Hi

I’m Ariel (no pronouns, please) a caretaker, writer, professional Jewish queer, ancestral ritualmaker, haggadah writer, translator, and preserver of many things. I believe in enacting queer and trans utopias, in the land back movement, and therefore in the freedom of Palestine and liberation of all from the violence of borders and governments.

I am an amulet maker, learning more every day about the legacy and mystery that this work calls in. They are objects which forever connect us to each other and to ancient methods of protection and care. Their history is ancient, as are the texts and symbols they bear, and I create them in that Jewish spiritual tradition, bringing in liturgical and ancestor practices in tandem. Read more about them…

My background is in poetry and Jewish studies, which I have studied within academia, but more generally this is my lifelong learning practice, this is my lifelong writing practice. Many have asked me over the years why I haven’t pursued rabbinic ordination, but as I have moved further on from the academic times I’ve found teachings, delights, mysteries, community, grief, and passion so far beyond what can be taught. That includes things that live in my body and my history, that I share with my/our Jewish, queer, brilliant, misfit ancestors. In whose name I continue work towards care and love, towards decolonization and abolition in the broadest way possible and ever growing, ever learning humbly and messily.

Professionally, I’m the director of communications at CBST, bringing extensive non-profit experience in communications and marketing, administration, public programs, HR, and project management. I’ve also been Director of Marketing at NYC’s Museum of Jewish Heritage and Programming Director at Village Preservation, and in synagogue work at CBST previously – a return to a heart’s home. I’m passionate in this work about building and sustaining this historic misfit queer community and working towards our dreams for the future, which I hope will be pluralist and diasporist.

I’m grateful for this earth and for those who steward it – and all of us – with care. I live on Turtle Island, here among the Lenape, with beloveds of my heart/ocean nearby, my beloved E and our many houseplants.

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