Rabbinic Intern, Adath Israel Congregation; Cincinnati, OH — Jul 2024-Present

Led Shabbat and weekday worship, including morning and evening minyans, Kabbalat Shabbat, and Shabbat morning services.
Collaborated with the senior rabbi and administrative team on synagogue programming.
Performed life cycle events such as funerals and unveilings.
Delivered weekly drashot or sermons on the weekly parsha or festival.

Student Rabbi, Temple Israel; Paducah, KY — Aug 2022-Aug 2024

Worked with the board on a successful two-year program to increase synagogue attendance.
Led biweekly Shabbat evening services and High Holy Day services, at which I chanted Torah and delivered sermons.
Restarted the religious school program and increased attendance from two children to twelve children.
Initiated an Introduction to Judaism class and facilitated the conversions of seven students.
Created a curriculum for a Hebrew 101 class to teach adults how to lay-lead services and begin to chant Torah.
Started a holiday potluck dinner cycle at the synagogue to celebrate Hanukkah, Tu Bishvat, Purim, Passover, and Shavuot as a community and increase festival attendance.
Officiated life cycle events like baby namings and b'nei mitzvah.
Produced and led adult education classes on the weekly parsha and holidays.
Wrote weekly drashot for the synagogue website and newsletter.

Student Rabbi, Temple Beth Sholom; Marquette, MI — Aug 2021-May 2022

Led monthly Shabbat evening services and High Holy Day services, at which I chanted Torah and delivered sermons.
Produced and led adult education classes on the weekly parsha and holidays.
Created curriculum for and led religious school for five students.

Rabbinic Intern, Beth Samuel Jewish Center; Ambridge, PA — Aug 2020-May 2021

Worked with cantorial mentor and administrative staff on COVID-friendly programming for the holidays.
Planned and led family Zoom services for the High Holy Days.
Planned and facilitated adult education lectures on women's roles in Genesis and Exodus.

Religious School Instructor and Hebrew Teacher, Isaac M. Wise Temple; Cincinnati, OH — Sept 2023-May 2024

Collaborated with teaching team on how to teach from a spiral-curriculum.
Taught weekly first-grade classes about Jewish holidays, Shabbat rituals, and Israel.
Taught weekly sixth-grade classes about Shacharit prayers, Torah blessings, and haftarah blessings.

Religious School Instructor, Temple Sholom; Cincinnati, OH — Sept 2021-May 2022

Produced curriculum for and taught weekly kindergarten/first grade classes about Shabbat and havdalah rituals, Israel, and Jewish holidays.
Worked with rabbinic mentor on designing curriculum throughout the year.

Outreach and Engagement Intern, Hebrew Union College; Cincinnati, OH — Oct 2022-present

worked with the Dean's administration to plan on-campus events.
helped with donation drives for Jewish Family Services.
coordinated marshals for events like graduation, Founder's Day, and ordination.
prepared social media posts to engage with the local Jewish community.
Museum Engagement Intern, Skirball Museum; Cincinnati, OH — Aug 2023-present
produced social media posts, photos, and videos of the Skirball Museum collection.
staffed museum events and galas.
designed and sent out membership appeals to bring in donors and committed museum members.

Expected Rabbinic Ordination, Hebrew Union College — June 2020-May 2025

Thesis: “In You Many Nations Will Take Refuge: Toraitic Conversion in Midrash and Aggadah"

Advised by Rabbi Richard Sarason, Ph.D.
Analyzed midrash about Aseneth, Pharaoh's daughter, and Jethro to produce liturgical and educational resources for modern clergy and conversion candidates.

BA in Theatre and Speech, Wagner College — Aug 2013-May 2017

Honors Thesis: “Joan of Arc as a Political Metaphor in Drama”

• American Jewish Archives (Summer 2024)—filed photos and programs from Hebrew Union College campuses from 1970s-2000s.

• Religious Action Center - Ohio (Summer 2022)—worked with online team to coordinate voting registration for the midterm election.

• Jewish Cemeteries of Greater Cincinnati (Summer 2021)-researched and wrote tours for all the Jewish cemeteries in the city.

• Secretary of the Student Ministrations Committee (2021-present)—worked to connect students with pulpit matches, negotiate payment, and troubleshoot issues between congregations and student rabbis.

The day I placed my Tickle-Me Elmo in my mother’s bread basket and set it adrift on the carpet-Nile, my fate was sealed. Blame The Prince of Egypt. To five-year-old me, nothing in life was more profound than cartoon Moses bringing the Israelites out of bondage and into freedom.

And yet I knew that somehow the story was not mine. The Passover story belonged to the Jewish people, and I was a little Catholic girl full of holy envy. I had a strong calling to work in religious life and serve as a clergywoman, but the role of the priest was off limits, so the convent was the only future to which I could seriously aspire. But I did not want to remove my religious self from the world as a cloistered nun; I wanted to infuse the world with my religious self. So I scrapped my novitiate plans and continued to pursue options of what that life might look like.

The next few years saw me through college, a degree in theatre, and a move to New York City. In order to balance the meager paychecks from performing Off-Off-Broadway at night, I worked as an after-school teacher at the JCC and found myself in the baffling position of looking forward to my survival job more than my theatre job. At the JCC, I was introduced to people who practiced a religion that made them active participants in life, constant seekers of justice and altruism, and I wanted to learn more. I started conversion classes and attended local synagogues, falling more and more in love with Judaism until I made it official and became a mikvah-doused, rabbi-approved Jewish woman.

Being a member of the Jewish community brought out my best impulses and made me want to do more for the tribe that had opened its arms in welcome to me. I stopped performing, picked up two extra JCC jobs, and devoted every day of the week to working there with the education team. That same calling I felt as a teenager renewed itself, and I applied to Hebrew Union College to see if I had what it took to be a rabbi. This career path—this life path—did not share the same limitations nuns were bound to. I could become a rabbi and live fully in the world, not removed from it, and I could be a leader in a variety of different ways.

At Hebrew Union College, I had the chance to discover all the ways that leadership could take shape, and what parts of me were needed for each one. My classes taught me to look at the Tanakh and our Jewish texts with a joyful yet discerning eye, a detective on a holy matzah crumb trail. Yet outside the classroom, I learned what this calling truly takes. Working for the Jewish Cemeteries of Greater Cincinnati taught me solemnity and the importance of legacy. A summer internship for the Religious Action Center taught me how to use ancient texts to empower modern civic responsibility. Months spent as a chaplain in a trauma hospital taught me how to listen, just listen.

In my student pulpits, I learned how Judaism lives and thrives in small communities of dedicated individuals. In parts of the country where a lone synagogue is the only Jewish building for hundreds of miles, I watched communities who struggled to put a minyan together, yet refused to close their doors. We worked together on how to make their proud existence known, increasing awareness of these communities that led to increased numbers and attendance.

Yet throughout it all, I still feel like the little girl who pushed her Elmo-Moses along an imagined Nile. The Torah is so fully alive to me, and my favorite part of what I do is making it come alive for others. I approach teaching, chanting, and drashing about the Torah with great zeal. But more than that, I am always looking for a new way to bring the Torah to life, whether by making short films for social media about my favorite stories or encouraging congregants to write or perform their own personal midrash. Everyone has their own personal connection to our stories and our traditions. It is my great privilege to help people find theirs and share it with the Jewish world.

Rachael Houser