Hannah Dresner

Hannah Dresner believes it is her calling to work toward a revitalized Judaism integrating experiences of head, heart and physical being into Jewish practice so that our religious lives truly address the breadth of our human needs. She currently serves as full time spiritual leader of Or Shalom, a Jewish Renewal synagogue in Vancouver, BC. She is in the last cohort to have received rabbinic smicha from Rabbi Zalman Shachter-Shalomi through the ALEPH Alliance for Jewish Renewal, where she was also ordained as a spiritual director. Rabbi Hannah entered the rabbinate with an MFA from the University of Chicago and an exhibition, curatorial, and teaching record in visual arts. She is a Rabbis Without Borders fellow as well as a fellow in the second cohort of CLI, CLAL’s Clergy Leadership Incubator.


Articles by Hannah Dresner

Full with Emptiness

In the last weeks’ Torah readings (Terumah, Tetzaveh and Ki Tissa), our sacred myth has amplified the problem of human longing for ...

At the Foot of the Mount

I wasn’t in the crowd at the Lincoln Memorial when Dr. Martin Luther King gave his great oration, and I ...

Hanukkah is Coming: Don’t Let the Light Go Out

I have always found it difficult to romanticize the tale of right and might that belongs to the Maccabees.  I ...

The Birth of a Female Orthodox Rabbinate

When I was ordained as a rabbi, a little under two years ago, my husband hosted a lovely party at ...

There’s No Such Thing as Closure

There is a relationship in my life that has gnawed at my heartstrings for more than twenty years, and each ...

Moving On

When is Rosh Hashanah 2015? Find out here. Or wondering when is Yom Kippur 2015? Click here to find out!Here ...

Receiving in Giving

In Parashat Re’eh, this week’s Torah portion, we’re plainly taught that if we freely give to brothers and sisters who ...

Yin in the Yang

We have learned from the Ancient Chinese Tao that there is a spot of Yang in the Yin and a ...

Reb Zalman Was A Gracious Man

We are only a few days shy of Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi’s first yahrtzeit, and I miss him. To honor him ...

The Wilderness of Sinai

Bamidbar is my daughter Elena’s bat mitzvah portion. As she was approaching bat mitzvah, fifteen years ago, my father was ...