Rabbi Ricki Lobel has delighted in spending her entire adult life as a teacher and student with co-learners of all ages. She continues to enjoy her career as a special education teacher, having worked with students from Kindergarten through adult. Whether in the public or private school setting, she has been enriched through these classroom experiences.

Rabbi Lobel’s initial work In the Jewish community was as a teacher as well. She began as an instructor in local Religious Schools, both in Hebrew and Judaic studies. As her involvement became greater, so did her commitment to study in Hevruta and at the university level. The combination of study and experience led her to become the Education Director first at a Conservative Religious and Hebrew School, grades K-7, later at a Reform Religious and Hebrew School, grades Pre-K through 10, and next as co-Director of the Community Jewish High School.
 

Rabbi Lobel enjoys her work with both teens and adults as a Bar/Bat Mitzvah instructor. With Junior Congregation at one end, and adult Torah Study and education (including as a teacher for the local Melton Institute) at the other, she has surrounded herself with learners from ages 4 to 94. It was the combination of these experiences, along with the privilege of being asked to take a leadership role at local synagogues in conducting services, reading Torah, chanting Haftarah, and delivering sermons, that moved her to pursue the rabbinate.  While continuing her teaching career, she took on the challenge of classes at Brandeis University, American Jewish University, the Whizin Center for Continuing Education, and Rutgers University, culminating in her studies with the Jewish Spiritual Leaders Institute, where she achieved her dream of receiving ordination.
 

It is Rabbi Lobel’s hope to continue to share her love of Judaism and learning with an ever widening community, sharing moments of joy, of sorrow, of celebration, of introspection, and of moving ever forward in leading a full and satisfying Jewish life.