Lia Bass
Latin American female rabbi
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Lia Bass is a Brazilian-born American rabbi and the first Latin American female rabbi in the world.[1] She is also Northern Virginia's first female Conservative rabbi and the first woman from Brazil to be ordained as a rabbi.[2][3]
Lia Bass | |
|---|---|
| Personal life | |
| Born | Rio de Janeiro, Brazil |
| Education | Jewish Theological Seminary of America |
| Religious life | |
| Religion | Judaism |
| Denomination | Conservative Judaism |
Early life and education
She was born in Rio de Janeiro.[1] Bass attended a Jewish day school in Rio and was a regular participant in sports run by her local Jewish Community Center and Zionist youth movements.[4] After finishing high school, she went to teach Hebrew as a second language in Israel before returning to Brazil to attend college, where she served as president of the Jewish University Council.[4] She was ordained by the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York in 1994.[5][2][3]
Bass speaks Portuguese, Spanish, English and Hebrew.[1] As part of her studies of the Torah, her main focus is on the Book of Leviticus.[6]
Career
In 2001, she became the rabbi of Congregation Etz Hayim in Arlington, Virginia,[1][3] serving until 2020.[7] She served as rabbi of Etz Hayim Synagogue in Arlington and gained media attention in 2007 for introducing a "slimmed down" shabbat service in order to make it more accessible for the congregation.[8] In 2020 she founded and, as of Sept. 2022, runs the Jewish Institute for Lifelong Learning & Innovation (JILLI), based in Arlington, Virginia.[9] She founded the JILLI after discovering from the Department of Motor Vehicles that Northern Virginia had the highest number of Jewish residents that were not associated with a recognised synagogue. She created it as an outreach mission to serve their religious needs.[4]