Rabbi Marla J. Feldman
RABBI MARLA J. FELDMAN
Incoming Executive Director,
Women of Reform Judaism
Rabbi Marla J. Feldman is currently the director of development for the
Union for Reform Judaism. Prior to taking on this position, Rabbi
Feldman served for seven years as the director of the Commission on
Social Action of Reform Judaism and directed the
Union’s Department of Social Action.
Feldman is a Reform rabbi, lawyer, and certified fundraiser. She
received her J.D. from the University of Florida in 1993 and is a member
of the Florida Bar. Rabbi Feldman was ordained at the Hebrew Union
College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR) in New York in 1985 and
received her Master’s of Hebrew Literature from HUC-JIR in 1983. She was
a Jewish Studies major at the University of Pennsylvania where she
received her B.A. in 1979.
Rabbi Feldman has represented the Reform Movement in coalitions and on
numerous non-profit boards, including the Save Darfur Coalition, Jewish
Council for Public Affairs, Rabbis for Human Rights – North America, the
Jewish Coalition for Disaster Relief, the Inter-Agency Task Force on
Israeli Arab Issues and the interfaith advisory boards of Cover the
Uninsured Week and the National HIV/AIDS Partnership.
Previously, Rabbi Feldman worked in the
Jewish Community Relations field, serving the Detroit and Delaware
communities. She taught as adjunct faculty at the University of
Detroit-Mercy and the Widener University College of Law in Wilmington,
DE. Prior to obtaining her law degree, Rabbi Feldman served
congregations in Sarasota and Orlando, Florida.
Rabbi Feldman’s social justice work has involved extensive travel,
including participation in missions to Asia, South America, and Africa,
most recently to deliver mosquito nets to refugees on behalf of the URJ's Nothing But Nets campaign. She has led numerous domestic
“mitzvah corps” programs to rebuild damaged homes after Hurricane
Katrina and in other depressed communities.
Rabbi Feldman is the author of Reform Movement action manuals, including
Speak Truth to Power, K’hilat Tzedek: Creating Communities of Justice
and From Tzedek to Tzedakah: Social and Economic Issues of Concern for
Women and Children. Her articles and Op Eds have appeared in Jewish
publications and newspapers throughout the country. In her spare time,
Rabbi Feldman writes modern midrash, which have been published in the
Journal of Reform Judaism and in several collections.