A New WIZO Chapter in Palm Beach County
If you are interested in joining the Palm Beach County chapter, please contact us.
As you know, WIZO never sleeps.During the last few months, Mercedes and Rosita had been approaching a wonderful young woman, Rabbi Jessica Brockman, to join WIZO along with her Congregation in order to fullfill her wish to increase their conection with Israel. After several meetings, she decided she actually wanted to have an annual event in her Synagogue to benefit WIZO. At that point, Mercedes offered her the position of WIZO Chairperson Palm Beach County. She was happy and excited with the new role and on April 23, we will meet at Jana's house to discuss the details of this event that is tentatively planned for the end of the year.
Wherever I go, it is always to Jerusalem." - Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav
Rabbi Jessica Spitalnic Brockman has been Associate Rabbi at Temple Beth El of Boca Raton since 2002. She is part of a tremendously hardworking and loving clergy team and is blessed to partner with incredible laypeople who make everyday an inspiration. Jessica was born in New York and raised in Chappaqua, NY, from where her parents sent her on her first Israel trip. Little did she know she would fall in love with the country that would become a central part of her life. She attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she majored in political science and after college, worked in London, England at the Sternberg Centre for Judaism where she worked with Reform Jewish Student Groups on campuses like Oxford and Cambridge and in London, with educational programming and building pride in Reform Judaism. Jessica worked for the Jewish Federation of Chicago for two years after England and entered Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion to begin rabbinical studies in the summer of 1994. That first year of rabbinical school, at the HUC-JIR campus in Jerusalem she trained to be a tour guide for NFTY in Israel, the North American Federation of Temple Youth, at the time, one of the largest summer Israel programs in the world. Charged with making the country come alive in a way that would stay with them for the rest of their lives, became the foundation for bringing Israel into every aspect of her life. Jessica returned to Israel every summer during rabbinical school to guide in Israel. She was ordained by HUC-JIR in New York in 1999 and her first pulpit, at Temple Beth El in Charlotte, North Carolina was an incredible experience where she saw first hand the cohesiveness and history of a Southern Jewish community. Jessica came to Temple Beth El of Boca Raton in 2002. She feels privileged to come to this incredible congregation. Her ties to Israel were once again renewed when in 2007 she was awarded a fellowship to study at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, funded by a generous grant from the Jewish Federation of South Palm Beach County. This fellowship that bring together 25 rabbis from all branches of Judaism for four years of studying, twice a year in Israel and online stateside, provides access to the top minds, philosophies, trends and challenges the Jewish world is facing. Rabbis David and Donniel Hartman, the heads of the Institute empower these rabbis to bring back Israel and its struggles and strivings to its communities. At Temple Beth El, Jessica is a strong voice for Israel and this year with the Continuing Ed community and in partnership with many Jewish organizations, created "Will You Still Need Israel When She's 64 - Programs Examining Our Relationship with the Jewish State". Jessica is blessed to work closely with the Social Action Committee of Temple Beth El in their sacred task of making this world a better place. She believes in targeted and inspiring adult education and has created programming for doctors and lawyers and also relishes in her role as Sisterhood liaison. Her proudest accomplishment is "Project Nuremberg", a collaboration with Lynn University that helped saved a set of the Nuremberg Trial documents in their library and inspired the creation of classes, a theatre pieces and lectures about the Nuremberg Trials after World War II. She, like the rest of the clergy, is part of the worship, life cycle, ritual and daily life of the synagogue. She has constantly been inspired by the work of WIZO and was honored to visit WIZO sites in Israel on a recent trip. She has worked to connect Temple Beth El's Sisterhood with WIZO and they were a featured charity at our most recent luncheon.
If you are interested in joining the Palm Beach County chapter, please contact us.
Rabbi Jessica Brockman
WIZO Palm Beach County
Chairperson