While my rabbi work is a living for me, it is more than that.

It is a calling.

And it is sacred and holy work.

I come from twenty years of teaching Spanish and English to immigrants in the public schools of New York City. After raising two children, I went through seven years of rabbinical school that required my full attention, meaning I could not work simultaneously.

What many couples face today, especially the ones I tend to serve, is the challenge of how to navigate, negotiate, and figure out how to build a successful marriage in a multicultural, multi-faith world that pulls us in many different directions.

I am well acquainted with this as a person, and now a rabbi, who has been in an interfaith marriage for over 35 years with a Catholic man who immigrated to the U.S. at a very tender time in his life.

Together we have raised two wonderful children who have not only had to figure out who they are in this mix of races, religions, but also of two vastly different cultures. My husband and I had to negotiate our religious and cultural differences completely on our own, with no outside support. On the contrary, we had to deal with a lot of pushback and rejection from family and friends as well as from the Jewish community.

By this account, our marriage should have failed, and our children should have been utterly lost. I should never have, in my wildest dreams, gone down this path of becoming a rabbi--not to mention the fact that I was brought up completely secular and was an atheist for most of my life.

None of these things are true.

I only wish I, and we, had had the kind of guidance and support that I offer couples, but also to their families. It is not an easy thing. I bring the sensitivity and awareness needed for today’s confusing world into all my work, for the sake of all involved.

I bring my vast life experience, and also proof that we can live in a way that brings more love into the world as opposed to strife.

I bring proof that this is possible.

If these things speak to you, I am the rabbi to help you along this path.

What I offer is the culmination of my life experience and many years of deep personal, inner work along with the practical preparation for the rabbinate.

It is creative work that requires flexibility determined by the situation of the moment. I am here to accompany and support you as you navigate your lives together and begin a new part of your journey.

If what I describe is what you want, then I am the rabbi for you. I look forward to meeting you.

With many blessings,

Rabbi Juliet