Alona Nir-Keren Ordained

Alona Nir-Keren Ordained

November, 18, 2016-Last Friday, five new Israeli rabbinical students were ordained from the Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem. The program began in 1975, and since then, over 100 Israeli Reform rabbis have been ordained at the Jerusalem campus.  Among them was a rabbi who came to our synagogue as a visiting student (and hosted by a number of our families) in 2012. 

Alona was born and raised in a region of Haifa. During her childhood, she visited a synagogue about once a year, usually from the outside. Alona is a registered travel guide, and in this capacity it is where she met a different kind of Judaism for the first time, when leading a group of liberal British Jews. She earned a BA degree in International Relations and an MA in Conflict Management and Resolution, both at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Later, she went to deepen her Jewish journey by serving as an emissary for the Jewish Agency in New Jersey. Over the past year Alona has been serving as a student-Rabbi at Kehillat “Yozma” in Modi’in. She has recently moved to Modi’in, together with her partner Yael and their daughter Ori.