Rabbi Dr. Ilana Goldhaber-Gordon

Rabbi Ilana is an Associate Dean in the Office for Religious and Spiritual Life. She previously served for ten years as a rabbi for Congregation Beth Jacob in Redwood City. Her rabbinate is defined by an ability to listen compassionately and create space for a multiplicity of views. She engages deeply with Jewish tradition, using creativity sharpened by knowledge to help people draw the past into their lives today.

Rabbi Ilana's religious education began in a modern Orthodox community, including 13 years of dayschool education and a year at Midreshet Lindenbaum in Jerusalem. She earned a PhD in Biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Bachelors in Biology from Harvard University. Her rabbinic ordination is from the Academy of Jewish Religion California, and she also spent a year studying in the Kolel of the Conservative Yeshiva. She is Chair of the board of Complete Picture, a non-profit working on more humane criminal sentencing, and co-chair of the Rabbinic Advisory Committee of Shalom Bayit, the Bay Area's center for domestic violence prevention in Jewish homes.