Rabbi Cookie Lea Olshein
Email Rabbi Cookie Lea Olshein
Rabbi Cookie Lea Olshein received a Bachelor's of Business Administration degree (International Business) in 1989 from The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. In 1992, she received a Juris Doctorate degree from California Western School of Law in San Diego, California, and practiced law (primarily civil litigation) in Las Vegas for more than ten years before beginning rabbinical school at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.
While practicing law, Rabbi Olshein was actively involved in creating and administering continuing legal education for attorneys and served as the Chairperson of the State Bar of Nevada's Continuing Legal Education Committee. She was also an active member of her home congregation of Congregation Ner Tamid in Las Vegas, creating a young adult program, serving as a Vice President of her congregation's Board of Trustees, volunteering with the Sisterhood, and in creating and participating in a lay-led Shabbat morning minyan.
After completing her first year of rabbinical studies in Jerusalem, Rabbi Olshein returned to the United States to continue her education at the Los Angeles campus of HUC-JIR, serving as Student Rabbi of Congregation Havurim in Temecula, California, followed by two years as Congregation Ner Tamid's academic year Rabbinic Intern (she also completed four full-time summer internships at Congregation Ner Tamid). As a fifth-year student, Rabbi Olshein took on a second internship at the Board of Rabbis of Southern California as its Rabbinic Intern.
In May of 2006, Rabbi Olshein received a Master's of Arts in Hebrew Letters degree from HUC-JIR, at which time she also received the Cantor William Sharlin Award for Excellence in Liturgy. After completing her rabbinic thesis on the topic of synagogue transformation and change, with a focus on the effects of technology on worship, she was ordained as a rabbi by Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in May of 2008.
Rabbi Olshein's professional passions include adult education, congregational Jewish music, and facilitating workshops on spirituality in everyday life. Her own "Jewish journey" was recently featured in Reform Judaism magazine (http://reformjudaismmag.org/Articles/index.cfm?id=1267). In her spare time, she enjoys painting, crocheting handmade kippot, and gourmet cooking.
Rabbi Olshein is very excited to be Congregation Beth Israel's newest rabbi and looks forward to meeting CBI's members and getting to know Austin ... please introduce yourself the next time you see her!