Rabbi Joui Hessel is the Director of Bronfman Center for Jewish Life at 92NY.
Prior to this position, she served Washington Hebrew Congregation for 13 years; first as a pulpit rabbi and then as Rabbi and Director of Religious Education and Jewish Engagement overseeing one of the nation’s largest religious schools. She has also served as an Assistant Director for Recruitment and Admissions at HUC-JIR and as adjunct and clinical faculty for the HUC-JIR NY School of Education.
Rabbi Hessel was ordained from the Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion in New York, NY in June 2001. Rabbi Hessel also received a Masters Degree in Hebrew Letters in 1998 and a Masters Degree in Jewish Education in 1999, both from the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.
Rabbi Hessel has co-authored The Hanukkah Family Treasury, published by Running Hill Press. She has also been published in the CCAR’s publications The Sacred Encounter (2014) and Mishkan T’fila for Youth (2014), Moment Magazine (June 2007) as well as in a book on parenting young adult children, Mom, Can I Move Back in with You: A Survival Guide for Parents of Twentysomethings, published by Mid-Atlantic Equity Consortium. Rabbi Hessel has offered the opening prayer at the United States House of Representatives and at the White House on the National Day of Prayer. She served as an auxiliary board member of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, representing the Women’s Rabbinic Network.
Rabbi Hessel lives in Greenwich, Connecticut with her sassy and precocious five-year-old daughter. She sits on the Board of Directors for both the United Way of Greenwich and the UJA/JCC Greenwich.