Rabbi Melinda Michelson-Carr

Rabbi Melinda Michelson-Carr was born in Durban, South Africa and grew up in a family immersed in progressive Judaism. Her late father was honorary secretary at the Kwazulu Natal Durban Progressive Jewish Congregation where her mother currently works as administrator. 

Rabbi Melinda participated in Netzer Maginim and after her Bat Mitsvah continued to be involved in community life at Temple David, lead services and teach adults and young people, with a focus on special needs.  She was Chair of the Student Jewish Association and President of B’nai B’rith Young Adults.  Through the University of Natal she received a BA. Honours in Jewish Studies.  While studying she taught Jewish Studies at Carmel College Jewish Day School, developing a new curriculum for the High School. 

In 1991 she came to the UK to study at the Leo Baeck College-Centre for Jewish Education (LBC-CJE). As a student rabbi she discovered that her late father had attended a World Union for Progressive Judaism Youth Leadership Camp in Finhaut in 1956 with some of her teachers and colleagues including Rabbi Lionel Blue and the late Rabbis John Rayner (z’l) and Hugo Gryn (z’l).

While at LBC-CJE she obtained a Certificate in the Fundamentals of Psychotherapy and Counselling from Regent’s College School of Psychotherapy and Counselling.  She received her MA in Hebrew and Jewish Studies in 1996 having written her dissertation on "The Rabbinic Response to Anger" and received semichah in July 1996 after which she was appointed as Rabbi of Ealing Liberal Synagogue where she was rabbi for just over 8 years.  During some of this time she also worked as Rabbi to the Progressive Jewish Community of East Anglia.

Rabbi Michelson-Carr completed a second MA, in Healthcare Chaplaincy writing a dissertation entitled "The Relationship between Faith, Religion and Trauma from a Rabbinical Chaplaincy Perspective".  She is the first progressive rabbi to achieve this qualification, with merit, in the UK.

She is the Liberal Judaism representative on the Visitation Committee and has been a rabbinic representative on the Disability Action Group of Liberal Judaism, working with others on Disability Awareness and Action.  She tutors Practical Rabbinics at the LBC-CJE and has done sessions focussing on: Mental Health, Chaplaincy, Gender & Sexuality and Child Protection.  She also represents Liberal Judaism on The President’s Forum of Jewish Care and sits on the Admissions Board of LBC-CJE.

Liberal Judaism has recently announced her appointment as the first ever Liberal Judaism Chaplain. Providing a Progressive Jewish voice and offering pastoral, spiritual and educational support, she will be working with students, schools, in hospitals and hospices, retirement and care homes and prisons.  She is Progressive Jewish Chaplain at the North London Hospice which was the first Multi-Faith hospice in Europe and is well known for offering respectful holistic care.  Rabbi Michelson-Carr is also Jewish Chaplain to Barts and The London NHS Trust where she makes a contribution within a Multi-Faith chaplaincy team.