Rabbi Ari Lev Fornari
Kol Tzedek
801 S. 48th St.
Rabbi Ari Lev Fornari is hitting the ground running in his first few weeks as rabbi at West Philadelphia synagogue Kol Tzedek.
Fornari, 34, took over the reigns of the Reconstructionist congregation from its founding rabbi, Lauren Grabelle Herrmann, who accepted a position in New York.
Fornari comes to Philly from Boston, where he served as director of the Boston-Area Jewish Education Program and as a prison chaplain.
He is a native of New York who earned a bachelor’s in feminist, gender and sexuality studies at Wesleyan University and a master’s of Jewish studies from Hebrew College.
Fornari, who identifies as transgender, came out in college.
“I chose Wesleyan because it seemed like it had a vibrant queer community,” he said. “Much of my formative queer identity came out in the context of playing for Wesleyan’s rugby team.”
He first became acquainted with the term “transgender” around age 21.
“My ears perked up when I heard the term, and it just resonated with me,” Fornari said. “It did lead to a larger struggle of integrating my own theology about who we are in the world and what it means to be created in the image of the divine. I found integrating my trans identity with my Judaism required study, mentorship and being in deep community. At that point, I moved to San Francisco and immersed myself in the queer and transgender Jewish community as a way to help explore my own merging identities.”
Fornari said he got several calls from friends when they heard the rabbi position at Kol Tzedek had opened up.
“They said, ‘This job is for you.’ I felt really called to Kol Tzedek and the work of building a vibrant, progressive spiritual Jewish community where I could bring my full self. This is a dream job.”
As rabbi, Fornari meets one on one with Kol Tzedek members, teaches, leads services, organizes holiday experiences, works with lay-led committees on synagogue programming and supervises the executive director and administrators. Fornari also represents Kol Tzedek on panel presentations, at action events and in lobbying events, as well as manages its membership in Philadelphians Organized to Witness, Power and Rebuild, one of the city’s largest interfaith coalitions.
Fornari said he’s eager for Kol Tzedek to be a place of inclusive exploration, and to build upon the congregation’s strong foundation of community involvement.
“My vision is that we are a dynamic place of community and connection where people can come and find the spiritual and personal resources they need to be their best selves,” he said. “We want people to connect with the wisdom of Jewish tradition and live a just and righteous life in the context of the larger Philadelphia community. I’m going to work to help build our capacity for prayer and spirituality and bring people together to really nourish one another and, from that place, expand our social-justice work in the larger community.”