Chayva is a rabbinical student at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York, expecting to graduate in 2022. She feels very fortunate to be starting a career that incorporates her love of Jewish community, music, spirituality, social justice, and learning. Chayva grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area at Congregation Beth Am of Los Altos Hills. While at Wellesley College, she studied Linguistics and Middle Eastern Studies, studied abroad in Amman, Jordan, and returned to serve as the Hillel President and Representative to the Middle East Task Force. She moved to Washington, D.C. after graduating, where she professionalized her interest in international affairs in the offices of Congressman Henry Waxman and the U.S. Agency for International Development. Upon leaving USAID, she moved to Philadelphia, where she found a love for Reconstructionist Judaism. Chayva hopes to invest her rabbinate in building meaning-making communities that are deeply inclusive, in which we see the humanity in each other. To transition into rabbinical school, she hiked 1300 miles of the Appalachian Trail and biked the Portuguese route of the Camino de Santiago. She loves hiking, blues and swing dancing, soccer, and traveling simply.
