Featuring R. Tova Birnbaum and R. Rafi Ellenson

Rabbi Noa Kushner has written us all a letter in these dark weeks of the year. The question is, will we open it?

In her groundbreaking new book, Pretend You Believe: How to Enter Religion, Rabbi Kushner invites us to step through a door and see what is on the other side. She welcomes anyone, ready or not, to experience awe, a sense of place and real connection through the ideas and practices of religion.

Join Rabbi Noa Kushner and Rabba Tova Birnbaum as they discuss this thought-provoking, funny, brilliant and deeply engaging book. We'll explore Noa's work as the founder and rabbi of The Kitchen, a distinctive congregation in San Francisco, and the conversations she has had with congregants and seekers for over twenty-five years that inspired her to write it.

We are delighted and honored to welcome Rabbi Noa Kushner for an evening of inspiration as we explore her work and spiritual vision, and the possibilities that emerge when we allow ourselves to pretend.

***We are grateful to Congregation Shir Hadash and Rabbi Rafi Ellenson for co-sponsoring and helping make this event possible.

Noa Kushner is the founding rabbi of The Kitchen, a synagogue and institute whose approach to religion has become a model for communities worldwide. Devoted to religious access for all and committed to the beauty and depth of the tradition, The Kitchen is widely regarded as a way forward for Jewish and religious life today. Called a "measure of hope" in Haaretz and a "rabbi to watch" by Newsweek, Rabbi Kushner has translated religious experiences and ideas for tens of thousands across the United States, Israel and Paris. She is married to Rabbi Michael Lezak, and together they have three daughters, Zella, Bluma and Minna.

Tova Birnbaum is a Scholar in Residence for Israel Education and Spiritual Innovation at Gideon Hausner Jewish Day School in Palo Alto and a faculty member at the Mandel Institute for Nonprofit Leadership. In December 2026, she will be ordained as a rabbi by the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America.

Previously, Tova served as Director of Jewish Life at the Oshman Family JCC in Palo Alto and as Senior Jewish Education Specialist at JCC Association. She was born in Bnei Brak, Israel, and raised in an ultra-Orthodox home. She was one of the founders of the BINA Secular Yeshiva in Tel Aviv, where she also served as a faculty member. She served as the central shlicha (emissary) and director of the North America region of the World Zionist Organization. Tova holds a bachelor's degree in psychology and Jewish philosophy and a master's degree in theater. She lives in Mountain View with her husband; they are the proud parents of two daughters.

Rafi Ellenson serves as the Rabbi of Congregation Shir Hadash in Los Gatos, CA. A poet and literary translator, Rafi has been published in Verklempt!; has an essay in the upcoming second volume of Returning Higher: Hasidic & Neo-Hasidic Inspiration for the High Holy Day Journey (Panui Press; forthcoming 2027); and is the Hebrew translator of a bilingual collection of haiku written by E. Ethelbert Miller, the little book of e (City Point Press; 2024). Ordained at the Rabbinical School of Hebrew College where he received a certificate in Interreligious Leadership from the Boston Theological Interreligious Consortium and a graduate of the Individualized Bachelor of Arts program at Goddard College, Rafi previously worked in the Israeli NGO sector and was the recipient of a Dorot Fellowship in Israel.