Leah Novick (born 1932) is a Renewal rabbi and the second oldest woman rabbi in the United States.[1][2][3] She lives in Carmel, California.[2][3][4]

She graduated from Brooklyn College and also earned a master's degree in public policy.[1] She worked as a social science researcher when her three children were young.[1] In the late 1950s, she was part of in sit-ins and lie-ins to integrate Westchester, Pennsylvania's swimming pools. [1] Later she moved to Westchester County, New York, where she helped organize Jewish groups to attend the 1963 March on Washington.[1] She ran unsuccessfully for the New York state Legislature in 1970 and moved to Washington to work as chief aide for Bella Abzug.[1] In 1977, she helped to coordinate the National Commission on the Observance of International Women's Year.[1] In 1978, she worked as a guest professor at Stanford.[1] During much of the 1980s she taught at U C Berkeley's graduate school of public policy.[1]

Novick was a founding member of OHALAH: Association of Rabbis for Jewish Renewal.[2][3][5] She was ordained as a Jewish Renewal rabbi in 1987.[3]

She is the author of the book "On the Wings of Shekhinah" Rediscovering Judaism's Divine Feminine (Quest Books 2008).[1][6] As of 2013 she serves as president of the educational non-profit Spirit of the Earth.[7][8]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Her career spans women's rights in DC to Renewal rabbi in Carmel". J. The Jewish News of Northern California. February 5, 2015.
  2. ^ a b c "Historic retreat marks women's 40 years as rabbis | j. the Jewish news weekly of Northern California". J. The Jewish News of Northern California. 2012-11-08. Retrieved 2014-02-21.
  3. ^ a b c d "Rabbi Leah Novick, founding member of OHALAH, to be honored at Boulder (August 2012)". Ohalah. 2013-01-17. Retrieved 2014-02-21.
  4. ^ "Quest Books". Quest Books. Archived from the original on 2010-11-28. Retrieved 2014-02-21.
  5. ^ "An International Transdenominational Association of Rabbis". Ohalah. Retrieved 2014-02-21.
  6. ^ "Healing Sanctuary France". International Association of Metaphysicians. Archived from the original on 2010-12-16. Retrieved 2014-02-21.
  7. ^ "Brief Biographies | Forty Years on the Bimah". Womenonthebimah.org. Archived from the original on 2014-02-03. Retrieved 2014-02-21.
  8. ^ "Post-Holocaust American Judaism and the Reb Zalman M. Schachter-Shalomi Collection". Program in Jewish Studies, University of Colorado Boulder. Archived from the original on 2014-02-19. Retrieved 2014-02-21.
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