By ELANA WARREN / Assistant Editor
The Twin Cities Jewish Renewal Community aims to start a new chapter of growth as Kohenet Riv Shapiro steps into the role of managing director.
The community will celebrate this transition and former TCJRC leader Sherry Stern with an Aug. 9 program featuring Michelle W. Malkin, the executive director for ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal. (See Page 6 for event details.)
Jewish Renewal is a transdenominational movement that, according to ALEPH, combines “the socially progressive values of egalitarianism, the joy of Hasidism, the informed do-it-yourself spirit of the havurah movement, and the accumulated wisdom of centuries of tradition.”
According to TCJRC, Jewish Renewal has been in Minnesota since the 1980s and officially became Twin Cities Jewish Renewal Community, and formally affiliated with ALEPH, in 2019.
In a conversation with the Jewish World, Kohenet Shapiro emphasized that Jewish Renewal aims to be accessible for all people — of any age, Jewish affiliation, gender, etc. — and encourages tikkun olam (repairing the world) and the integration of religious practice with “the issues that we care about today.”
Stern added that Jewish Renewal upholds connection to the earth and spirituality and, especially, song and joy.
Sherry Stern first learned about Jewish Renewal around seven years ago at Temple Adath Or in Florida, where she will move in September, and where she plans to remain involved in Jewish Renewal. Upon returning to the Twin Cities after that winter stay in Florida, she connected with TCJRC board member Terry Gips and Living Mussar Executive Director and Founder Julie Dean to begin cultivating the Twin Cities Jewish Renewal Community.
Now, TCJRC hosts experiential programming from personal growth workshops and spiritual programs around holidays to events with speakers and musicians. One regular offering is the Spiritual Jewish Monthly Book Group, which meets via Zoom and is wrapping up Heart of a Stranger: An Unlikely Rabbi’s Story of Faith, Identity, and Belonging, by Rabbi Angela Buchdahl (reviewed in AJW, Feb. 2026).
The next book, for which meetings will start in November, will be the 50th anniversary edition of Jewish Renewal Founder Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi’s Fragments of a Future Scroll: Hasidism for the Aquarian Age.
TCJRC also partners with other Jewish organizations, synagogues and leaders, most recently with Mount Zion Temple for a song circle with Cantor Linda Hirschhorn, and with Adath Jeshurun Congregation and Living Mussar for an evening of Hebrew chant with Rabbi Shefa Gold, both in July.
Looking forward, Shapiro, an artist and ordained kohenet (priestess), will bring to TCJRC what they’ve learned from the Kohenet Hebrew Priestess Institute, Jewish Studio Project and Wilderness Torah, among other experiences.
They will continue holiday programming that emphasizes earth-based traditions and innovative practices but also envision more programming for people throughout the lifecycle, such as space for seniors to explore together what it means to be an initiated elder and outdoor rite of passage for B’nai Mitzva-age youth. (Shapiro described outdoor rite of passage as a “transformative, nature-based coming-of-age experience designed to mark significant life transitions.”)
At Wilderness Torah, Shapiro was a ritual leader and outdoor rite of passage mentor for middle schoolers, which they said was “one of the most impactful things of my life so far, and it’s something that I am beginning to work on bringing to the Twin Cities.”
Stern said Twin Cities Jewish Renewal Community feels fortunate to have Shapiro as its next leader — that more than an administrator, Shapiro is a leader who understands Jewish mysticism and Kabbala and is a “wonderful creative talent.”
Shapiro already has a lineup of new programs that will begin in the fall: a young adult affinity space; monthly Rosh Chodesh gatherings, for all genders, that center around creativity and mindfulness; and quarterly intergenerational fire councils. Shapiro said fire is a core element of Jewish practice and that each season will have an opportunity for people to share and listen from the heart around a fire.
As they continue to work on these programs, Shapiro commented that they are interested in hearing from people across the Jewish community about how TCJRC can serve their spiritual development. “I think there’s really almost unlimited potential of what we could do in this work,” they said.
Shapiro invites people to reach out to them at tcjewishrenewal@gmail.com to connect or join the TCJRC mailing list.
“TCJRC can be a place for those who share values of curiosity, compassion, interconnection and cultivating wise responses to the world we live in, where … people who share those values can come together across all these differences,” Shapiro said.
In a prepared statement, they added: “I hope [TCJRC’s programming] will inspire people to be engaged with Judaism in their respective communities in ways that bring more love, justice and curiosity into our world. This is a difficult time on our planet in so many ways, and we hope to be a resource for spiritual development for all who are seeking.”
(American Jewish World, August 2026)
