Tirzah Firestone

Who is Tirzah Firestone?

Tirzah Firestone is a prominent Jewish Renewal rabbi, as well as an author of books on female figures in Jewish mysticism and the Kabbalah, a Jungian psychotherapist, and spiritual leader of Congregation Nevei Kodesh in Boulder, Colorado. She is the founding rabbi of the Jewish Renewal Community of Boulder. Tirzah is the younger sister of the feminist writer Shulamith Firestone.

Tirzah Firestone was raised in an Orthodox Jewish family in Missouri, and earned her Masters Degree in Holistic Counseling from Beacon College in 1982; in November, 1992, she was ordained as a rabbi by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, Rabbi Gershon Winkler, Rabbi Shoshana Leibowitz and Rabbi Akiva Mann. She was the first intermarried rabbi to be ordained by the Jewish Renewal movement. In her memoir she states that her husband inspired her return to Judaism, but that their marriage ultimately fell apart because of his faith.

Before returning to Judaism, Firestone practiced Kundalini yoga, lived with a Hindu community, and explored radical philosophies such as Arica and Christian mysticism.