BIO

Rabbi Marla Feldman is the author of the recently published book of feminist midrash, Biblical Women Speak: Hearing Their Voices through New and Ancient Midrash (JPS, 2023). Feldman is both a Reform rabbi and a lawyer. She is the Executive Director Emerita of Women of Reform Judaism, and currently serves ‘of counsel’ with the law firm Peer, Gan, & Gisler LLP, specializing in clergy contracts.

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Previously, Feldman was the Director of the Commission on Social Action of Reform Judaism and Director of Development of the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ).​ Prior to her work with the Reform Movement, she served Jewish Community Relations Councils in Detroit and Delaware, where she also taught as adjunct faculty at the University of Detroit-Mercy and the Widener University College of Law in Wilmington, DE. Previously, Rabbi Feldman served congregations in Sarasota and Orlando, FL.​

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Feldman was ordained in 1985 at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR), where she also received her M.A.H.L. in 1983. She received a J.D. from the University of Florida in 1993 and a B.A. in Jewish Studies from the University of Pennsylvania in 1979.​

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In addition to her book “Biblical Women Speak” Feldman contributed chapters in several publications, including The Social Justice Torah Commentary, Moral Resistance and Spiritual Authority, and The Sacred Calling: Four Decades of Women in the Rabbinate. She was guest editor of the Reform Jewish Quarterly (CCAR Journal) 2021 symposium on Gender in Jewish Life and co-guest editor of the 2018 symposium on Pay Equity. She has written several Reform Movement action manuals, including "Speak Truth to Power," "K’hilat Tzedek: Creating Communities of Justice," and "From Tzedek to Tzedakah: Social and Economic Issues of Concern for Women and Children." Her articles and op-eds have appeared in Jewish publications and newspapers nationwide and her modern midrashim have been published in numerous periodicals and collections.