Staff

Rabbi Dr. Goldie Milgram
Resume
Teaching Topics

Rabbi Dr. Shohama Wiener
Rabbi Goldie Milgram is founding director of ReclaimingJudaism.org and editor-in-chief of Reclaiming Judaism Press. She travels internationally as a teacher of Torah and Jewish spiritual practices. Known for her love of Judaism, engaging teaching methods, careful scholarship, and irrepressible humor, "Reb Goldie" offers experiential workshops, lectures, hashpa'ah, "Jewish spiritual direction and meditation", and professional storytelling world-wide. A Covenant Foundation finalist for excellence as a Jewish educator, she has also been decorated as a Most Distinguished Citizen by the American Cancer Society for developing the first health education for television, under the auspices of NBC TV 40. Her major current initiatives are developing pan-denominational resources for Living a Mitzvah-Centered Life and based on her doctoral research,  spearheading a National Bar/Bat Mitzvah Institute Initiative.

Rabbi Milgram's goal is to be of service to seekers and teachers interested in an ever more meaningful Jewish life and understanding of Judaism. Dubbed "Reb Goldie" for her style of teaching by a Squarer rebbe while on a teaching tour in the former Soviet Union, Rabbi Milgram has taught in over 300 cities and 50 countries over the past decade for groups as diverse as Esalen, the 92nd Street Y, the AMA, JDC, Isabella Freedman,  NewCaJe, and hundreds of congregations, Jewish community centers and universities world-wide.

Rabbi Milgram is author of the Reclaiming Judaism trilogy published by Jewish Lights as well as the groundbreaking text for families and communities which led her to become a Covenant Award Finalist, Make Your Own Bar/Bat Mitzvah: A Personal Guide to Creating a Meaningful Rite of Passage (Jossey-Bass Publishing). She also edited the first Reclaiming Judaism Press volume: Seeking and Soaring: Jewish Approaches to Spiritual Direction.

Rabbi Milgram has served as a Dean of The Academy for Jewish Religion and she presently teaches both the Pastoral Counseling Intensive and Bioethics course for the ALEPH Ordination Programs. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, she holds a doctorate from New York Theological Seminary. Reb Goldie graduated as a rabbi from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, and holds the honor of three lineage ordinations Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi - that of rabbi, mashpi'ah (spiritual guide) and as his personal emissary (shaliach), as well as an MSW from Yeshiva's University's Wurzweiler School of Social Work. Rabbi Milgram also trained in Bibliodrama under Peter Pitzele and in Focusing with Dr. Gene Gendlin.

Reb Goldie's prior career phases include serving as spiritual leader of Temple Beth El of Hammonton, NJ for almost a decade. She founded one of the early Holocaust oral history video archives, served as a Jewish Federation Executive, headed a Board of Jewish Education, founded an independent Jewish newspaper, is founding Judaism section editor for the Philadelphia Jewish Voice, headed RSVP and CETA programs, and several decades back serving as a bio-medical research assistant in the field of psychosomatic medicine.

Rabbi Milgram is married to Hubbatzin Barry Bub, MD. author of Communication Skills that Heal: A practical approach to a new professionalism in medicine (Radcliffe Publishing Oxford UK 2006) and director of Advanced Physician Awareness Training. Together they delight in 5 children and seven grandchildren from previous marriages and on occasion, will team-teach.
 

 Rabbi Shohama Wiener serves as Rosh Hashpa'ah-- Director of Spiritual Direction and Development for ReclaimingJudaism.org and for the ALEPH Ordination Programs, a "seminary without walls," and as Founding Director of HASHPA'AH, ALEPH's training for Jewish clergy to receive ordination as Spiritual Director and Mashpia (Jewish Spiritual Guide). Rabbi Shohama is currently creating a partnership with New York Theological Seminary for HASHPA'AH graduates who want to earn a Doctor of Ministry degree. She is also the Rabbi of the inclusive and innovative Temple Beth-El of City Island, NY.
 
Rabbi Shohama Harris Wiener was the first woman in history to head a Jewish seminary, and the first to introduce meditation and spirituality into rabbinical and cantorial training. From 1994-2001 she served as President and Spiritual Director of The Academy for Jewish Religion, New York, the first pluralistic seminary ordaining rabbis and cantors. Prior to her appointment as President, she headed AJR in the role of Executive Dean. Currently she holds the title of President Emerita. In 2010 she was selected by the Jewish Daily Forward as one of the Top 50 Female Rabbis.

Rabbi Wiener is a graduate of Wellesley College and Harvard University Graduate School of Education, a rabbinical ordinee of The Academy for Jewish Religion and recipient of the Doctor of Ministry degree from New York Theological Seminary. In addition, she received ordination from Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi as mashpi'ah ruchanit, Jewish spiritual director and guide. 

 Because of her pioneering work in the field of Jewish spiritual development, she was chosen to be the honoree of the anthology Seeking and Soaring: Jewish Approaches to Spiritual Direction (ed. Goldie Milgram, Reclaiming Judaism Press 2009). She is editor of The Fifty-Eighth Century-- A Jewish Renewal Sourcebook (Jason Aronson, 1996), co-editor of Worlds of Jewish Prayer (Jason Aronson, 1993), and contributor to numerous journals and books, including Jewish Spiritual Direction: An Innovative Guide from Traditional & Contemporary Sources and Meditation from the Heart of Judaism (ed. Avram Davis, Jewish Lights, 1997). 

Rabbi Wiener is the developer of SHOHAM: Spiritual Healing of Heart and Mind, a unique psychospiritual process based on Biblical texts and mystical Jewish practices. She is also known for her uplifting spiritual songs and inspirational guitar playing.

Shohama Wiener is married to Alan Dattner, M.D., a physician specializing in Nutritional Medicine and Dermatology, who often assists her in leading services and workshops on spirituality and healing. In their blended family, they delight in four adult children and six grandchildren.