Rabbi Aviva Kipen

Presenter/Workshop Leader

Rabbi Aviva Kipen was born in Melbourne and after careers in child and adult education, spent 17 years abroad, during which time she became the first Australian woman to be ordained as a rabbi in London in 1991.

Workshop

The Paradox of Role Modeling: the place of interfaith sharing in our progressive spiritual journeys.

Progressives have pushed the boundaries since Adam & Eve tested the limitations of their lives in the Garden. Judaism expresses neither surprise at their having failed, nor attributes any inherent taint of sinfulness to the human condition as a result. A woman rabbi in the Progressive Jewish world wonders how her journey is representative of the journeys of other progressives and considers the place of Jewish tradition and scholarship in the context of the development of the spirituality of progressive Christians here. Do the narratives support each other and does that matter?

About Rabbi Aviva Kipen

Rabbi Aviva Kipen was born in Melbourne and after careers in child and adult education, spent 17 years abroad, during which time she became the first Australian woman to be ordained as a rabbi in London in 1991. Part of her training at Leo Baeck College included serious engagement with interfaith issues and throughout her seminary days she attended residential schools, participated in conferences and tutored groups in the art of interfaith skill.

Aviva returned to Australia in 1995 after postings in UK and NZ. She was on staff at Temple Beth Israel before moving to Bentleigh Progressive Synagogue in 2001. Throughout the past 14 years, Aviva has continued her involvement in the broader faith community, having been the Executive Secretary of the Australian branch of WCRP and a regular speaker and trainer in interfaith matters. When Victoria hosted the national Centenary of Federation events in 2001, Aviva was the Executive Producer of the multifaith religious celebration, which launched the week of events at the Exhibition Buildings, where Australian Parliament first sat.

She has had many interesting appointments in the Victorian community, serving on human research ethics committees and working on State Government departmental committees, as well as her active work for the Jewish community. Aviva has been a frequent guest lecturer in church education programs and merges her love of Jewish Cuisine with interfaith education in the Taste of Jewish Spirituality series, which she loves to present.

She has taught workshops on the Psalms for Melbourne College of Divinity and the Progressive Christian Network and her strong pastoral involvement underpins her extensive work in grief and loss. Aviva conducts 40+ funerals a year in greater Melbourne and also in country Victoria, frequently officiating for mixed faith families.

In 2008 Aviva accepted the invitation of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to be a member of Australia's delegation to the ASEAN Regional Interfaith Dialogue and chaired a plenary session and presented the Jewish reflection at that Phnom Penh conference.

In 2009 she accepted the invitation of the new Master of Ormond College, at Melbourne University, to become a member of their Senior Common Room and has been actively involved in shaping the Chapel Engagements series. She is currently creating the program for Building Cities of Harmony, an international symposium of city mayors and their interfaith teams, who will be coming to Melbourne in December and hopefully attending the Parliament of World Religions here.

With all this activity, it is hardly surprising that she has taken leave in Semester 2 from her Doctor of Ministry Studies workload, which is an investigation into the religious component of the work of clergy in HRECs in Victoria. Aviva loves chamber music, house renovations and cooking for large family celebrations.