CONGREGATION SHA'AR ZAHAV

Rabbi Camille Shira Angel was born in Los Angeles. She received her B.A. in Philosophy from the University of California at Los Angeles. Her Master of Arts in Hebrew Letters and ordination were from the Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion in New York. There she received several honors, including the Rabbi Herbert Hendel Memorial Award for Academic Excellence and the Stephen S. Wise Memorial Prize for Homiletics.

Rabbi Angel came to Congregation Sha'ar Zahav as our Rabbi in 2000.  She came to us from Congregation Rodeph Sholom on the upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, where she served as Associate Rabbi. She was Program Director at the Claremont Colleges Hillel. Rabbi Angel has been a guest lecturer at HUC-JIR in Practical Rabbinic and a Scholar-in-Residence for Women of Reform Judaism.

Rabbi Angel has written widely on creative liturgy, Judaism and women. Her work has been published in the Journal of Psychology and Judaism, Walt Disney/Ideal Books, and other Jewish and women's magazines, as well as academic journals and books.

This article about Rabbi Angel appeared in Gay.com

"I'm the luckiest rabbi in the world!"

Out lesbian Rabbi Angel opened doors to mainstream Judaism, but found home at LGBT SF synagogue Sha'ar Zahav

    Author Marc Breindel is a member of Congregation Sha'ar Zahav.

Camille Shira Angel's family could have guessed she'd be a rabbi early on. One night at the age of 3, the precocious child announced she had to stay up past her bedtime -- to write a sermon.

Now a still-young 40, Rabbi Angel can't remember what sort of sermon she was working on that night, if any. But if it was like the sermons she now delivers at Congregation Sha'ar Zahav, a prominent LGBT synagogue in San Francisco, it's likely to have been a smart, moving exhortation toward faith and human decency -- with a few moments of good humor to lighten the mood. And regardless of whether she'd actually heard that week's Bible portion, the young Angel was already drawing inspiration from her father, himself a rabbi; and from her older brother-in-law, who also became a rabbi. Such role models helped pave the way for a grown-up Angel to be ordained one of the first openly lesbian or gay rabbis in America. "It just seemed like the family business," she half-jokes today.

Welcoming congregation

Reform Judaism is one of the more queer-friendly religions. Unlike the more traditional Orthodox wing of Judaism, Reform Judaism ordains lesbian and gay rabbis, and encourages all its rabbis to perform marriages for gay and lesbian Jews. Congregation Sha'ar Zahav was one of the first queer-friendly synagogues. Three gay men founded Sha'ar Zahav in the Castro District in 1977. It's since grown to nearly 600 members (with many more attending on the High Holidays), and moved to its current, larger home in the Mission District in 1998.

Angel was installed as spiritual leader in 2000. She originally planned to preside over mainstream synagogues, but now says joining Sha'ar Zahav was one of the best choices she ever made. "I love being a Jewish lesbian in San Francisco, serving Congregation Sha'ar Zahav," Angel declares. "I often say I'm the luckiest rabbi in the world."

God in Modesto

Angel entered rabbinical school without a clear vision of herself as a rabbi. She certainly was a pioneer: Hebrew Union College -- the prestigious seminary she attended -- did not even permit openly LGBT students at that time, and no lesbian or gay had yet attempted to lead a mainstream congregation. Love for her father helped inspire Angel. He had passed away when she was 12. Angel knew how much her father had loved being a rabbi, and saw her religious studies as a way to reconnect with her father and claim her "spiritual inheritance."

A young girl's tragedy in the rural town of Modesto, California, ultimately motivated Angel to commit herself to the rabbinate as a career, in spite of the odds against her.

Angel was serving as a rabbinical apprentice at the time. She would spend weekends in Modesto at the home of the synagogue president and her family. One of the children there, a 9-year-old girl, had shown special faith in Angel's abilities, even though Angel herself was still unsure of her calling.

That girl was killed when a motor home crashed into her bicycle one day. Angel consoled the stunned family, and the experience transformed her.

"Like a rocket, it launched me from this child who had experienced grief (from the death of her father) to an adult helping other people grieve the loss of their own child."

Lesbian pioneer

Her life path suddenly clear, Angel went on to secure an impressive first assignment as associate rabbi at Congregation Rodeph Sholom on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, New York. She was the first out lesbian to be hired as a rabbi of a mainstream synagogue. Angel had previously "tested the waters" at her seminary. She had openly dated a woman, for example, and raised lesbian and gay issues with students and their families. "I wanted to be out, and I wanted to work in a mainstream congregation," Angel said. But the issue of sexual identity was still not settled. Many members of Rodeph Sholom had no idea their new rabbi was gay -- and some temple leaders wanted to keep it that way. Angel sensed pressure to "manage the information." So she checked in with the synagogue leadership before giving an interview to the New York Times, and heard a resounding, "No! Don't do it!"

"That was a little hard to come up against," Angel said.

She faced new opposition when she brought in a video for the synagogue's day school teachers to watch: "It's Elementary: Talking About Gay Issues in School." In spite of the Upper West Side's reputation as one of the most progressive neighborhoods in America, the community was still struggling with its own homophobia.

(After Angel left, the second successor rabbi to be hired was another out lesbian, which Angel takes as a hopeful sign.)

Blessed in San Francisco

After five years in Manhattan, Angel set out to look for a permanent home as leader of her own congregation. She still saw herself as a mainstream rabbi, not limited to LGBT congregations. Then a friend told her Sha'ar Zahav was looking for a new rabbi. "Oh God," Angel remembers thinking, "I didn't spend so many years at Hebrew Union College and working at a mainstream synagogue to end up as rabbi of a queer shul (synagogue)!"
She applied for the job nonetheless, and now cherishes her post. "I'm grateful just about every day of my life," Angel says.

Ironically, Sha'ar Zahav has become more and more popular among straight Jews in recent years. When it moved to the Mission District, two years before Angel arrived, Sha'ar Zahav became the largest Reform synagogue in that part of the city. And in a progressive city like San Francisco, many straight people just feel at home in an LGBT-friendly synagogue.

"You could be straight and queer!" she says. "Just as long as you get behind our message of inclusion (for LGBT people)."

Sha'ar Zahav is still overwhelmingly queer and more than likely to remain so, but Angel welcomes the new straight members. "Sometimes I like to joke at aufrufs (wedding announcement ceremonies), 'We even bless straight couples here!'"

Reaching further

Angel appreciates the potential influence she can wield as leader of a high-profile congregation like Sha'ar Zahav. She's often asked if she's related to well-known Sephardic Rabbi Marc D. Angel in New York, to which she says, "I like to think he gets asked if he's any relation to the lesbian Ashkenazi rabbi of Sha'ar Zahav in San Francisco!" Kibbitzing aside, Angel takes her role as a community leader seriously. She's been a driving force in making Sha'ar Zahav the first synagogue and the first LGBT organization to join the San Francisco Organizing Project (SFOP), an interfaith alliance for community building. Angel recently spoke at an SFOP rally alongside House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. "Being your real self with honesty and enthusiasm is always a great triumph," Angel had said in a sermon following her first SFOP event, earlier in the year, "but joining in community where the authenticity is palpable and magnetic -- this is a gift whose worth is beyond measure."

In August, 2006, Angel will lead a delegation of queer Jews to Israel for WorldPride. WorldPride is shaping up to be a major international queer event in Jerusalem. Angel and other WorldPride participants will also travel to Jordan and Ramallah, in the West Bank, to celebrate pride with gay Arabs who can't or won't go to Israel.

Justice and equality are critical issues to be addressed in Israel, Angel says. She expresses great sympathy for both Palestinians and Israelis, and a hope that Jews and Arabs can become partners in peace. "I think Israel and Palestine need our Jewish spirit and energy to bring them closer to the ideal," she says.

A sweet year

Angel celebrates two joyous anniversaries this year: her fifth year at Sha'ar Zahav, and her tenth with partner Karen Segal, a musician and public school teacher. Angel and Segal are raising a daughter together -- Lilah Rose Angel, now 3 1/2 years old. "She's the light of my life," Angel says. Lilah Rose seems to take after her mother. Recently, when the youngster didn't want to go to bed on time, she used the second-generation excuse -- to Angel's astonishment -- that she was staying up to write a sermon. Congregation Sha'ar Zahav has welcomed Angel warmly as its spiritual leader, and the feeling appears to be mutual. "My biggest dream," Angel says, "is that gay and lesbian Jews and religious seekers will come and find something that's compelling to their spiritual life here."