Rachel Gartner is a rabbi and professional dialogue trainer and facilitator with deep roots in the work of performance for social transformation. As an undergraduate and graduate student she studied, wrote about, and created performances on contemporary social issues at Barnard College (BA ’93), the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College (’02) and through TOVA: Theater of Witness for Social Change. She served as Interim Artistic Director of TOVA in the mid-1990s, and thereafter received various grants to devise performances with elders and with youth in various contexts in the ensuing years.
Early in her 20 years as a rabbi on university campuses – including serving as the Director for Jewish Life at Georgetown (2011 – 2022) – Rachel recognized a pressing need for university students to be encouraged to engage in dialogue and to be taught dialogue skills in an increasingly polarized climate. Her enthusiasm for the work of The Lab and the unique contributions performance can make to humanizing people across differences, inspired her to return to the work of devised theater, this time with a distinctive intergroup dialogue focus.
In 2019, Rachel joined the core teaching team of Dialogue and Difference course and then with In Your Shoes more broadly. She brought to the team her expertise as a dialogue facilitator and facilitation trainer for Resetting The Table (she also holds certificates in dialogue facilitation from Sustained Dialogue Institute, DC and the Richmond Center for Conflict Resolution, IN.) In her rabbinic capacity, recent and current activities include multiple appearances on NPR’s 1A; appearance on CNN; former Board Co-chair of T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights; Co-author Rosh Hodesh: It’s A Girl Thing; Chaplain for Georgetown’s Prison and Justice Initiative and Senior Spiritual Advisor for Georgetown’s School of Continuing Studies.
Rachel’s work as a spiritual leader and Co-Director of The In Your Shoes Research and Practice Center are animated by the same core conviction. Namely, that each love-inspired, mindfully approached, and creatively taken step towards justice and wholeness, no matter the form (prayer, dialogue, socially engaged performance-making) brings us closer to that wholeness and justice. Each step likewise brings us closer to our best selves, and to each other. She is delighted to now be taking part in that journey with The Lab.
