Rabbi Laura Geller

Rabbi Laura Geller, Rabbi Emerita of Temple Emanuel of Beverly Hills, was the third woman in the Reform Movement to become a rabbi. Named by Newsweek as one of the 50 Most Influential Rabbis in America and by PBS's "Next Avenue" as a 2017 Influencer in Aging, she was a cofounder of ChaiVillageLA and is the chair of the Synagogue Village Network. She is the coauthor of "Moments That Matter: Marking Transitions in Midlife and Beyond" along with Rabbi Beth Lieberman (CCAR Press, 2025). She is also the coauthor of "Getting Good at Getting Older" with her husband, Richard Siegel, z"l (Behrman House, 2020).

Photo of a elderly woman and her daughter, daughter's arm wrapped around mother

Facing Finitude

Rabbi Laura Geller, Rabbi Beth Lieberman

While it's true that much of life is uncertain, one thing we can all be sure of is that one day, our lives will end. We don't know how or when it will happen (hopefully after many happy years), but it will happen. How can we possibly prepare for this ultimate

Torrah and Kippah

The Tension Between Hubris and Humility

Cantor Elizabeth Sacks
and Rabbi Laura Geller
In its brief 40 verses, Parashat Nitzavim immediately presents us with tensions between confidence and condemnation, promise and punishment, and ultimately, between humility and hubris. Throughout the text of these two compact chapters—Deuteronomy 29 and 30—Moses consistently oscillates between inspiring the Israelites toward their future and forewarning them about their inherent (and perhaps inevitable) flaws.

How to Open Doors to Connect Seekers to Jewish Life

Rabbi Laura Geller

Anyone can open the door to Judaism for another, but will those standing at the door be intimidating shomrim (guards) or welcoming mezuzot (encased Torah texts on doorframes)?
 

The Sacred Calling: Four Decades of Women in the Rabbinate

Rabbi Laura Geller
At almost 750 pages long, it’s is a very big book, one that contains 66 essays and personal reflections. The length isn’t a surprise, actually, when you realize that the scope of the book spans four decades of women in the rabbinate: 40 years, the amount of time it took our Israelite ancestors to reach the Promised Land.

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