Rabbi · Teacher · Community Builder

Rabbi Shoshana Leis

“Torah comes alive when people bring their whole selves to it.”

A little about me

Jewish life is something we make together.

I’m Rabbi Shoshana Leis, co-rabbi of Pleasantville Community Synagogue. My rabbinate is rooted in justice, compassion, creativity, teshuva, peace, generosity, and listening in order to learn.

I believe each person carries wisdom, gifts, and a voice of their own. Making room for those gifts to emerge—in individuals, families, groups, and communities—is at the heart of my work. At PCS and throughout Westchester’s interfaith communities, I’m dedicated to joyful, mitzvah-centered Jewish living.

My hope is for a future that unites rather than divides, built through curiosity, care, and mutual recognition.

My work

Learning, community, and a Judaism alive to the world around us.

01 · Teaching

Making space for discovery

Before coming to PCS, I was the founding Director of Youth and Family Education at Romemu in New York City. I developed its youth and family educational vision, the Seekers curriculum, and family programming.

02 · Community

Building across difference

I’ve served as rabbi at Tehillah in Riverdale, Har Shalom Center for Jewish Living in Fort Collins, Colorado, and the Hebrew Congregation of Somers. I work alongside peace builders seeking mutual recognition among Israelis and Palestinians.

03 · Neurodiversity

Every mind belongs

I founded the Neurodiverse Jewish Community Facebook group and work to strengthen the contributions of neurodivergent people to Jewish life and beyond.

Study & teaching

Many doors into Torah.

I’m a graduate of Dartmouth College and the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. My learning has also taken me to the Conservative Yeshiva and Pardes in Jerusalem, and the Drisha Institute and Hadar in New York.

With Rabbi Charna Rosenholtz, I co-host Four Worlds Torah, a podcast uncovering treasures hidden in the text. I also write Beneath the Surface.

I lived in Israel from 1998 to 2000 and have returned many times since 1985. That connection continues to shape my work and my commitment to amplifying voices for peace.

I live in Dobbs Ferry, on Lenape land. I love a good music jam with my creative and life partner, Rabbi Ben Newman. We’re raising two teens and two spirited dogs, Oz and Bodhi, who are my very best mindfulness instructors.

Writings