In 2024-2025, Tikkun v’Or will have a mosaic of spiritual leadership. Most Shabbat and holiday services will be led by Rabbi Lenore Bohm, Lauren Korfine, Michael Margolin or Faith Rogow.
Rabbi Lenore Bohm moved to Ithaca in July, 2023, to live closer to her husband David’s daughters and their families. For most of the prior 42 years, Lenore lived in San Diego and served as a rabbi in congregational and nonprofit settings. She is gratified to be part of the first generation of women rabbis. Lenore loves teaching Torah in all its forms. In 2022, her book Torah Tutor was published. She has four adult children (and two bonus daughters, Miranda and Rachel), and 10 grandchildren.
Lauren Korfine is grateful to live and love here in beautiful Ithaca, co-creatingJewish community in song, prayer, social action, silence, and learning, together with this TvO congregation that has been so precious to her these last 15 years. A Hebrew school dropout at 8 years old, she stumbled accidentally into leading music and services, which has brought great meaning to her life and deepened her Jewish identity.
In her spare time, she teaches courses on gender, psychology, and mentalhealth at Cornell, and she worked as a birth doula for many years. Lauren finds great joy in connection of all sorts — with people, Earth, animals, plants, stories, ideas, and spirit. She and her partner, Mark, have three grown children, an anxiety-ridden but adorable dog, and a 20-year-old, 3-legged, deaf cat. She is humbled and so very excited to be part of the amazing spiritual leadership team this year.
Michael Margolin is a white, Ashkenazi Jew who grew on Mohawk territory, or the Hudson Valley of New York State. His Yiddish-speakingrelatives escaped Jewish oppression in Eastern Europe. Michael is entering his fifth year as the BMitzvah teacher at TVO. In his tenure he has incorporated his passions for nature-based spirituality, Jewish ritual crafting, and justice-centered learning into the curriculum. Michael is so grateful to the TVO community for the honor of teaching and leading services. Michael has a bachelor’s degree in Comparative Religious Studies, and a master’s degree in Applied Theatre and hopes to one day be a rabbi. Michael is grounded in the prophetic, justice-centered tradition of Judaism. He believes that Jewish safety is best realized in solidarity with the liberation struggles of all peoples. He believes that the well-being of Jewish communities is threatened by all forms of colonization, militarism and supremacist ideology in the US, Israel, Palestine and beyond. When not teaching, leading services at TVO or doing carpentry, Michael enjoys tending the land with his partner and dog in their home in Ithaca.
Faith Rogow: Most people at Tikkun V’Or will know Faith Rogow as an occasional Shabbat service leader and the person who does a unique chanting interpretation of the Haftarah on Yom Kippur. A longtime activist in Reform, Progressive, Feminist, and LGBTQ Jewish communities, Dr. Rogow was a camp songleader, educator, and the composer of “As We Bless,” which has been used in spiritual communities around the world and is included in the Reconstructionist movement’s siddur. She is also a Ph.D. with a specialty in Jewish and Women’s history and has led Jewish rituals in formal and informal congregations and gatherings for more than forty years.
