My Work
My Published Work:
I initiated and facilitated a celebration for teens who had to have their B’nai Mitzvah ceremonies online during the pandemic.
https://www.paulkipnes.com/healing-from-covid-era-zoom-bar-mitzvah/
I co-wrote an article with Rabbi Karen Bender connecting Sukkot to housing inequality.
https://truah.org/resources/karen-bender-samantha-thal-sukkot-moraltorah_2023/
When the Black Lives Matter movement started, I wrote a vidui (confessional) for racism. It was published by the Jewish Center for Justice and Ritual Well.
https://jewishcenterforjustice.org/a-vidui-confession-for-racism/
https://ritualwell.org/ritual/vidui-racism/
As a student rabbi in Redding, CA, I was interviewed on local news in response to an antisemitic incident where a teacher wore a yellow star on her clothes and compared vaccines to the holocaust.
In my time teaching at Saul Mirowitz Jewish Community Day School, I collaborated with other teachers to create a tefillah program which we entered for a Kohelet Prize for excellence in Jewish education.