Rabbi Jordi Battis believes that Judaism is a vocabulary that we can use to bring meaning and purpose to the everyday actions of our lives. She is deeply invested in creating community rooted in values of inclusion, learning, and social justice, in which each person is welcomed, honored, and supported for who they are.

Rabbi Jordi arrived at Temple Shir Tikva from Temple Beth Shalom of Needham, MA, where she helped to develop the nationally acclaimed Mayim and Etzim supplementary learning programs. She is an alumna of Williams College and Harvard Divinity School, in addition to her rabbinic and education degrees from Hebrew Union College in LA. There, she was part of the prestigious HUC Mandel Fellowship in education and rabbinic leadership. She has lived and worked across the Israeli and American Jewish communities, in experiential, camp, and Hillel settings, and is one of the authors featured in the book Portraits of Jewish Learning, as well as of many other articles findable online.

Originally from Claremont, CA, which looks about as much like a New England town as anywhere in Southern California possibly can, Rabbi Jordi lives in Natick, MA, with her husband, Seth, who is the chair of the Computing, Design, and Fabrication department at Gann Academy, and their sons Gershom (Gersh) and Rachmael (Rocky). She’s happy to talk Torah, YA literature, cultural change, poetry, theology (or lack thereof), and other life quandaries with equal enthusiasm.