Rabbi Chai Levy is the first female rabbi of Congregation Kol Shofar, where she has served since 2002, teaching, listening, celebrating, singing, dancing, and playing music with adults and children of all ages. Her spiritual leadership is most guided by the wisdom of the Hasidic masters and Jewish feminist thinkers.

Originally from Richmond, Virginia, Rabbi Levy received her BA in Religious Studies and Women’s Studies at the University of Virginia. She was ordained in 2002 by the Jewish Theological Seminary, the Conservative movement’s rabbinical school in New York City. She also spent three years living and studying in Jerusalem at the Hebrew University, Pardes, and Machon Shechter.

Before coming to Kol Shofar, Rabbi Levy worked as a chaplain at Mount Zion hospital in San Francisco, as a Jewish outdoor environmental educator in New England, and as a coordinator of inner-city service programs in Washington, DC.

Named after her grandmother and great-grandmother, Chai is an acronym of Chaya-Yehudis, which she interprets to mean “to give thanks to God for life and for being a Jew.”