Rabbi Jill Hammer, PhD, is an author, teacher, midrashist, mystic, poet, essayist, and priestess. She is committed to an earth-based and wildly mythic view of the world in which nature, ritual, and story connect us to the body of the cosmos and to ourselves.

Rabbi Hammer leads guided meditation and ritual for retreats, synagogues, and rabbinical schools. Rabbi Hammer also facilitates life-cycle and seasonal rituals for individuals and for groups: weddings, baby namings, new moon circles, and other ceremonies. Her method combines sacred text and tradition with creative, poetic exploration and a sensitivity to the mythic dimension of human life.

Rabbi Hammer received her B.A. from Brandeis University in 1991. She holds a doctorate in social psychology from the University of Connecticut and received rabbinical ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary in 2001. She lives in Manhattan with her wife Shoshana Jedwab and their daughter. They attend Romemu, a Jewish Renewal congregation, where Hammer often serves the community as a teacher and darshan.

Rabbi Hammer is the Director of Spiritual Education at the Academy for Jewish Religion, a pluralistic rabbinical and cantorial seminary in Yonkers, NY. At AJR, she specializes in ancient and contemporary midrash, mysticism, ritual, and contemporary spirituality. To learn more about AJR, visit here.

Rabbi Hammer is also the Director of Learning and Ritual at Beit Kohenet, a house of Jewish mystical feminist earth-based seeking. At Beit Kohenet, Rabbi Hammer helps to create online and in-person transformative Jewish study opportunities and prayer spaces. To learn more about Beit Kohenet, visit beitkohenet.org.

Rabbi Hammer is the author of nine books: Sisters at Sinai: New Tales of Biblical Women (2001), The Jewish Book of Days: A Companion for All Seasons (2006), The Omer Calendar of Biblical Women (2012 and 2024), The Garden of Time (2014), The Hebrew Priestess: Ancient and New Visions of Jewish Women’s Spiritual Leadership (2016), The Book of Earth and Other Mysteries (2016), Return to the Place: The Magic, Meditation, and Mystery of Sefer Yetzirah (2020), Undertorah: An Earth-Based Kabbalah of Dreams (2022), and The Moonstone Covenant (2024).

Hammer’s academic articles have been published in journals such as Religion and Literature, The Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, Nashim: A Journal of Jewish Women’s Studies and Gender Studies, The Journal of Applied Social Psychology, Ashe: The Journal of Experimental Spirituality, and Stepping into Ourselves: An Anthology of Writings on Priestesses.

Hammer’s poetry and stories have been published in Zeek Magazine, The Torah: A Women’s Commentary, Natural Bridge, Lilith Magazine, Mitzvah Stories, Best Jewish Writing 2002, The Forward, and many other journals and magazines.

Meet Our Faculty

Mark Goldman

Rabbi

Amy Grossblatt Pessah

Rabbi

Jill Hammer

Rabbi

Jessica Kaplan

Hebrew Teacher

Kim Lerner

Emeritus, Co-Founder

Rachel Nelson

Cantor

Zohar Raviv

Dr.

Uri Romano

Rabbi

Jeffrey Salkin

Rabbi

Jeffrey Segelman

Rabbi

Leon Weissberg, PhD

Rabbi / Dr.