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‘Rabbi Leather Pants’
Joui Hessel (BS ’95) proves that even
religious leaders can be fun . . . and female
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Leaves changing colors in the fall not only signify the passing of the season, but in the Jewish faith, also the passing of a year. Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, fell on Oct. 4. On that morning, many of the 3,200 families belonging to the Washington (D.C.) Hebrew Congregation are attending a High Holy Day service. Their eyes are fixed on Rabbi Hessel, who is using a Boston Red Sox analogy to illustrate her sermon about the power of hope.
That’s right, her sermon. The person dressed in the traditional Rosh Hashanah white rabbinic robe is Joui Hessel (BS ‘95), the first female rabbi to graduate from UGA.
Hessel, whose first name is pronounced “Joey,” has a long list of accomplishments. She has offered the convocational prayer at the U.S. House of Representatives, officiated at a funeral at Arlington National Cemetery, co-authored a children’s book, and contributed to a book on parenting—all the while serving as associate rabbi of a synagogue that is more than 150 years old and one of the largest in the U.S.
And she’s accomplished all that at the ripe old age of 32.
“I was 15 years old when I announced to my parents, ‘I’m going to be a rabbi!’ ” says Hessel, who at the time had just spent a weekend at a Jewish youth program at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati. Camp Coleman, located in Cleveland, Ga., also played a pivotal role in forming her Jewish identity. “I was exposed to young, dynamic rabbis there who were fun . . . they played guitar,” says Hessel.
Orthodox Judaism doesn’t permit women to be rabbis, but Hessel was raised in a Reform synagogue in Miami, Fla. “I still didn’t meet a female rabbi until I was in high school,” she recalls.
UGA provided Hessel with the unique opportunity to spend a semester studying at Tel Aviv University, the largest Jewish university in the world. Hessel earned master’s degrees in Jewish education and in Hebrew letters while studying in Jerusalem, Los Angeles, and New York City, and in 2001 six of her UGA sorority sisters flew to New York for her ordination.
“They had to see it to believe it!” says Hessel, who, according to friends, remains the same hip, fun-loving young woman who once engineered the capture of a fraternity’s framed composite. Because of the seeming disparity between her personality and her occupation, Hessel’s friends have dubbed her “Rabbi Leather Pants.”
Though Hessel describes her job as “an emotional roller coaster,” the impact she can have on people’s lives makes it all worthwhile.
“Sometimes I have to go from a funeral to a baby naming to a wedding—all in one day,” she says. “What I love most is being there for people in a way that is deeply meaningful. I’m the one who gets to bless your baby or pray in the ICU with you for an ailing family member—or even stand at a gravesite and honor your loved one.”
Blake Hannon (M ’01) is a freelance writer in the Washington, D.C., area.
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