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P'nai Or is a unique congregation which grew in response to our search for innovative approaches to Jewish prayer, learning and celebration. Philadelphia P'nai Or was founded in the early 80's by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi along with students and colleagues who envisioned a new form of intentional Jewish community. Here Jewish teachers and learners would co-create contemporary forms of Jewish statement in a dynamic relationship to Torah, Hasidic prayer and teaching, the Jewish mystical tradition, meditation and current approaches in psychology and personal growth.
Rabbi Marcia Prager
Rabbi Marcia Prager is a vibrant Jewish renewal prayer-leader, teacher, maggid, artist and therapist living and working in the Mt. Airy community of Philadelphia. A graduate of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, she also holds the personal smicha (rabbinic ordination) of Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, the visionary rebbe of the Jewish Renewal Movement, with whom she has continued to work closely. She serves as rabbi of the Philadelphia P'nai Or Jewish Renewal Community, the innovative Jewish community founded by Rabbi Schachter-Shalomi in 1973, and is the founding rabbi of a sister congregation, P'nai Or of Princeton, New Jersey.
She is Director and Dean of the ALEPH Ordination Programs, designing programs of study leading to rabbinic, rabbinic pastor and cantorial ordinations for ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal, the national organization which advances vital Judaism as an ethical and spiritual path. She teaches widely in many different Jewish and interfaith settings - offering the wisdom of Jewish tradition as a path of personal growth and world healing.
She is the author of The Path of Blessing (Bell Tower 1998, Jewish Lights 2003) an exploration of the spiritual wisdom that lies in the Jewish practice of blessing, which was praised as "one of the best introductions to the Jewish Renewal movement and its approach to Jewish learning and practice." (Reform Judaism Fall. '99 ) She is the author of the P'nai Or Siddurim for Shabbat, and many other creative liturgies for holidays and home. Her work as a teacher of Jewish spiritual practice includes developing and co-directing DLTI, the Davvenen Leadership Training Institute at Elat Chayyim Jewish Spiritual Retreat Center, and teaching widely in Jewish and interfaith settings. Her newest project involves creating innovative tools for exploring Jewish prayer and spiritual practice. The Weekday Amidah in Guided Imagery is a deck of 20 exquisitely hand illustrated cards which use guided meditations to guide you through the transformative blessings of this ancient prayer practice..
Rabbi Prager holds a BA in cultural anthropology, and an MFA from Pratt Institute, New York, in photography and drawing. She taught for five years as a member of the faculty of The International Center of Photography in New York City. She and her husband, Hazzan Jack Kessler, a traditionally trained cantor and director of two Jewish music ensembles, ATZILUT: Concerts for Peace and Klingon Klez, often lead Shabbat retreats and workshops together.
P'nai Or Philadelphia
6757 Greene Street
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19119
(215) 951-6821
Mailing Address: 6445 Greene St #A-401