Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Rabbis 2014

Rabbi Benay Lappe

Rabbi Benay Lappe has provided her students and the entire Jewish community with the opportunity to see that Judaism is smarter, more radical and sexier than we ever imagined. She has modeled, taught and demonstrated that — particularly to those of us who have not been the receivers of a Judaism that speaks to us or about us — we all have the capacity to engage with our tradition and with ourselves in a way that will make the pages of the Talmud breathe, come alive and sustain both Judaism and us today. She manages to bring students to Jewish learning and step out of the way, so that it is the student who is actively engaging and becoming a learned, empowered and confident bearer of Jewish tradition. Her authenticity, love for the rabbis of the Talmud and devotion to her students’ learning ensure that her lessons bind themselves to our hearts and illuminate our lives.

— Mary Otts and two others

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.