Between Father and Daughter: Exploring the Career and Influence of Judith Kaplan Eisenstein

Rabbi Elizabeth Bolton began her career as an opera singer and vocal teacher, studying, performing and touring across Canada and in Europe. A stint as a cantor in Toronto combined with a life-long commitment to activism helped guide her to attend the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College (RRC) in Philadelphia, where she received ordination and a Master of Arts in Hebrew Letters in 1996.

After graduation, she served as a chaplain, and taught hazzanut and singing at RRC. She relocated to Baltimore in 1999 to lead a Reconstructionist congregation, andiIn 2013 she returned to Canada to become the first woman or queer congregational rabbi in the nation’s capital, and the first resident rabbi of Or Haneshamah: Ottawa’s Reconstructionist Community. She is also a member of the Spiritual Care team at Ottawa’s Queensway Carleton Hospital.

Rabbi Liz is an alumna of the Institute for Jewish Spirituality, the American Jewish World Service, and was named one of The Forward’s most Inspirational Rabbis (2016). She serves on the board of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association, co-leads Rainbow Haven, a community group settling queer newcomers and asylum seekers from around the world, and has never stopped singing.