Our Leadership
Kol Hai was founded in 2014 by Rabbi Shir Feit, one of this generation’s most prolific and creative Jewish composers. Shir created a musical legacy in the lineage of their teacher Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, founder of the Jewish Renewal movement.
Kol Hai continues today with this musical vision, under the leadership of its board of directors.
Board of Directors / Kol Hai Visioners
Andy Izenson has been a member of the Kol Hai community for three years and lives with their partners in a queer commune on unceded Lenape/Esopus land in the Hudson Valley. On the clock, Andy can be found providing legal support to non-traditional families and transgender community members at the Chosen Family Law Center and fighting for prison abolition with the National Lawyers Guild, and off the clock, their time is spent crafting, doing aerial silks, singing show tunes, and perfecting their vegan challah recipe. Andy grew up Reform and has been overjoyed to find a spiritual home in Kol Hai, from which they can explore the spaciousness and depth of community and Jewish practice as a pantheist transsexual time-traveling anarchist weirdo.
Rachel Swersey has loved Kol Hai and been deeply involved in the community since its beginning in 2015. She spends her weekdays as an art teacher, facilitating art experiences and helping to foster belonging amongst middle school students in Kingston, NY. She is mom to two teen/young adult children, and a furry dog son and lives in Highland. Whatever free time she has is spent making art, cooking, celebrating through movement, and hanging out with her partner. She is very honored to help to steer Kol Hai at this exciting phase.
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