Watch Rabbi Lappe’s ELI Talk or TEDx Talk, or read some of her essays.

Ordained by The Jewish Theological Seminary in 1997, Rabbi Benay Lappe founded SVARA in 2003 and serves as its Rosh Yeshiva. An award-winning educator known for her groundbreaking application of queer theory to Talmud study, Benay teaches and speaks widely on Jewish learning, leadership, and transformation, bringing rigorous text study into conversation with lived experience and social change. She has served on the faculties of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Temple University, the University of Judaism, the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, the Graduate Theological Union’s Center for Jewish Studies at UC Berkeley, and the Wexner Institute, and continues to shape contemporary Jewish thought through her teaching, writing, and mentorship. While learning and teaching Talmud are her greatest passions, Rabbi Lappe is also a licensed pilot, shoemaker, and patent-holding inventor.