Lisa A. Edwards has been the rabbi of Beth Chayim Chadashim (BCC) since
August 1994, but her connections to BCC predate that. While a rabbinic student
studying in Los Angeles, Rabbi Edwards was first a BCC member (from 1989) and
later a student rabbi at BCC (fall 1991-summer 1992). She returned to BCC in her
current position right after ordination.
Rabbi Edwards holds an A.B. degree from Brown University, a Master's in
English Literature from the University of Chicago, and a Ph.D. in Literature
from the University of Iowa, in Iowa City, where she wrote a dissertation
entitled, Restoring Voices: Traditional Jewish Sources in Post-Holocaust
Jewish American Fiction. Rabbi Edwards attended rabbinical school at Hebrew
Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion at its Jerusalem, Los Angeles and New
York campuses, receiving a master's degree in Hebrew Letters in 1991 and
ordination in 1994. Rabbi Edwards and her partner, Tracy Moore (editor of
Lesbiot: Israeli Lesbians Talk about Sexuality, Feminism, Judaism and Their
Lives, Cassell Press, 1995), celebrated with the BCC community in November
1995, when, on their 10th anniversary, they stood together under a chupah at a
ceremony co-officiated by Lisa's brother, Rabbi Laurence Edwards and Rabbi Laura
Geller of Temple Emanuel in Beverly Hills.
(This biographical statement provided by Lisa Edwards.)