Rabbi Goldie Milgram

Rabbi Dr. Goldie Milgram, MSW (resume) founded and directs the 501C3 non-profit Reclaiming Judaism.  Known for her depth of scholarship, sense of humor, and professional Jewish storytelling, she travels widely consulting and serving scholar-in-residencies in the fields of Jewish experiential, spiritual and B-Mitzvah education and development, bioethics, gender inclusion, Jewish arts, and trauma support. Rabbi Goldie Milgram's innovative body of work has been honored by the Covenant Foundation, the National Jewish Book Council, and featured at the Jewish Futures Conference. 

At Reclaiming Judaism in collaboration with Hannover University of Music, Media, and Drama Rabbi Goldie Milgram now also heads the Adding Our Voices: Jewish Feminist and Gender-Inclusive Music Initiative with Rabbi Geela Rayzel Raphael and Jewish musicologist Prof. Dr. Sarah Ross, where the present focus is on creating the world's first Jewish Feminist and Gender-Inclusive Music Archive, due to launch Spring 2023.

Goldie's tenure in Jewish communal service has been in virtually every position--from serving as a executive and line staff for Jewish Federations, Board of Jewish Education, JCCs, Jewish camps, Hillel, religious school founder/director, pulpit rabbi, through an extensive career in academia--as a Dean of the Academy for Jewish Religion, and on the adjunct faculty of Princeton University, Gettysburg College, Auburn Seminary, Yeshiva University, and more. Rather than advocating the views of any specific Jewish denomination or using post-denominational, she considers herself post-describable, finding Judaism a bouquet of delightful possibilities to consider and draw upon in any given situation.

"We all have a bloodstream and know it needs nutrients. IMHO, many Jewish practices, when shaped through a contemporary lens, provides many important nutrients for the soulstream. The state of the human spirit can be richly developed and supported in a healthy, kind, educated Jewish community rich in Jewish spiritual and ethical practices."
--Rabbi Goldie Milgram

Goldie has also served as director and then consultant in Innovative Jewish Life and Learning for the 92nd St Y, as well as consulting and offering programs to hundreds of congregations, Jewish community centers, camps, and college student life programs, schools, and conferences across the spectrum of Jewish life worldwide.

Rabbi Goldie Milgram also founded and serves as Editor-in-Chief of Reclaiming Judaism Multimedia Press, the only fully gender-inclusive Jewish press, after many published books with mainstream publishers. She, with Ellen Frankel, received the National Jewish Book Award for Mitzvah Stories: Seeds for Inspiration and Learning, as well as many articles and resources including her internationally acclaimed Mitzvah Card decks. 

Education

A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania in a combined Independent Major program with the Wharton School, Medical School, College for Women and Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Rabbi Milgram also holds a doctorate, M.S.W., and M.H.L. in addition to her rabbinic graduation from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and the several types of lineage smichah (ordination) of Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, founder of Jewish Renewal, as rabbi, mashpia, maggid and shaliach. She is also an ordained Maggid-Educator. Her primary professional mentors, of blessed memory, have been Rabbi Dr. Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, Dr. Eugene Gendlin, Dr. Tikveh Frymer-Kensky, and Charlie Miller, Dr. Ernest Kahn, and Louise Vanett.

"Reb Goldie," or "Rabbi Goldie" as Rabbi Milgram is affectionately called by her students, was founding chairperson of the first program of gender studies at a Jewish institution of higher learning, which evolved after her tenure into what became known as Kolot, a department of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. She has served visiting scholar-in-residencies for Project Kesher in Russia and Ukraine, and helped to found the UN affiliate, the Women Founders Collective.

For these, as well as her volunteer leadership in the creation of programs for professional and public health education, she was named an American Cancer Society Most Distinguished Citizen. She also holds additional journalism awards from the Council of Jewish Federations.

Goldie presently also continues as co-President of the Association of Professional and Aspiring Jewish Artists with Joan L. Davidson. She is also an artist, working in oil, watercolor, and silk painting and she composes new Jewish liturgy and music.

Contact: rebgoldie@gmail.com

"She helps us to bring heart and soul to our involvement in Jewish life."
     --Rabbi Dr. Zalman Schachter-Shalomi