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Rabbi Elyssa Cherney
J Photo by Yael Pachino Photography LLC
Sasha Rogelberg | Staff Writer
ust as many Gen Z and millennial Jews can be found outside of
synagogue walls, Rabbi Elyssa Cherney wants people to know
that holiness can be found outside those walls, too.

As founder and CEO of TacklingTorah, the Mount Airy resident and
Germantown Jewish Centre member works with mostly unaffiliated
Jews in their 20s, 30s and 40s in the Philadelphia area to build Jewish
rituals and guide them in their life cycle events.

“TacklingTorah’s mission is the everyday search for holiness in our
everyday lives,” Cherney said.

At 36, Cherney understands the headspace of the younger genera-
tions of Jews who, to synagogues and larger Jewish institutions, may
seem unengaged from Jewish culture and religion.

“Like every other generation, millennials and Gen Z are seeking out
meaning and are seeking out what that role [of Judaism] looks like for
them,” she said. “I think they’re just going about it in a different way
than what has been the traditional model.”
Unlike older generations, today’s
young people don’t always associate
community with their geographical
location. Due to graduate school or
finding a place to start a family, 20- and
30-somethings aren’t staying put and,
therefore, are looking for ways to find
Jewish meaning that they can bring
with them on their respective journeys.

Cherney consults with these Jews about
how to incorporate Judaism into their lives,
whether through lighting Shabbat candles
weekly, weaving in Jewish traditions at an
interfaith wedding or finding new ways to
celebrate Jewish holidays.

She asks her clients questions that
cause them to reflect on what they want
from their Judaism: What is their Jewish
identity today? What are their Jewish
values? What were the parts of Judaism
that they grew up with that drew them
to Judaism in the first place?
As part of Tribe 12’s 2023 fellowship
cohort, Cherney hopes to hone in on
the needs of the Philadelphia Jewish
community to better serve her clients.

Much like the community members
Cherney has worked with since
TacklingTorah became a nonprofit in
2019, the rabbi had to find her Jewish
voice. Raised as a Reform Jew in Long
Island, New York, Cherney loved
being Jewish.

“My rabbi was my role model,”
she said.

Cherney taught
kindergarten through second grade at her child-
hood synagogue Temple Beth David’s
religious school, even when she was
still in high school. The synagogue was
her “second home” and the birthplace
of her dream to become a rabbi.

It was only when she left for college
at Brandeis University that she realized
the path to her dream would have
hurdles. “Day one at Brandeis, I met Jews that
were different from myself,” she said.

“And I immediately felt like my lifelong
dream of becoming a rabbi was already
being questioned by Jews who were
more observant and weren’t as accept-
ing of women rabbis.”
At one point, another Jewish woman
approached Cherney and told her
she couldn’t become a rabbi because
she was a woman. Cherney got to
know LGBT Jews and Jews married to
non-Jews, who did not have strong or
positive connections to a synagogue
Jewish community.

But when presented with challenges
about Jewish inclusion and the future of
Jewish communities, Cherney searched
for answers. After graduating with
degrees in sociology and women and
gender studies, Cherney worked as
a community organizer at Keshet, a
nonprofit advocating for LGBT Jews; she
spent time as a programming assistant
at Congregation Beit Simchat Torah in
Manhattan, one of the country’s largest
LGBT synagogues.

In 2012, Cherney matriculated at the
Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in
Wyncote on her quest to become a
rabbi. After she was ordained in 2018,
she took a fellowship at the 92nd Street
Y in New York, focusing on innova-
tions in Judaism and its crossover with
entrepreneurship. In Cherney’s words, rabbis are
“constantly in the work of making
connections for people, creating oppor-
tunities for people to engage and think-
ing up new ideas with their community.”
By the time she founded TacklingTorah
a year later, Cherney was focused on
making Judaism truly accessible to any
person who wanted to engage with it.

Cherney frequently reflects on the
words of medieval rabbi Rav Kook:
“The old becomes new, and the new
becomes holy.”
By catering to the needs and interests
of young Jews with diverse identities
and interests, TacklingTorah combines
ancient rituals and values with 21st-cen-
tury lifestyles.

“I don’t think I’m out here trying to
do anything new,” Cherney said. “I’m
just trying to do it in a way that reaches
those people who feel like they haven’t
been able to be a part of a community
before.” 1
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