Hebrew University: B.A. (History and Special Education), Magna cum Laude, 1985; Teacher’s License for high school, 1985; M.A. (Jewish Philosophy), Magna cum Laude, 2000.
Rabbinic Ordination in Israel, 1994.

As a female Orthodox rabbi teaching at a Conservative rabbinical school, Reb Mimi Feigelson walks a careful line within the parameters of halakhah to bring light into the world. How many other rabbis do you know who have led Seders in Dharamsala, the home of the Dalai Lama? Her path to the rabbinate was inspired by her yearning for “ownership over her relationship with God,” as she put it, meaning she had both the privilege and the responsibility to live a life of service. Her path further led her to the UJ, despite the privilege of living in Jerusalem, when Rabbi Bradley Artson invited her to join the Ziegler School in 2000. “The idea of teaching rabbinical students was both a gift and a challenge,” she said.

From her very first course to the present, she starts every class with a niggun (a wordless song), elevating the students from corridors to the Beit Midrash, where the students absorb Torah under her tutelage. Each class ends with a closing prayer as well.

Reb Mimi’s approach inspires gratitude among her students, and also leaves some challenged. She views both responses as wonderful, recognizing that learning happens one step beyond the comfort zone. She aspires to be a teacher of questions, not a teacher of answers.

“Ziegler students will enter the world as Conservative rabbis and the question for me is what kind of rabbis will they be, how will they serve their communities and do God's work in the world? The possibility to be a partner in their growth, to learn together, to question together, to cry together, I understood as a gift from God.”

Considering her holistic approach to teaching, which she approaches almost with a parent’s sense of commitment, Reb Mimi has been appointed as the Mashpiah Ruchanit—the spiritual counselor — for the Ziegler community.

More recently, Reb Mimi’s challenge and opportunity has extended to the Fingerhut School of Education and along with it, expanding the future of Jewish education/educators. What the M.A.Ed. students are about to learn is what the rabbinical students have already been exposed to—that her door, pedagogically and literally, is always open.