Rabbi Phyllis Berman, E.M.

Mashpia Supervisor.

Rabbi Phyllis is a Mashpi’ah Ruchanit trained through Lev Shomea, the first training program for Jewish Spiritual Directors. She received smicha from ALEPH in the first class of women rabbis in 2004. She co-leads Shabbatonim and Jewish holiday retreats as well as Jewish silent meditation retreats and assisted Rabbi Shefa Gold with four cohorts of Kol Zimra chant leaders’ training program. She was a long-time chair of B’nai/P’nai Or before it became ALEPH through its merger with The Shalom Center and was the summer program director for 12 years at Elat Chayyim, the Jewish Renewal Retreat Center in Accord, NY. She’s now retired from 37 years of creating and directing the Riverside Language Program in NYC, an intensive English-language “ulpan” for newly arrived adult immigrants, refugees, and asylees from around the world. With her partner, Rabbi Arthur Waskow, she has co-authored Tales of Tikkun, A Time for Every Purpose Under Heaven, and Freedom Journeys. In July 2018, she taught What in the (Four) Worlds is Jewish Renewal? at the ALEPH Kallah as a tribute to Reb Zalman z”l.