About Rabbi Ariel Stone
Ariel Stone, a native of Orlando Florida, was ordained a rabbi by Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (Reform) in 1991. She received her B.A. in International Studies magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, from Emory University in Atlanta.
From 1991-93 she served as Assistant Rabbi and Director of Education at Temple Israel of Greater Miami. In 1993-94 the World Union for Progressive Judaism appointed her the first liberal rabbi in Ukraine , where she served as Rabbi of Congregation HaTikvah of Kiev and assisted in the establishment of Progressive congregations in Ukraine which continue to flourish today.
| Rabbi Ariel returned to the United States in 1994. From 1994-1995, she was an instructor at the University of Central Florida and in an early Melton Mini-School Program at the Atlanta Jewish Community Center. She also taught conversational Hebrew at a Solomon Schechter day school and served as a teacher of adults in various congregations. From 1996-2001 she was Associate Rabbi of Congregation Beth Israel of Portland, Oregon, and also traveled nationally as scholar in residence for the United Jewish Communities. |
 Rabbi Ariel Stone of Congregation Shir Tikvah in Portland, Oregon
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Awarded a fellowship at the Mandel School for Educational and Social Leadership, she spent 2001-2003 in Israel as a Mandel Jerusalem Fellow, after which she returned to Portland Oregon to serve a new synagogue, Congregation Shir Tikvah. She also teaches Talmud and a Mysticism course she created for Portland’s Melton Mini-School.
Her publications include:
- “The Challenge of the Persistent Vegetative State” in Reform Jewish Ethics and the Halakhah ed. Eugene Borowitz, (1988).
- “Marriage with Sectarians: the Case of the Karaites” in Marriage and its Obstacles in Jewish Law, ed. Walter Jacob and Moshe Zemer, (1999)
- Several original religious rituals featured at www.ritualwell.org
Rabbi Ariel has a Master’s degree in Hebrew Letters. In early 2010 she was awarded a Doctor of Jewish Studies degree from Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies in Chicago for her work bringing insights from medieval Jewish mysticism to modern issues of community, under the direction of Dr. Byron Sherwin.
She serves as adjunct faculty in the Religious Studies departments of Portland State University and Willamette University of Salem, and from 2007-2009 as President of the Oregon Board of Rabbis.
Here are a few examples of Rabbi Stone’s community work:
