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Rabbi Ellen Lippmannis founder and rabbi of Kolot Chayeinu/Voices of Our Lives: Building a Progressive Jewish Community in Brooklyn. Rabbi Lippmann is the former East Coast Director of MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger, and former director of the Jewish Women's Program at the New 14th Street Y in Manhattan.
Rabbi Lippmann was Co-chair and still sits on the board of T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights. She served as the first social justice chair for the Women’s Rabbinic Network and has served on numerous boards and advisory councils. She is the founder of the Soup Kitchen at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York, and co-founder of the ten year-old Children of Abraham Peace Walk: Jews, Christians and Muslims Walking Together in Brooklyn in Peace.
Rabbi Lippmann was ordained in 1991 by Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, and also received there the degree of Master of Hebrew Letters. She holds a BA in English Language and Literature from Boston University and an MS in Library Science from Simmons College. Rabbi Lippmann and her partner are long-time Brooklyn residents and believe to be absolutely true what a Kolot Chayeinu member once said in jest: "IT DON'T GET ANY BETTER THAN BROOKLYN!"
On March 20, 2013, Rabbi Lippmann was named by The Jewish Forward as one of 36 of America's Most Inspiring Rabbis Shaping 21st Century Judaism.
Cantor Lisa B. Segal was a founding member of Kolot Chayeinu and served as Music Director and Hazzan for over 10 years until she was formally ordained as a Cantor on May 12th, 2011, at the Academy for Jewish Religion (AJR) www.ajrsem.org. Both on and off the bimah, Cantor Segal feels proud and humble to participate in the full range of Kolot’s congregational work in partnership with Rabbi Ellen Lippmann. Over the past number of years she appeared in “Off the Bimah!”, a series of fundraising concerts with many Kolot musicians and other friends. She feels blessed to be in musical partnerships with these brilliant musicians who elevate all of us with their gifts, with special thanks to Kolot’s own Marty Ehrlich, Raul Rothblatt, and Marc Ribot, and dear Kolot friends Eve Sicular, Roy Nathanson, Alicia Jo Rabins, Zoe B. Zak, Judy Ribnick and Cantor Natasha Hirschhorn. Cantor Segal was a featured artist in Zero Church: the Prayer Project with Suzzy and Maggie Roche (of the Roches) presented at St. Ann ’s Warehouse in 2002 and spent 15 years as a non-profit arts administrator at the Brooklyn Philharmonic/BAM and St. Ann’s Warehouse. She is a proud member of the Women Cantors Network. She is married to Kolot’s Maggid Ha Makom (storyteller of the place), writer and performer Arthur Strimling, and stars as a lead character in one of the world’s best love stories! She and Arthur teach and perform together at synagogues and venues across the country. (photo by Edwin Davis)
