Leah (she/they) is Rabbi of Kehillah North London, as well Progressive Jewish Chaplain for university students.
Hailing originally from, as Bob Dylan wrote, a ‘country called the Midwest’, Leah has lived and worked since 2011 in Great Britain. Prior to Kehillah, they served as rabbi of the Norwich Liberal Jewish Community.
Leah has spent more than three years at various yeshivas and intensive Jewish learning centres, including Yeshivat Hadar in New York City, the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies and the Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem, and SVARA; inspired by what Torah is and can do, Leah is co-coordinator of Azara-Opening the Beit Midrash, an initiative creating Jewish text learning for everyone in the UK, .
They are also a current and founding member of Na’amod, a movement of Jews in the UK seeking to end our community’s support for Israel’s occupation and apartheid, and to mobilise it in the struggle for freedom, equality and justice for all Palestinians and Israelis.
Leah received semicha from the Leo Baeck College in London and also holds an MA in Jewish Studies from King’s College London, and a BA in English Literature from the University of Kansas, with concentrations in Modern European History and French language studies at the Alliance Française in Paris.
Leah loves speculative fiction and fan fiction. She lives in Maida Hill with her partner, Benji Stanley, also a rabbi, and daughter, Jules Pessie.
Our general ‘minhag’ (custom) is to meet for Shabbat morning services on the 1st and 3rd Saturdays of the month, and for a Friday evening service on the 2nd Friday of each month, as well as meeting for all major festivals.
All Shabbat service details, including the dates of our next Shabbat service, are on our Shabbat page here.
Our calendar here also shows when our events and services are happening.
Our Ebulletin (typically sent out once-a-week on a Thursday) contains a two-week calendar and further information about Kehillah services, news and events, as well as services, news and events from the wider Jewish and local community which our members and friends may find interesting. You can sign up to our mailing list and view our latest and past ebulletins here.
We welcome non-members at all of our services (excluding the High Holidays, when you need to book in advance, and gatherings in members’ homes, which may be members only – at the hosting member’s discretion).
If you have not attended any of our services before, and plan to attend a particular service, please do drop an email to our Administrator and to Rabbi Leah to introduce yourself – just so that we know to look out for you and say hello!
For some bigger services, such as the Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur High Holiday services, we may ask for a suggested donation from non-members wishing to attend. We welcome donations by non-members to attend any other services as well.
We will be running our Creche (for ages 0-5) at every Shabbat morning service. Dates for our upcoming Shabbat services here.
Our Cheder (for ages 0-13) runs at all our Shabbat morning services that take place in term time. You can see all the dates for the current academic Cheder year on our Youth Education page here.
Our membership costs are listed on our Membership page here.
Please email our administrator for a membership pack, which includes the application forms. Once Ashleigh has received the completed forms and Rabbi Leah has had a brief meeting with you, she will propose your membership for our Management Committee to ratify.
If a young person is interested in pursuing B’nei Mitzvah with us, we expect them to regularly attend cheder from at least age 11, learning Hebrew and integrating into community life in preparation.
If your young person has been regularly attending cheder for a couple of years, please email Rabbi Leah who can help you find a B’nei Mitzvah tutor and set the date.
Mazel Tov on your forthcoming marriage! Members of the Synagogue can be married by Kehillah North London and Rabbi Leah. If you are already Kehillah members, please email Rabbi Leah about the date of your wedding.
Members looking to pursue conversion or to officially confirm Jewish status should regularly attend our Adult Education classes – details here. Please also email Rabbi Leah to let her know, so she can organise this with you directly.