Heidi Hoover is the rabbi of Beth Shalom v’Emeth, a Reform synagogue in Brooklyn. And while her journey to the pulpit might have been natural, the rabbinate was anything but.
Hoover was raised outside of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Her father, the Rev. B. Penrose Hoover, was a pastor in a Lutheran church, and later a bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, overseeing about 250 congregations.
Heidi Hoover’s journey to the rabbinate began with her boyfriend, now husband, Michael Rose, who is Jewish. Hoover began attending synagogue with him and discovered a love of Jewish traditions.
Her decision to convert didn’t go over well with her father at first. But her father eventually came around and even delivered a blessing at Hoover’s installation. The family joke is that Hoover has continued in the family business — just in a different division.
See more of her story in this video.
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