Rabbi Dr. Jill Hammer serves as Director of Spiritual Education at AJR. Jill has been writing poems, stories, and essays since she was in high school, and published her first work of midrash, Sisters at Sinai: New Tales of Biblical Women, the year she graduated rabbinical school. Since then, she has written books on a variety of topics in contemporary spirituality, mysticism, and feminist studies. After focusing on collecting and documenting ritual and folklore while at Ma’yan: The Jewish Women’s Project of the JCC in Manhattan, Jill became the Director of Spiritual Education at the AJR in 2006 where she facilitates and supports spiritual experience for the community and teaches Introduction to Midrash, Contemporary Midrash, Architecture of Ritual, Sefer Yetzirah (an ancient mystical work), Judaism and the Earth, Life after Death in Jewish Tradition, and Jewish Dreamwork. She is passionate about connecting in nature in all kinds of settings, from Central Park to the Berkshires to Scotland and Iceland. She is also the co-founder of the Kohenet Hebrew Priestess Institute, and the translator of several siddurim.

Professor, Full-Time, Spirituality and Midrash

Education:

PhD, Social Psychology, University of Connecticut; Rabbi, Jewish Theological Seminary; BA, Brandeis University

Publications:

Jill is the author of Sisters at Sinai: New Tales of Biblical Women (2001), The Jewish Book of Days: A Companion for All Season (2006), the Omer Calendar of Biblical Women (2012), The Hebrew Priestess: Ancient and New Visions of Jewish Women’s Spiritual Leadership (2015), Return to the Place: The Magic, Meditation, and Mystery of Sefer Yetzirah (2020), and Undertorah: An Earth-Based Kabbalah of Dreams (2022).