Join us in the sanctuary for an uplifting musical service to welcome in Shabbat in community, followed by a delicious Oneg .

Please review our current COVID PROTOCOL before attending in person

For those joining us online, connect at 5:45 pm to schmooze it up with others online.  Register BELOW for the Zoom link to be sent to your email.  Fill in your name, email address and phone number.  Consider making an additional contribution to support the online experience. Contact 802-253-1800 if you need support  

You can now access our Siddur prayer book from this link.  

https://www.rabbinicalassembly.org/sites/default/files/2020-05/Kabbalat%20Shabbat%20and%20Maariv%20SIDDUR%20LEV%20SHALEM%202.pdf

R. Jan Salzman, Founder and Rabbi

When she was 16 years old, on a moshav (cooperative farm) in Israel, Rabbi Jan realized that her life’s calling was to connect with the earth in the production of that which sustains us. Later in her  life, her farm was one of the first to receive Organic certification in Vermont.  She ultimately left farming to work as a landscaper, and when she began leading services and teaching, Rabbi Jan knew that her deeper calling was to bring beauty to this world. That spirit - of song, hand, soil, and mind - is what sustains her, and continues to inform her rabbinic work.  

Discovering Jewish Renewal was a turning point in Rabbi Jan’s spiritual path.  While raising  two children in rural Vermont, who were the only Jewish kids in the elementary school, Rabbi Jan discovered a way back into her Judaism through Renewal Judaism. The Renewal movement brought life into Judaism by mixing in a post-holocaust perspective,  feminism, deep ecology, mysticism, and the American experience of democracy and freedom from persecution. Since then, she has dedicated her life  to being a ‘midwife’ to others who seek their portal into their Jewish identity, as well as to individuals of other faiths who are engaged in this exploration.

Rabbi Jan Salzman was ordained in 2010 by ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal. In 2016, she created Ruach haMaqom, the first Jewish Renewal congregation in Vermont. Previously, she served as the Assistant Rabbi and Cantor for 6 years at Ohavi Zedek Synagogue in Burlington, Vermont. She was blessed to have been a student of Reb Zalman. Rabbi Jan serves in the capacity of President of OHALAH, an international professional Association of Renewal Rabbis, Cantors and Rabbinic Pastors. She is on the board of Living Tree Alliance located in Moretown Vt, Rabbi Jan has lived in Vermont for over 35 years, is married to her "rebbitzmon", Loredo Sola, and has two grown children and 2 grandchildren.