Rabbi Rachel Gartner

Director of Jewish Chaplaincy
Age: 44
Hometown: Long Island, N.Y.
Time at Georgetown: 3 years

What drew you to becoming a rabbi?
I walk through life in a state of wonder, and Judaism, since a young age, has been a powerful language through which to express that wonder. Even as a child, I was very drawn to the liturgy and to the way it seemed to move people, even when I didn’t know what it meant myself. At one point in my life, in my early 20s, I had a few powerful experiences that made me really get on a gut level that Judaism had this claim on me, even though I didn’t understand why, and I felt the need to reclaim it for myself. So I didn’t grow up with a deep background in Judaism, but I felt very connected to it, almost to my surprise, and that sent me into a deeper personal spiritual exploration, which also led me to the rabbinate. 

What drew you to Georgetown specifically?
Very specifically, the actual mission statement of the campus ministry, because the Jesuit project here resonates very beautifully with my project that I am trying to do in my rabbinate work in terms of wedding academia, or the intellect, with the mind, body and spirit. It’s the sense of history, the sense of reading religious text in an academic place and of reading tradition in that kind of way, while also reading it from a spiritual place, and allowing it to have its full spiritual power. I think that the idea of cura personalis, or the education of the whole person, really drew me in. One more thing is the clear call to social justice, and being women and men for others; that’s work that I see deeply as a part of my rabbinate, and to be able to do it in context on campus was drawing.

Do you see any ways in which the campus ministry program could be improved?
I am proud that the campus ministry understands itself as a counsel for the needs of all of our students, both our traditional students of any faith and our students who are less traditional. There are many Jewish students on campus who have strong Jewish identities, but they’re less confident in their Jewish knowledge or their sense of belonging. I’m pleased that campus ministry wants to engage those students in a very open and nonjudgmental way. The more resources we have to do that work, the better we can do it.

What do you love most about your job?
Being with students, hands down. Nothing else to say about that.

What do you find most challenging about it?
Unfortunately, the pace and frenzy of D.C. life makes its way into my work; the pace and frenzy of campus life does too. As a rabbi, I am always reaching for balance in my life and always reaching to help students find balance, and sometimes, what is most challenging for me is managing the competing demands on my time and the competing demand on the type of attention I need to place on different things

How could students take greater advantage of the resources offered by the campus ministry? Do you think they should?
I see college as a time to expose yourself to as many ideas in the marketplace of ideas as you can, and while people are educating themselves in academic fields, what an amazing time it is to educate oneself in religious life as well. What I would urge students to do is first to understand that no one is trying to push anything on them, and with that in mind, come and try things out! Don’t graduate Georgetown, if you’re Jewish, without having gone to a Muslim prayer service; don’t graduate from Georgetown, if you’re Catholic, without having come to a Jewish service. Step out of your comfort zone and try things out. There are no strings attached.

Can you describe a memorable experience you’ve had since you started working here?
Oh, there are too many to put on here. One of my favorite Georgetown experiences, among many, was when a Muslim student approached a Jewish student and said: “We have a Muslim living-learning community. Why don’t you have a Jewish one?” So that was cool in itself — that he was thinking so far beyond himself — and they came to me and asked me that question, and I said: “I don’t know. Maybe we should do it,” and the student said, “Yeah, I want to do it!” That was the fall of one year, and by the fall of the next year we had Bayit, which is our living-learning community. So what I love about that is how it came about from interfaith empathy and reaching out and that it was student-initiated. That the university was so willing to support that is emblematic, for me, of the strength of our community.

What’s something you do in your job that most people might not realize at first glance?
I don’t know what people think I do! My job is multifaceted, and I think different people see different aspects of it, so sometimes I’m doing major events for the university, and sometimes I’m doing a lot of one-on-one counseling. I would say that that’s less visible, and it’s sort of the drumbeat of my work; it always comes back to that, the pastoral care, and talking to students who aren’t Jewish, either because they have a paper coming up or because they heard something and were interested in talking about it. 

Do you notice a difference between working as a rabbi at a university, as opposed to elsewhere or in a different context?
Well, when you’re in a congregation — in my prior life, I was a congregational rabbi — the congregations are still very movement based. I’m a Reconstructionist rabbi and I served a Reconstructionist congregation, and you’re all on the same or a similar page about Reconstructionist practice. Here, we’re a pluralist community with a really diverse Jewish community, so I think that’s both an amazing opportunity and an amazing challenge. It’s an opportunity for students to grow and learn from each other, and it’s a challenge for us, sometimes, to be on the same page in terms of ritual and practice. For me, that’s really exciting because I am stretched all the time in all different directions.

If you weren’t working as a rabbi, what would you like to pursue?
I think every clergy member wants to be a rock star! 100 percent.

Interview by Alexander Brown