Rabbi Talia Avnon-Benveniste

Rabbi Talia Avnon-Benveniste

Rabbi Avnon-Benveniste (she/her) is the director of the Israel Rabbinical Program at HUC-JIR’s Taube Family Campus in Jerusalem. She was ordained after completing the Israel Rabbinical Program in 2009. She returned to HUC-JIR following her time as director of the International School for Peoplehood Studies at the Museum of the Jewish People, where she instilled an active connection to the Jewish people among Jews throughout the world and led public discourse on Jewish Peoplehood and identity in the 21st century. She led a series of programs that supported the Museum of the Jewish People’s cultural, communal, and educational activities in Israel and around the world.

Prior to her work with the Museum of the Jewish People ("ANU" Museum), Rabbi Avnon-Benveniste served as head of the Education Department of Beit Daniel, the Center for Progressive Judaism in Tel Aviv, where she worked to promote a national, social, and liberal Jewish agenda in state schools and in cultural and community frameworks alongside fellow rabbis.

Rabbi Avnon-Benveniste is a writer, a teacher, and a keynote speaker at a variety of events and has expertise in writing, teaching, and addressing current issues in the evolving Jewish world. 

an image of a man holding a tallit over his head while praying
Nitzavim - Vayeilech

Standing Before the Creator

D'Var Torah By: Rabbi Talia Avnon-Benveniste
It is Reform tradition to read the Nitzavim Torah portion during the Shacharit (morning) service on Yom Kippur. The tradition stems from the belief that standing before God with great awe and fear is not just the solitary appearance of an individual before their Creator, but also of a community who, together, are appealing to God for forgiveness and absolution before the gates of heaven close.
A table with hands of people sitting at it and a scale sitting on the table
Shof'tim

Who Should I Say is Ruling?

D'Var Torah By: Rabbi Talia Avnon-Benveniste
Sometimes, when reality becomes so overwhelming, looking at the Torah reminds us that everything that is happening has already occurred in the past. That's exactly how Shof’tim starts.
R'eih

The "Angel Who-Knows"

D'Var Torah By: Rabbi Talia Avnon-Benveniste
Parashat R'eih reminds us that we have a choice between the blessing and the curse, between a life of hope and faith, and a life in which the choice has already been made.
an image of two hands holding a lit up light bulb
Eikev

Even if You Don't Listen, the Voice Will Still Be Heard

D'Var Torah By: Rabbi Talia Avnon-Benveniste
In a different place, long ago, in the core of Eikev, we can hear the slow, ungainly, quiet steps of Moses as he descends from the mountain, holding the two tablets of the covenant in both of his reverent hands. He holds them with two hands and breaks them with two hands.
an image of a cement tombstone, with a star of david carved in and some rocks siting on top of the tombstone
Va-et'chanan

Fearing Death and Finding Life

D'Var Torah By: Rabbi Talia Avnon-Benveniste
In Va-et'chanan, Moses stands before God, pleading for his life. With misty eyes and tears of supplication dotted with desert sand, Moses asks God for just one more thing to enter the Promised Land with the Israelites, and to allow his body and heartto touch the earth on the other side of the Jordan.