MEET

Tehilah Eisenstadt

Hello, glad to “meet you.” My name is Tehilah and I’ve worked as an education director in every Jewish denomination: Renewal, Reconstructionist, Reform, Pluralistic, Open-Orthodox and Conservative. Raised in Orthodox family, by the time I was a senior in High School I decided that my label was, and still is: “I’m Jewish, please ask me the concrete question you were wondering about (theology, kosher, shabbat, etc).” Some of my favorite professional roles include being a Community Director in a Jewish Montessori Primary (pre) School, working on interfaith initiatives with friends and colleagues, especially when it comes to understanding ourselves and each other better or advocating for the safety of women and children. Out of my love for working in preschool I eventually also fell in love with teen mentorship, recognizing that teens are the same open-hearted thinkers and explorers as preschoolers, they’re just taller and have better vocabulary (and a few other developmental differences).

My personal, professional and spiritual interests easily intertwine. I love a good hike, a good rainstorm or a good swim. I love a good story, either telling one or hearing it spoken or sung. I am a Midrash (biblical Exegesis/behind-the-scenes of ancient Jewish narratives) geek. I love looking at Judaism, and how we wear our name tags at conferences, through a feminist lens. My mind is drawn to the margins of a space, a story, a culture and recognizing how marginal ideas, and characters are integral to society. I am in rabbinical school, following getting an MA in Jewish Education and MA in Midrash at JTS last decade. At the intersection of the pieces of me is a non-profit (www.wonderandrepair.org) I started in January 2023. This organization allows me to weave the issues I feel a deep need to address in our world (socio-emotional learning + ethical work places + interfaith connection building + support for trauma survivors), through a Jewish lens. Most recently our organization launched our new program “Survivor’s Shiva,” where we apply Jewish ritual to witness trauma according to what individual survivors need and want.

As an educator, whether I am giving a keynote to 100s or teaching 1:1, or somewhere in between, I am eager to learn as well as teach. I ask questions that matter and bring in life as we know it to torah, and torah as we know it to our lives. This is especially true in my parenting, ethical leadership and activist work. As a Jewish learner I prefer experiential and kinesthetic learning while also being a rabid reader. People’s stories enrich me. I deeply believe in Rabbi Nachman of Breslav’s very Chassidic statement “The day you were born was the day God decided the world could not continue to exist without you.” I love meeting all the people the world so desperately needs. I also live the Talmudic saying that there are “70 faces to the Torah” which is another way to say, the Torah is incomplete without multiple perspectives revisited, which is why I am thrilled to learn and teach with new people, and with long-term students and can’t wait to learn with and from you.