Our History

Our community's greatest strength and most precious resource is its members. We honor the range and variety of the talents and experiences our members bring to the community, and appreciate and rely on the support they give to the congregation through participation and financial contributions. 

—Kolot Chayeinu Values Statement

The Kolot Chayeinu Oral History Project

The Kolot Chayeinu Oral History Project features the personal narratives of Kolot community members past and present to document the congregation’s collective history. The ongoing project is led by a group of Kolot members in collaboration with students from Kolotnik Lana Povitz’s Fall 2022 Middlebury College class on Jewish Oral History.

Check out the Kolot Chayeinu Oral History project here to read interviews with some of our members! To get involved or learn more, contact lpovitz@gmail.com.

We're Ready: A Short History of Kolot Chayeinu

By Rabbi Emerita Ellen Lippmann

It's May 12, 1991 and Rabbi Alfred Gottschalk places his hands on my shoulders as a symbol of ordination, looks deep into my eyes with his and asks, “Are you ready?” My answer is, “I hope so.” It has taken me years to stop turning to see who else was in the room when someone said, “Rabbi.” 20 years later I can finally answer, “Yes,” I am ready for this work which requires me to look deep into people’s hearts and lives, to do my part to repair this broken world, to lead prayer and offer words of wisdom, to teach children and adults a Judaism they can live with. I became a rabbi because of Sally Priesand, the first women to be ordained a rabbi in 1972. Reading all the news of those days, I said to myself, “That is what I want to do.” I began in 1986, moving to Jerusalem for a year, leaving Kathryn and 4-year-old Emma behind. 

My first job as an ordained rabbi was as the East Coast Director of MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger. While working there, I realized I missed having a Jewish community I could feel at home in and, at the same time, many people were saying, “We have not found a congregation we like. You should start something.” I revived an idea I had as a student, that of “eating first” before prayer or study, and gathered a group to talk about it, and about my unformed idea to create a café like the old Garden Cafeteria on the Lower East Side – overcooked vegetables and the liveliest conversation among and between tables that I had ever seen. We would never put up with that food any more, but I longed for the passion of the talk. 

I come from a long line of synagogue starters; my grandparents were relatives and congregants of Rabbi Mordechai Kaplan when they began the Society for the Advancement of Judaism. My parents were part of the renewal of a moribund congregation in Virginia, where they both served as president. Synagogue life was for me an extension of home, and we were at services every week. There and through a vibrant Jewish home life, and camp (but never because of the dreadful Hebrew school), I became a Jew myself. I think I wanted a shul-café as a sort of home or camp extension, a way to shape non-formal Jewish learning and life through food, fellowship and art. 

Eight people showed up and we sat around our old dining room table and talked about shul-cafes, and the bima in a coffeeshop. Judith Kane was there and Peter Kleinbard, along with Kathryn and me, and others who sadly are gone, or moved away. By the second meeting we began “each one bring one,” and Arthur and Lisa came, and very soon Phil Saperia, and Lisa Magidow and Evan (z”l) Ahearn, who brought their landlords Greg Cohen and Viviane Arzoumanian, and later came Andrea Bernstein and Liz Schalet, and Judi and Michael (z”l) Forman, and more. Natalie Levy was our first president, her husband Jerry Levy did our incorporation, and we were off and running.

The first Shabbat dinner was music and story, Shabbat mornings came to be food and Torah study, and the first Rosh HaShanah was said and sung around dinner tables in a church basement. Eighteen years on, and Kolot Chayeinu has grown past imagining. Once we were 8; now we are 340. Once our school fit in Peter Kleinbard’s basement; now we have 120+ kids in the school which thankfully meets in MS 88. My hope is that we still find ways to instill and enliven and enact Judaism in a way that matters. My hope is that one child, or maybe two, of the 120 now at Kolot, will one day want to become a rabbi. That one day Kolot will find a physical home that will embrace, rather than suffocate, us. And my hope is that this experiment in Jewish life will continue to grow with each new person who walks through the doors, with each new song we sing, with each lesson taught or prayer spoken, and yes, that one day Kolot will have a café, part of the whole that is all the voices of our lives.

April 2011

Kolot’s History: The First 25 Years

  • First meeting to establish a community is held around Conroy-Lippmann dining room table with Rabbi Ellen Lippmann, Rebbetzin Kathryn Conroy, Judith Kane, Peter Kleinbard, Fred Miller, Pat Miller, Steve-who-moved-to-South-Dakota

    Name is chosen: Kolot Chayeinu/Voices of Our Lives

    First teacher, tutor and leader of song, Rachel Lovins

    First school has five students and meets in Peter Kleinbard’s basement

    First Shabbat dinner with story by Arthur Strimling

    First Shabbat morning Torah study

    First High Holydays

    First Kolot Chayeinu baby born, Nora Ahearn

    First Kolot Bat Mitzvah, Hannah Forman

    First President of Kolot Chayeinu, Natalie Levy

  • First issue of Voices, edited by Michael Forman (z”l)

    School moves to Knights of Columbus in Windsor Terrace, first of many moves

  • Phil Saperia becomes second President of Kolot

    Kolot Chayeinu moves to the Church of Gethsemane

    High Holy Day music led by Elliot Pilshaw (member Lisa B. Segal sings Kol Nidre)

  • Rabbi Sue Oren begins directing the Children’s Learning Program

    First Adult Bnai Mitzvah: Ruth Finkelstein, David Hansell, David Hodgson and Daniel Wolfe

    Rabbi Lippmann joins the Jews for Racial and Economic Justice Rabbinic Advisory Board

  • First time that Lisa B. Segal sings throughout High Holy Days services

    First annual Arthur Strimling drash of the Akkeda

    First Kolot Bar Mitzvah, Kai Kleinbard

  • Arthur Strimling becomes third President of Kolot

    Trisha Arlin starts editing Voices, following Jim Golden and Adam Fredericks

  • Kolotniks join thousands to protest the police killing of unarmed African immigrant Amadou Diallo. Many are arrested.

  • Ruth Finkelstein become fourth President of Kolot

    Rabbi Lippmann comes on as full-time rabbi

    First gala, White Fire, honors Arthur Strimling

    Fred Miller becomes the first member to die. Zikhrono livrakha

    Pre-Sukkot gathering about the second intifada garners a firestorm of press.

  • Rabbi Lippmann marks her 10th year as a rabbi, featured in the Daily News.

    Tony Kushner and Linda Emond bring us an early reading of Homebody/Kabul for this anniversary

    Lisa B. Segal is hired as cantorial soloist

    September 11: Kolot Chayeinu and Park Slope Jewish Center join to mourn together

    September 15, we are joined in the garden by a group of Muslims from the Dialogue Project where we first meet Debbie Almontaser

    in early October, Rabbi Lippmann speaks at Union Square to protest bombing of Afghanistan, cited in The New York Times

  • Lisa Zbar becomes fifth President of Kolot

    Ora Wise starts teaching at CLP

    Arthur Strimling becomes Maggid HaMakom

    First Administrator hired, Viviane Arzoumanian

  • First student rabbi and Kolot member to be ordained, Rabbi Rachel Goldenberg

    First Children of Abraham Peace Walk organized by Rabbi Lippmann, Debbie Almontaser, Naji Almontaser, Charley Horwitz (z”l) and Rev. Tom Martinez

    Second gala, Bread & Torah, honors Rabbi Ellen Lippmann, Lisa B. Segal, Phil Saperia and Ruth Finkelstein, with a talk by Tony Kushner

    Rabbi Lippmann and Hazzan Segal lead a prayer service before a Shabbat march against entering war in Iraq.

    Rabbi Lippmann officiates at the wedding of Tony Kushner and Mark Harris, the first same-sex wedding to be featured in The New York Times.

  • First Kolot Mission and Values Statement is finalized; Phil Saperia reads it aloud at the Congregational Meeting

    Leah Zimmerman begins as Director of Education

    Third gala, Open Tent, honors Rachel Chanoff of "Celebrate Brooklyn, " Brad Lander of Fifth Avenue Committee and the Pratt Center, the Halperin family

    Rabbi Lippmann and Hazzan Segal lead protest wedding of Kolot members Ruth Finkelstein and BC Craig on City Hall steps, to much publicity

    Rabbi Lippmann leads symbolic wedding prior to the NYC LGBT Pride march

    Kolot enters a relationship with Community Action Project (CAP), affiliate of the PICO Network, and begins exploring congregation-based community organizing

  • Andy Stettner becomes sixth President of Kolot

    Fourth gala, Praying with Our Feet, honors Lisa Zbar, Evan Wolfson of Freedom to Marry, High Holydays chair Lisa Auerbach

    Lisa B. Segal enters cantorial school

    First couple to meet at a Kolot service are married, Bob Usdin and Ruth Cohen

    Collaboration begins with Jews for Racial and Economic Justice on the Shalom Bayit/Justice for Domestic Workers Campaign

    Kolot’s Youngishes group begins.

  • Fifth gala, Loud & Clear, brings Senator Russ Feingold to Brooklyn to much media scrutiny, and honors Steve Banks of the Legal Aid Society; Trisha Arlin, Voices editor; Andrea Bernstein, senior political reporter, WNYC.

  • Adrienne Fisher becomes seventh President of Kolot

    Ora Wise begins as Director of Education

    Molly Kane arrives as a new rabbinic student

    On November 28, Kolot Chayeinu votes not to affiliate after a long and careful process

    First evening of many dinners, “At Our Tables.”

  • First Kolot Chayeinu trip to Israel and Palestine for Rabbi and eight members

    The Men’s Group, The Halfassadim, goes to Brighton Beach for first pre-Rosh Hashanah mikveh

    Kolot formally affiliates with CAP (later changed to Brooklyn Congregations United).

  • Cindy Greenberg becomes eighth President of Kolot

    Rabbi Lippmann becomes co-chair of Rabbis for Human Rights – North America

    First Administrative Director is hired, Diane Kirschner

    First Kolot Chayeinu Facebook group.

  • Rabbi Lippmann listed as one of 50 most important women rabbis by The Forward

    Congregation Yaahh!! is born

    In August, Kolotniks join Rabbi Arthur Waskow and others in a Jewish gathering to honor the Cordoba Initiative’s proposed mosque and community center at 51 Park Place

    Rabbi Lippmann honored by Brooklyn Borough President and leaders of the Muslim community at their annual gathering

    Five Kolot members go with Rabbi to Israel-Palestine as part of the human rights mission of Rabbis for Human Rights–North America (now known as T'ruah)

    Active Facebook group and twitter account

    First women’s/trans folks’ pre-Rosh Hashanah mikveh at Riis Beach

    Kolot member Brad Lander takes office as City Councilmember of Brooklyn’s 39th District

    Governor David Paterson signs the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights—which Kolot Chayeinu has worked on for five years—into law.

  • January 20, Tu BeShevat, Kolot Chayeinu turns 18

    May 8, Molly Kane is ordained Rabbi

    May 12, Lisa B. Segal is ordained Cantor

    May 12, Rabbi Ellen Lippmann is 20 years a rabbi

    Members Jennifer Egan and Clifford Levy win Pulitzer Prizes in Literature and Investigative Journalism, respectively

    Children’s Learning Program has 122 students

    Kolot Chayeinu has 18th birthday gala, CHAI TIME!

  • B'nai Mitzvah: 17 kids

    Scott Fox is Student Rabbi

    Hadar Ahuvia teaches Kolot K’tanim

    Cantorial student Rachel Brook leads Family and occasional Shabbat services

    Former Student Rabbi, Rabbi Molly Kane, is installed at Brooklyn Heights Synagogue

    Rabbi Lippmann and scores of Kolot members join NY Communities for Change "Fight for $15" (original idea from former Kolot member, Jon Kest, z’l), standing with fast food workers at 5am rallies until the 2016 victory in NY State

    The Race Working Group begins

    Rosh Hashanah Drash 5773 by Rabbi and Ernst Mohammed: The Torah of Race

    First graduating class of What’s Up?! 8th graders complete with original performance

    After Hurricane Sandy, Kolot travels in a caravan of cars and vans to Brighton Beach to bring needed supplies to residents there

    Kolot members assist in shelter at the Y on 15th Street

    Jazz Boogie concert with Jess Lurie

    Cantor Segal becomes Director of Cantorial Studies at the Academy for Jewish Religion (AJR).

  • B'nai Mitzvah: 11 kids

    Ordination of Student Rabbi Scott Fox at HUC

    Franny Silverman succeeds Ora Wise as Director of Youth Education

    High Holy Days take place at the Walt Whitman Theater at Brooklyn College

    9am Torah Study, led by the Rabbi and Arthur Strimling, begins with five people attending

    Racism Working Group Task Force holds first round of House Meetings, makes first presentation to congregation in the Spring and begins trainings in the Fall.

    First transgender Kolot Board member, Mel King, joins Kolot Board

    Kolot Early Childhood program expands to include StorahSteps, a joint grant program with Lab/Shul

    Tragic traffic death of Kolot 8th grader Sammy Cohen Eckstein z’l. All of Kolot mourns. Later his parents create NYC’s Vision Zero campaign

    Tony Kushner, interviewed by the Rabbi, speaks to Kolot on “Art, Politics and Being a Jew”

    Ora Wise is honored as she moves on from being Kolot’s Director of Youth Eeducation

    Nava Tehila gives concert and workshop in honor of Trisha Arlin’s tenure as first Communications Coordinator

    Kolot begins "What's Next?" congregation-wide process exploring the next phase of Kolot's life.

  • B'nai Mitzvah: 13 kids

    Adult class of seven becomes b'nai mitzvah in April

    Sarah Strnad departs as Operations Manager, Kolot hires first Executive Director, Scott Nogi, two more custodians

    Hadar Ahuvia becomes Assistant to Director of Youth Education

    Kolot returns to Mission For Today for High Holy Days

    Kolotniks support the "car washeros" in Park Slope, providing food and needed cash, and through the efforts of Kolot member attorney Liz Vladeck, the workers enter a settlement that becomes the gold standard for the industry in NYC

    Grant is received from UJA to explore needs of interfaith and multi-racial families, Avigail Prinz-Hurvitz coordinating

    Rabbi and Imani Romney-Rosa make presentation on Kolot’s anti-racist work at Hebrew College, a pluralist rabbinic seminary in Boston

    Cantor Segal produces Dvar Shirah, a spoken word and musical concert at Eldridge Street Synagogue as a Benefit for AJR, includes Cantor Segal, Arthur Strimling, Trisha Arlin, T Wise, and many other Kolotniks.

  • B'nai Mitzvah: 17 kids

    Daniel Reiser is Kolot's student rabbi

    Shulcloud, online congregant database management system, goes active

    B'nai Mitzvah program triples and hires first B’nai Mitzvah coordinator, Kendell Pinkney

    B’nai Mitzvah Kiddush standardized

    Cindy Greenberg's last year as President of the Board

    Andrea Arzt becomes President

    Tisha B'Av in Grand Army Plaza organized by rabbinic student/member, Mackenzie Reynolds

    First Kolot "Wise Aging" group begins, led by Rabbi after training by the Institute for Jewish Spirituality

    The Rabbi and former Kolot student Noah Chasek-Macfoy march in South Carolina with the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism and the NAACP

    Rabbi and members organize “Say No to Hate/Yes to Refugees,” an interfaith Hanukkah action at Borough Hall, and Eddy Ehrlich creates and lights giant menorah

    Kolot’s Multiracial Families Network begins multiracial family gatherings

    People Of Color represent Kolot at LabShul seder at BAM, along with Kolot clergy and staff

    85% of Kolot educators participate in anti-racist training with CARLE Institute (funded by Ma’yan)

    UJA grant renewed for 1 year to hire part-time staff support

    Panel on Race and Judaism with Tamara Cohen and Arthur Strimling, moderated by Imani Romney-Rosa

    Storah Steps becomes Torah Tots, now an in-house program

    B’nai Mitzvah program is shifted to elective-based classes

    Brooklyn synagogues present Kaleidoscope show on diverse Jews and Judaism for teens across Brooklyn (funded by Jewish Education Project)

    Visiting scholar lunch with Rabbi Nancy Wieeiner and Rabbi Jo Hirschman

    Rabbi leads Kolot trip to Israel and Palestine in February

    Cantor Segal leaves AJR position to devote more time to Kolot

    Transition Team formed, Fall 2015

    Rabbi Lippmann announces that she will retire in 2018.

  • B'nai Mitzvahot: 26 services, with 29 kids (3 sets of twins)!

    Student Rabbi Daniel Reiser ordained by HUC-JIR

    Miriam Grossman begins service as Student Rabbi

    Franny Silverman becomes Director of Learning and Action (DLA)

    November 9: Cantor Segal leads gathering of Kolot members in mourning and determination after Presidential election – that Shabbat, members express their feelings via the presence of a "stone of losses" connected to a Talmudic passage about an ancient lost and found

    Rabbi Lippmann speaks at the Stonewall Bar in a vigil for Orlando shooting

    Kolot publishes Antiracist Omer Counter featuring guest writers

    Board approves adoption of RWG staff person into budget

    Congregation votes PoC rep onto Kolot board

    Kolot funds DLA participation in Intersection of Antisemitism and Racism training, sends 3 people to Facing Race Conference

    Anti-racist training by CARLE Institute attended by board and staff

    Kolot presents Kaleidoscope show (funded by UJA)

    Kol HaEidot course centering experience of JoC and Mizrachi and Sephardi Jews launched in B’nai Mitzvah Program

    Shabbat Sheli (“My Shabbat”) inaugurated

    Kolot is awarded microgrants from the Jewish Education Project for Kolot Teen Leadership Program

    NYC First Lady Chirlane McCray speaks at Shabbat service

    Cantor begins 18-month Clergy Leadership Program with the Institute for Jewish Spirituality.

  • B'nai Mitzvah: 19, with 20 kids

    First CLP Principal is hired, Yoyneh Hersh Boyarin

    ED Scott Nogi receives MBA and leaves Kolot staff

    Sherri Levine joins staff as Executive Director

    Ethan Cohen begins as Communications Coordinator

    Jen Abrams is next B'nai Mitzvah coordinator

    First budget over a million dollars

    Student Rabbi Grossman starts Café Kolot

    Kolot members Sandra Abramson and Rabbi Lisa Grant attend IJS retreat to study Tikkun Middot

    Rabbi and Kolot members join thousands of New Yorkers at JFK airport in January after the first Trump Muslim Ban is declared, Rabbi joins many rabbis in leading havdallah

    Student Rabbi Grossman goes twice to Standing Rock, is arrested in support of the Native Water Protectors

    Rabbi Lippmann is arrested with Faith in NY outside the NYC ICE Detention Center

    Yavilah McCoy and Shoshana Aqua lead Shabbat morning service with Cantor Segal

    Kolot members participate in two day Undoing Racism Training

    Panel on Racism and Anti-Semitism with Eric Ward and Ajay Chaudhary on Whiteness and Jewishness

    A Kabbalat Shabbat focuses on immigrants within Kolot; City Councilmember Carlos Menchaca, members Tabitha St. Bernard-Jacobs and Ana Rosen speak

    Immigrants and Refugees Working Group co-sponsors Commemoration of the S.S. St. Louis Event at Borough Hall with HIAS and Brownstone Brooklyn Synagogues

    Kolot teens participate in anti-oppression and anti-racism workshops

    Longtime tutor T Wise becomes Bar Mitzvah as an adult after gender transition

    Queer and Trans Working Group is launched

    Microgrants from Jewish Education Project for Kolot Teen Leadership Program

    First Youth Culture Shabbat

    Tabitha St. Bernard-Jacobs part of original team of organizers of the January national Women’s March in DC

    After conversations facilitated by ReSetting The Table, Israel/Palestine Working Group is founded

    Rabbi honored as a Risk Taker at the JFREJ Rabbi Marshall T. Meyer Awards

    Yiddish Kids music group forms with Sarah Ferholt and Raul Rothblatt

    Transition Team, led by Carolyn Klaasen, continues work and almost half congregation goes to approximately 20 house meetings to discuss rabbinic transition

    Planning begins for 2018 Gala

    Leadership retreat discusses “Things Kolot is Afraid To Talk About”

    Interim Rabbi Search Committee is formed by Board

    Cantor Segal leads Tallis Tree ritual for Rabbi’s last August service as a mezuzah is added to the tree.

  • B'nai Mitzvah: 29 kids!!! Our largest class, ever

    Kolot switches to Kesef, a professional accounting firm, and hires IT firm Diligex

    9am Torah Study now has 20–25 regulars

    First Tikkun Middot study group, led by Rabbi Lisa Grant and Sandra Abramson

    Social Justice Committee is re-organized as umbrella group for all SJ groups at Kolot

    Immigrants and Refugees Working Group sponsors a weekly Shabbat letter writing campaign for New Sanctuary Coalition

    Thanks to the work of “Planet A” Working Group, Kolot becomes first Jewish congregation to publicly divest from a bank that supports fossil fuels & pipeline projects, moving from Chase to Amalgamated

    Social Justice at Kolot Facebook page has 192 members

    Mission statement updated to affirm our commitment to being anti-racist congregation

    Race Working Group wins UJA Open Tent grant re: racial equity accountability

    Franny Silverman and Imani Romney-Rosa present “Intro to Creation of Whiteness” Workshop

    Rabbi and Romney-Rosa present on congregational anti-racist work to T’ruah summer fellows and rabbinic students

    Naming ceremonies during services for transgender members Mackenzie Zev Reynolds and Eliott Scott Clement-Ifill

    Joseph Hayden and Elana Lancaster become second and third transgender members of Kolot board

    Congregational survey for next rabbi search

    Board decides not to hire Interim Rabbi, instead focuses on interim team of Cantor (now full-time), Executive Director, Director of Learning and Action, and Rabbinic Fellow (now ¾ time)

    In a surprise presentation, Congregation plants a Venus Dogwood tree in Prospect Park near the Tallis Tree, in honor of retiring Rabbi Ellen Lippmann

    Raising My Voice: Selected Sermons and Writings of Rabbi Ellen Lippmann, edited by Trisha Arlin, cover design by Jonathan Auerbach, is published

    Rabbi Lippmann celebrates 25 years since she founded Kolot Chayeinu, and retires

    Big gala, “Raising Our Voices, honoring Rabbi Lippman and Kolot's 25 years,” on June 7 attended by 540 people

    Rabbi Lippmann's last day as a Rabbi at Kolot is Shabbat, June 30, 2018