Clergy

Our teachers, our guides, our friends

“Not all of us have power, but we all have influence. That is why we can each be leaders. The most important forms of leadership come not with position, title or robes of office, not with prestige and power, but with the willingness to work with others to achieve what we cannot do alone… Always choose influence rather than power. It helps change people into people who can change the world.”

-Rabbi Jonathan Sacks

Meet The Clergy and Lay Leaders

Rabbi Emerita Nina Perlmutter

Rabbi Nina Perlmutter served as our spiritual leader from the Fall of 2009 to February of 2015. Before retiring early to study for ordination, Rabbi Nina headed Philosophy & Religious Studies at Yavapai College in Prescott, Arizona, where her favorite classes included Ethics, Environmental Philosophy, World Religions, and Science, Religion & Philosophy. Now Emeritus Faculty, she continues to teach Jewish Studies and Environmental Ethics. Her background in those areas, and her passion for sharing joyful and inclusive Judaism informed her rabbinate and approaches to Jewish learning.

Rabbi Perlmutter was ordained at the Academy for Jewish Religion California, a trans-denominational seminary in Los Angeles ( www.ajrca.org ), with additional graduate level studies at Spertus College for Jewish Studies in Chicago. She founded and still serves as President of the Chevra Kadisha of Northern Arizona, an independent Jewish burial society. Committed to interfaith dialogue, she is a member of the Northern Arizona Interfaith Council and Shared Earth Network. She is the first designated Jewish contact person at Grand Canyon National Park (South Rim).

Rabbi Nina is a member of both the Greater Phoenix Board of Rabbis and the Board of Rabbis of Los Angeles. She is married to Tom Brodersen, a Certified Jewish Meditation Teacher. Together they have led Jewish Meditation retreats and hand-built two passive solar homes.

Shoshana Ruth Karlin

Shoshana Ruth Karlin, Congregation Lev Shalom's Rabbinic Student, was born and raised in Flagstaff, Arizona and attended Heichal Baoranim as a child. Shoshana attended NAU and earned a B.S. in Psychology. She is currently the temple coordinator at Congregation Lev Shalom, the email marketing director, web developer, and is a teacher in our Flagstaff Jewish Education program. She has been married for 12 years, has two amazing children, Joe and Evangeline, and two wonderful dogs, Agnes and Ralph. Shoshana loves the welcoming, inclusive, egalitarian community at CLS.

Leah Mundell

Leah Mundell is originally from Santa Rosa, California. She is currently an associate teaching professor of Anthropology and coordinator of the Community Engagement Minor at Northern Arizona University. She and her husband, David Trilling, and kids, Madeline and Gabriel, have been involved in Congregation Lev Shalom (then Heichal Baoranim) since they moved to Flagstaff in 2008. She loves watching kids (including her own) grow up in this Jewish community, getting to know the fabulous families in our Jewish education program, connecting across generations, and the opportunities to lead and shape our small congregation.