Rabbi Elliot Kukla provides spiritual care in San Francisco to people living with mental or physical illness and grief, as well as those coming to the end of life in hospice and nursing homes. He also co-directs a Jewish spiritual care hospice program. His articles on Judaism and gender diversity, illness and healing are published in numerous magazines and anthologized widely. Elliot was ordained by Hebrew Union College in Los Angeles in 2006 and trained in chaplaincy at UCSF Medical Center in 2007. He lives in Oakland with his partner and a mélange of animals.
Elliot Kukla
By Elliot Kukla
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Opinion This year, Rosh Hashanah is a time of mourning
Yesterday, the sun did not rise in my Bay Area home. My toddler who usually wakes at dawn, slept until 9am and woke up confused, pointing to a dark umber colored sky, obliterated by clouds of smoke from wildfires billowing all over the West Coast. Even the hummingbirds and bees in my backyard were disoriented….
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Opinion For Centuries, Jewish Tradition Has Recognized Trans People
The idea that there are two and only two sexes is relatively new. This week, in a memo leaked to the New York Times, the Trump administration stated its goal to institute a federal definition of sex as “unchangeable, and determined by the genitals that a person is born with.” Furthermore, “any dispute about one’s…
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Community 3 Ways Jews Can Resist Trump
The events of November 8 changed what it means for me to be a Jew in America. I am a transgender, queer, chronically ill and disabled rabbi. My father was a hidden child in the Holocaust. Some of my grandparents survived concentration camps and others were murdered by Nazis. Currently, I offer spiritual care to…
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