Schmelkin brings a wealth of knowledge about social justice and community advocacy in the Jewish community to her new position as an associate rabbi at Washington Hebrew Congregation. She spent years specializing in work meant to bring people together across religious and political divides, something she also hopes to do in her new job.
She was the director of Jewish programs at the One America Movement, which attempts to bridge ideological divides. As a rabbi in Charlottesville, she was a member of activist and interfaith organizations such as the Women’s Clergy Circle and the Charlottesville Clergy Collective.
She has even been honored with multiple awards for her work, including being recognized at the inaugural United We Stand Summit at the White House last September.
But Schmelkin, 34, sees herself as a rabbi first and foremost, someone who grew up in a committed Cincinnati Jewish household that influenced her from a young age.
“The synagogue was my home away from home,” she said. “My whole childhood revolved around my synagogue and my summer camp.”
Schmelkin decided she wanted to become a rabbi at 13, when her mother told her that she looked so comfortable on the bimah at her bat mitzvah that she would be a rabbi someday.
She went on to attend Indiana University, travel to Jerusalem and be ordained as a rabbi at Hebrew Union College — Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati in 2016.
“Everything I did was with the goal of becoming a rabbi in mind,” Schmelkin said.
After her ordination, Schmelkin took a position as an associate rabbi at Congregation Beth Israel in Charlottesville. In 2017 came the Unite the Right Rally when several hundred far-right protesters marched through Charlottesville and a counter-protester was murdered.
This was a galvanizing experience for her as a young local rabbi, Schmelkin said.
“I really understood the gravity of what it was like to lead a community. It was clear to me that my congregation was really looking to [the clergy] to see what we were going to do, and the decisions I made were very weighty … I understood my leadership in a
new way,” she recalled.
She was later approached by the One America Movement, and became interested in the work they did to help people overcome their prejudices. Schmelkin said she got involved after she realized that her own social groups were fairly polarized.
“Many of the coalition and interfaith groups I was in were more left-leaning. I didn’t have any relations with anyone who was politically on the right,” she said. “The reason I joined [the One America Movement] initially was to have an opportunity to build relationships with people across that ideological divide.”
In addition to helping people at Washington Hebrew Congregation cross ideological divides, Schmelkin said she is excited about the musical opportunities that being an associate rabbi offers. Schmelkin likes to incorporate music into services, something she did at her first Shabbat service at Washington Hebrew Congregation on July 28.
“Jewish music is the main way I communicate with God, and it’s one of the ways I really know how to bring different communities together,” Schmelkin said. “I walked out there Friday night and was like I hit the jackpot. It’s inspiring, it’s joyful, it’s fun and it’s uplifting. Everything I would want Shabbat to feel like, it feels like.”
