Since 2014, Rabbi Alana Alpert has led our community in prayer and protest. She joined us shortly after receiving semikha / rabbinic ordination from Hebrew College in Boston.

Until recently, she served as both our rabbi and as the Founding Director of Detroit Jews for Justice. Adapting powerful models from across the country, DJJ engages the Metro Detroit Jewish community on issues like water access, health care, workers rights and police brutality. She is proud that DJJ is thriving under new leadership and is enjoying living more fully into her role as congregational rabbi. She is a graduate of the Clergy Leadership Incubator and the Institute for Jewish Spirituality’s Clergy Leadership Program.

R. Alpert was raised by a family of Jewish educators in Los Angeles. She studied Resistance and Social Movements at UC Santa Cruz, writing her thesis on the then burgeoning Jewish Social Justice Movement. She cut her teeth as an organizer in New York City with NY Jobs with Justice, Avodah and Jews for Racial & Economic Justice.

During her time at Hebrew College, Rabbi Alpert served in student government, facilitated a prison justice praxis group, and co-founded the Liberatory Minyan, a place for students to explore the nexus between prayer and activism. Increasing demand from social change-workers for spiritual support, inspired her capstone project, "Like a Burning Bush: Jewish Practice for Activists."  She worked at Harvard Hillel, Temple Shir Tikva, the Pardes Center for Judaism and Conflict Resolution, and completed a unit of Clinical Pastoral Education where she served Holocaust survivors.

She has a long history of engagement with Israel/Palestine including 3 years living in the region, founding Project Hayei Sarah, facilitating for Encounter, and serving on the Jewish Voice for Peace Rabbinic Council. Her more recent work has been through IfNotNow, the Center for Jewish Nonviolence, and Shleimut.

She lives in the North End (not far from where her grandmother grew up) with her kiddos Ne’ilah & Zohar, sister Adina, pup Mississippi, and partner Justin. A native of Jackson, Mississippi, Justin is part-time professor of philosophy and religion at several institutions in the Metro-Detroit area, a popular local educator, and the creator of the Esoterica web series.