MEET

Chana Rusanov

I'm Chana, a queer/post-Soviet/raised Orthodox lapsed farmer and Jewish educator. I care deeply about being in vulnerable relationship with Torah, and bringing others into their own embodied explorations of ancient text, queerness and liberatory Jewish practice.

I was born in Kiev, Ukraine and raised in New York, where my family slowly began to reclaim a relationship with Judaism after generations of forced assimilation in the Soviet Union. Over the past 3 decades, I have lived as a secular Jewish child curious about the songs and teachings of a forgotten tradition, an Orthodox adolescent delving deep into text study, observance and Chabad philosophy along with my family, and most recently, as a queer young adult forging a new post-Orthodox relationship with a beloved and broken tradition. Along the way, I've had the privilege of studying and teaching Torah in many diverse spaces spanning the Orthodox, liberal Jewish and queer leftie spectrum, as my own journey and relationship with Judaism has unfurled.

I've also spent the past many years investing in alternative, land-based Jewish community through working at Adamah Farming Fellowship and Linke Fligl Queer Jewish Chicken Farm, among other projects. In my Torah teaching, I integrate lessons I've culled from my years of farming and land-based diasporist Jewish practice. Currently, I study Torah and Talmud at Pardes and Yashrut, both based in Jerusalem, and look forward to bringing that learning back to my community in the future. I'm excited to explore learning Torah alongside you while listening for the still small voice within the text that calls to each of us in our own language.