Rabbi Arinna Shelby

Rabbi Arinna Shelby currently holds the pulpit at Beth Shalom of Whittier, a Conservative Jewish synagogue.  She is the first woman rabbi in the sixty-year history of this congregation. She also works at the Jewish Home for the Aging in Los Angeles as a hospice chaplain providing spiritual care for patients and their families at the end of life.  Prior to her tenure at Beth Shalom, she was the rabbi at Mt. Sinai Congregation in Cheyenne, Wyoming where she was again the first woman rabbi at the synagogue, and in that state.  She headed the first rabbinic bet din in Wyoming to sanction conversions.

Prior to becoming a rabbi she worked in Seattle in the fields of healthcare and social services, first as a psychotherapist and then as a social service administrator. She founded the award-winning Partners in Caring program which serves elderly and disabled adults in public housing.  As the Executive Director of Children’s Country Home she oversaw the development of this non-profit home health agency which provides residential care to medically fragile children.

Rabbi Shelby was part of the core team of women who organized the First International Conference on Judaism, Feminism and Psychology held in 1992.  From that experience, she co-edited the book Jewish Women Speak Out: Expanding the Boundaries of Psychology which won the National Distinguished Publication Award from the Association for Women in Psychology.

Rabbi Shelby received her Master’s degree in Psychology from Antioch University Seattle in 1986 and her Rabbinic ordination from The Academy for Jewish Religion California in 2008.  She is a member of the Board of Rabbis of Southern California, a member of the Sandra Caplan Community Bet Din of Southern California, and a member of the National Association of Jewish Chaplains.  She currently resides in Redondo Beach with her husband, Andy.