Kohenet Hebrew Priestess Institute offers a three-year training in Hebrew priestessing. This leadership training is an immersion in the movement and community that is Kohenet. Kohenet Hebrew Priestess Institute, founded in 2005 by Rabbi Jill Hammer and Taya Mâ Shere, has trained and ordained kohanot ~ Hebrew Priestesses ~ for the past decade.
"I have learned through my work in Kohenet to honor the mundane as sacred. I have learned to trust in the Divine as a source of wisdom, guidance, healing, and love in the face of personal and global change and challenge." - Rinah Rachel Galper
The Kohenet Hebrew Priestess Institute seeks to revive and re-embody Jewish spiritual leadership through embodied, earth-based feminist practice. Since 2006, we have ordained nearly 100 kohanot, Hebrew priestesses. Our students are ceremonialists, teachers and clergy in Jewish community. Some were distant from Jewish practice until they came to Kohenet. They now serve in a variety of leadership roles, facilitating transformative ritual for women’s and mixed-gender communities. The lively and diverse Kohenet community supports on-going communal education and ritual for our alums.
The three-year Kohenet training and ordination program welcomes applications from trans women, cis women, and nonbinary people, who are drawn to Kohenet’s kavannah.
East Coast Training
West Coast Training
Kohenet East will be welcoming Kohenet Kaf (#11) in August 2020; they will join Kohenet Tet (#9) which began in summer 2018 - these two groups form a circle including scholars, activists, ritualists, teachers, artists, and land stewards.
We gather for week-long intensives each winter and summer - totaling 7 intensives over 3 years - with options for active online community, course-work, and conference calls. The first intensive for Kaf will be August 17-23rd, 2020 (now online).
Kohenet training on the East Coast is held at Isabella Freedman Retreat Center in Falls Village, CT, in the Berkshire mountains 2.5 hours from New York City.
Current costs for Kohenet training at Isabella Freedman is between $1380 and $1980 per retreat week (including tuition, room & board depending on accommodation chosen). Registration for Kohenet East happens through the Isabella Freedman website, after receiving acceptance into the training.
Our current West coast cohorts are stellar circles of ritualists, visionary artists, activists, teachers and healers. Our next west coast training cohort begins in summer 2021. Applications will open in early-mid 2021.
We gather for week-long intensives each winter (February / President’s Day week) and summer (July / August) - totaling 7 intensives over 3 years - with options for active online community, course-work, and conference calls.
Total tuition for Kohenet West is $5,900 which covers all retreats. Travel, room and board and Virtual Temple classes are additional (the amount depends on the options chosen).
Starting in 2020, February training weeks will be non-residential, in Berkeley, CA (programming 9 am - 9:30 pm, with freedom for participants to arrange their own accommodations).
Summer training weeks are residential, and are currently held at Four Springs, Retreat in Middletown, CA.
2021 Update: Given present world circumstances, Kohenet is currently visioning the details of our next upcoming training.
Please connect with us using the form below for updated information and announcements.