Rabbi Alicia Magal

SEDONA, AZ (March 24, 2009) - For some the call to vocation can come suddenly, in a flash of inspiration, an epiphany so to speak, where the grand vision of one’s life path reveals itself in an instant and the person drops whatever they were doing to follow the new call.

For Rabbi Alicia Magal of the Jewish Community of Sedona and Verde Valley, it was a natural progression for one immersed living the life of her religion and culture since the day she was born, a natural progression that brought her to Sedona as the beloved and respected spiritual leader of its Jewish community.

A graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, majoring in French and Art History, with a Masters in Teaching from Wesleyan University, Rabbi Magal spent seven years in Israel working at the Israel Broadcasting Authority national television station and as a licensed tour guide.

There, she met her husband Itzhak, got married and with their two young children moved to Los Angeles where she received her rabbinical ordination in 2003 and served as spiritual leader for Makom Shalom, a Jewish renewal congregation in Chicago. In 2006, the magic of Sedona brought her to the community which she now serves with passion and vision.

Her reason for becoming a rabbi was simple yet profound.

“I became a rabbi because it was my life,” she said. “Religion and my home life were in alignment. It was part of my everyday existence. It was in my cells.”

This deep sense of living her religion was nurtured by her parents, both Holocaust survivors from Poland who by their faith and will to live managed to escape the horror that came upon their people.

“My parents poured their love and desire for family into us,” she said. “As Holocaust survivors they were healing from the trauma. We were treasured. They knew living where they were and being Jewish at that time was a death sentence. In America, we had the opportunity to live as Jews without this fear. I always felt responsibility for the continuity of our religion because so many had died.”

Her family grew up in an established  Jewish community in White Plains, New York, and were very active in all aspects of their faith, living adjacent to the community’s synagogue.

“We lived right across the street from the synagogue, a large Reform congregation,” she said.  I hung out a lot there and knew the halls and the back way to the pulpit from the Rabbi’s office.  I loved listening to Rabbi Maurice Davis, a brilliant speaker.  I enjoyed religious school and celebrating the holidays.  

She said her experience in Israel further prepared for rabbinical service.

She moved to Israel in 1972, enrolled in a kibbutz “ulpan,” a work-study program where she met her husband Itzhak.  Shortly afterwards, the 1973 Yom Kipper War broke out.  

“At that moment when the war broke out I felt I was being tested,” she said. “I felt I had a chance to prove who I was.”

She took over three jobs at the television station since most of the men had been called up to army reserve duty, cut her hair, which felt like a statement of seriousness and purpose,  and worked with mothers and children whose husbands and fathers were at war.

“Although my life was not in immediate danger like my mother’s life was during the Holocaust, I knew I was tested and tried. I felt, in some small way, I was living a parallel life to my mother’s.   She had shown great strength during the war, and now I was able to show some measure of strength and be of help to others.  I felt I was a person of value.   I’m currently writing a book about her, how she proved herself under impossibly dangerous circumstances.”

In 1992 while studying the Torah and meditating during the night of Shavuot (Feast of Weeks, when traditionally the Torah was given at Mt. Sinai)  the vision came to her.  “That’s when I clearly saw myself as a Rabbi,” she said. “That’s when I knew for sure.”

After working as a tour guide in Israel, as a museum educator and docent trainer at the Skirball Museum in L.A., and as program director for a large Reform congregation in Beverly Hills, she felt it was the next natural step for to become a rabbi.  After having been a tour guide in Israel, training guides in the museum to demonstrate how to make Jewish culture come alive through art and culture,  and guiding people through life cycle preparation before their bar or bat mitzvah or wedding at the synagogue, she said. “now in preparing to be a rabbi I felt like a tour guide of the soul.”

 “I love the holidays,” she said, “and I love community. I didn’t have an extended family. They perished in the Holocaust.  So I always “borrowed” aunts, uncles and grandparents from my friends. This yearning for making friends into extended family flowered here in Sedona. We became like an extended family, “mishpacha.”  

She said she came to Sedona after learning there was a need for a full-time rabbi to serve the Jewish community. She, like most others who call Sedona home, fell in love at first sight.”

“I stayed at Poco Diablo in Dec. 2005 when I came to visit after applying for the position,” she said. “I walked into the synagogue for the first time and said ‘Wow, I could pray, lead, and live here!’  People were warm and friendly. Everything felt just right. It had a small-town feel but with cultural sophistication.  Everyone in this community has chosen to live here.  Each person has a special journey that led him or her here, from very different backgrounds. All have deep resources within themselves, drawn to nature’s beauty.”

As a female rabbi, she feels leaders of her gender bring a special touch and perspective to the spiritual community.

“The first female rabbi was ordained in 1972 through the Reform Movement,” she said. “Now more than half of the Reform and Reconstructionist rabbinical students and many in the Conservative Movement are women as well. We bring a special sensitivity and aesthetic. We bring new radiant colorful and expanded style to the faith. We bring a feminist commentary to the Torah. We hear the unheard voices of the matriarchs in addition to the written accounts of the patriarchs. Our ceremonial scarves are colorful. We bring new fabric to the faith.”

She said being a spiritual leader requires great attention to the feelings and thoughts of her congregants as well as her own.

“When you are a rabbi, people let you into the intimate moments of their life,” she said. “I treasure these moments. I had to learn to be present and compassionate and yet not take these feelings into me personally.  I want to have longevity serving this community, so I need to take care of my own emotions and wellbeing. I want to see the young students here grow up and I hope to be here for their b’nai mitzvah and weddings, and perhaps for their children as well.”

Rabbi Alicia said Judaism demands that people act in ethical ways.

“Are you helping the poor? Are you opening your door to those in need? It is action that counts,” she said. “In the end it is how we act that matters. We have to be consistent through ethical action. The foundation of our world, according to Judaism, is based on three principles:  the Torah - study, Avodah – service and worship, and Gemilut Hasadim -  performing acts of loving kindness.  Each one of these principles leads to the others.  Once you study, you want spiritual nourishment, and once you pray, you want to help others.  Whichever gate one enters through, it leads to the other pathways of righteousness. There is also a very rich cultural life in Judaism, filled with music, theater, art, and other modes of expression.  We also offer a monthly Torah Walk and Talk, discussing spiritual matters out in nature, where all revelation began. It is such a joy to serve as spiritual leader of this expanded family community.”

 Editor’s Note: Rabbi Alicia Magal will be honored at a festive luncheon hosted by the Jewish Community of Sedona and the Verde Valley (JCSVV) on Sunday, April 25 at 12:30pm at Cucina Rustica restaurant in the Village of Oak Creek. Congregants of JCSVV and friends of the Rabbi from throughout the community are invited to attend. Musical ambience will be provided by the Amoretto Duo. For reservations, call the office 928 204-1286.