Rachel Barenblat

Who is Rachel Barenblat?

Rachel Barenblat, the "Velveteen Rabbi," is an American poet and blogger who was ordained as a rabbi in 2011 and as a spiritual director in 2012.

Born in San Antonio, Texas in 1975 to Marvin and Liana Barenblat, Rachel moved to New England in 1992 to attend Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts. She holds a BA in religion and a Masters of Fine Arts in writing and literature from the Bennington Writing Seminars, as well as rabbinic ordination from ALEPH: the Alliance for Jewish Renewal and a secondary ordination as a mashpi'ah, also from ALEPH.

Barenblat co-founded Inkberry, a literary arts non-profit organization, with Sandy Ryan and Emily Banner. From 1999-2002 she was a contributing editor at Pif Magazine and since 2006 she has been a contributing editor at Zeek magazine, a Jewish journal of thought and culture. From 2009-2011 she served on the board of directors of the Organization for Transformative Works. As of 2012 she serves on the board of Ohalah, the association of clergy for Jewish Renewal.

Barenblat is author of four poetry chapbooks: the skies here, What Stays, chaplainbook, and the self-published Through, a collection of miscarriage poems Her first full-length collection of poems, 70 Faces—a collection of poems which arise out of a full year's cycle of weekly Torah portions—was published by Montreal-based Phoenicia Publishing in 2011.