Chai Levy

I look forward to connecting with you and to creating our community’s future together. I’m happy to meet with current members, prospective members, and people curious about exploring Judaism or deepening their Jewish lives. To arrange an appointment, please contact me at rabbi@netivotshalom.org.

Before coming to Netivot Shalom in July 2018, I served Congregation Kol Shofar in Marin County for sixteen years, where I founded the award-winning Center for Jewish Spirituality. Originally from Richmond, Virginia, I graduated from the University of Virginia and was ordained by the Jewish Theological Seminary in 2002. I’ve studied in Jerusalem at the Hebrew University, the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, and Machon Schechter. I’m also a graduate of the Institute for Jewish Spirituality’s Rabbinic Leadership Program and have trained as a Spiritual Director at the Chaplaincy Institute. I was a Fellow in the Clergy Leadership Incubator, a program for rabbis studying and practicing innovation and organizational change, and I trained with Resetting the Table in facilitating dialogue across divides.

What brings me joy as a congregational rabbi is building a caring, inclusive community, creating a sense of connection, belonging, and shared purpose for transforming our world, and transmitting the beauty of Torah as poetry for wrestling with the Mystery of life. I enjoy working with all ages and feel as much at home sitting on the floor with the preschoolers, playing my guitar and doing a puppet show about the Torah portion as I do singing a niggun (wordless melody) and teaching Hasidic texts to adult learners. It is my privilege as a rabbi to create and hold sacred space for people going through life’s challenges, transitions, and celebrations, whether it’s birth, b’nei mitzvah, marriage, divorce, illness, death, and everything in between. Please let me know how I can support you.

Outside of my rabbinic work, I enjoy dancing, being in nature, and playing bass in a rock band. I am married to Roger Studley, and our son, Ezra, attends Oakland Hebrew Day School. People often ask me about my unusual nickname, “Chai:” It’s an acronym for my full Jewish name, Chaya-Yehudit, and is pronounced with a guttural “ch” as in L’Chaim! I look forward to getting to know you!

A taste of Rabbi Chai Levy’s teachings and writings

In Conversation with Rabbi Art Green

My Jewish Learning’s Sermon Slam

Institute for Jewish Spirituality’s Open My Heart Podcast

J, the Jewish News of Northern California columns

Institute for Jewish Spirituality’s Mindfulness Meditation

eJewish Philanthropy Article

BimBam video