Bucknell Welcomes Rabbi Chana Leslie Glazer

From leading congregations through pastoral care and teaching to serving as an interfaith spiritual coach, Bucknell's newest member of the Chaplains & Religious Life team, Rabbi Chana Leslie Glazer, says she's ready to empower and guide Jewish students and engage with the greater Bucknell community.

"I couldn't be more excited about this new opportunity," said Glazer, who will serve as Bucknell's Chaplain for the Jewish Community. "We can do great things together."

Glazer most recently served as the rabbi for Beth Israel Synagogue in Roanoke, Va., and Beth Sholom Synagogue in Memphis, Tenn. Having lived in or worked with every major Jewish denomination in the U.S., including Orthodox communities, she looks forward to welcoming all Jews at Bucknell.

"With good communication and respect, we can each follow our own path but also grow and learn together as a diverse Jewish community, and have a great time while doing so," Glazer said.

Rabbi Glazer has volunteered as a spiritual coach for more than a decade. She co-led two Taglit-Birthright trips to Israel and served as spiritual leader of a Jewish medical mission to Nicaragua. In 2013, her passion for social justice and interfaith work led her to found Philadelphia Emerging Religious Leaders (PERL), a group that gathers Philadelphia's seminary students and other emerging religious leaders across faiths, traditions, class and race, for interfaith engagement.

"Through PERL I saw how much I loved working with students — Jewish of course, but really of any faith," Glazer said. "I enjoy those formative discussions about finding who we are and what it is that lights us up inside — and what we do with it when we find it. There are so many different ways to connect spiritually."

Glazer received her rabbinic ordination and master's degree from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and studied at The Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem. Prior to her rabbinical career, she served for 15 years as a business journalist, foreign correspondent, bureau chief and editorial manager, mostly covering Latin America and the Caribbean. Glazer holds a bachelor's degree in government with a focus on international relations and Latin American history from Cornell University.