Rabbi
Oct. 31, 2005
Rabbi Shoshana Perry was born in Mt. Vernon, NY and as a teen was very active in the Reform Jewish youth movement – NFTY, serving two terms on her regional board. As a college student she worked in one of the movement’s camps, Joseph Eisner Camp. Rabbi Perry went to Colby College for two years and then graduated from the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Me. College of the Atlantic is a small alternative college that emphasizes Human Ecology – a system of thought that sees all aspects of life – biology, ethics, sociology, culture, the environment, politics, etc. – as being inter-connected. This understanding of interdependence and relationship has been a foundation for the way Rabbi Perry understands her work in Jewish community....
After graduating from college, Rabbi Perry went on to study at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion and was ordained in 1989. As part of her rabbinic studies she interned at the Union of American Hebrew Congregations' Task Force on the Disabled, at Congregation Beth Israel in Chico, California and at a residential treatment center for emotionally disturbed youth. She also served in a summer chaplaincy program at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Institute. Before coming to Congregation Shalom as the community’s first full-time rabbi in July 1998, Rabbi Perry served as Associate Rabbi at Temple Isaiah in Lexington MA for four years, as Rabbi to Congregation Beth El of Bangor ME for seven years and as Assistant Rabbi to Keneseth Israel in Philadelphia for two years.
Rabbi Perry’s commitment as a rabbi has been to help each member of the community find a meaningful doorway into Jewish life. She has also made Tikkun Olam a cornerstone of her rabbinate. Towards those ends she been active in inter-faith clergy associations in her community and most recently has been a member of the STAR Good to Great program as well as being selected as a Balfour Brickner Fellow of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism.
Rabbi Perry is married to Hale Powell, an energy consultant and together they have one daughter.
View details of her 2006 Sabbatical here.
