Offerings

Rabbi May is available to build personalized rituals for your life cycle moments and transitions, create new liturgy that speaks to your lived experiences, tutor and officiate b’nai mitzvah, consult about forming values aligned faith communities and decoupling Judaism from Zionism in your personal or communal practice, and join your community as a guest prayer leader or teacher. Contact Rabbi May to get started. 

Speaking & Teaching

Rabbi May is an engaging speaker and teacher. Her divrei torah (sermons) are politically relevant and deeply rooted in spirituality. As a teacher and facilitator she likes to involve her audience in discussions and make room for all voices and perspectives. As a prayer leader she enjoys incorporating music from across the diaspora and building custom prayer experiences. Rabbi May is warm, creative, and approachable.

Rabbi May is available to teach and speak on different topics including but not limited to: 

  • Judaism and collective liberation

  • How to build a values aligned community

  • Racial justice in spiritual spaces

  • Creating your own ritual and liturgy

She is available to visit your synagogue, campus, or community as a guest speaker or prayer leader. She is also available to tutor and officiate b’nai mitzvah.

“Rabbi May visited our campus for a lecture and discussion on Judaism and collective liberation. Her gift of storytelling, imbued with spiritual care and political reckoning, guided guests to better understand the history of Judaism beyond Zionism and how to identify and address real instances of antisemitism in the wake of rampant misappropriation. Rabbi May led with the principle that all liberation struggles are connected, which students and faculty alike expressed appreciation for. Rabbi May would make a great speaker for any campus or department invested in social justice on an intersectional, spiritual, and global scale.”

— Dr. Meagan Solomon, Assistant Professor of Feminist Studies at Southwestern University

Ritual & Liturgy Creation 

Rabbi May’s approach to liturgy and ritual creation is to help you feel fully seen. She will collaborate with you to create rituals and liturgy for moments your ancestors could not have dreamed of! Rabbi May has worked with individuals to

  • ritualize gender transitions

  • name babies with gender neutral pronouns

  • tutor children towards creative b’mitzvah celebrations

  • craft non-traditional wedding ceremonies

  • and more

Rabbi May grounds her work in tradition while making it relevant to the present. Her work seeks to allow all parts of ourselves to be honored and embraced equally. 

Rabbi May is available to work with you to create a ritual and/or liturgy for any meaningful life cycle event or transitional moment. She is also available to officiate your life cycle ceremony. She looks forward to working with you!

“On Yom Kippur 2018, May wrote and led a powerful Martyrology service for Tzedek Chicago in memory of Gazans who were killed by the Israeli military during the Great Return March - a nonviolent Palestinian protest that took place weekly on the Gaza-Israeli border. Her brave, poetic and powerful liturgy was one of the high points of our High Holiday service that year - one that still resonates deeply for our community.”

— Rabbi Brant Rosen

Consulting

Rabbi May is a community builder. A rabbi, organizer, chaplain, and musician, she has worked in various group settings and knows what it takes to build a cohesive community rooted in values. After forming the Person of Color Havurah at Kol Tzedek Synagogue, she began consulting with Jews of Color around the country, supporting them in building their own havurot. 

Rabbi May also has expertise in building community at the intersection of spirituality and politics.

For four years Rabbi May did this work as the inaugural rabbi of Mending Minyan. She has consulted with Jews and Christians and is interested in working with people of all and no faith to explore the intersection of spirituality and politics.

Rabbi May is available to consult about forming values aligned faith communities and decoupling Judaism from Zionism in your personal or communal practice.

“When I reached out to May for support in taking my small justice-oriented Christian congregation to the next level, I was hoping for a secret that would solve all my problems. Instead, she guided me back again and again to some simple truths: Be honest. Build your people’s leadership, and trust them to lead. And there are no shortcuts to good organizing.

May helped me see the strengths that were already alive in the group, and offered multiple models for structures that could use our strengths to address our weaknesses. But ultimately what she brought was not easy solutions but deep questions, encouragement, and a stronger sense of solidarity with other communities engaged in similar growth and change. ”

— Pastor Jay Bergen