How do the many facets of identity shape the ways we lead, teach, and move through the world? What is it like to be a gay rabbi in present-day Milwaukee, and how does that identity inform spiritual leadership and communal service? This program brings together Rabbis Joel Alter and Armin Langer for a conversation moderated by educator Jody Hirsh, on the layered nature of contemporary Jewish life.
Reflecting on their journeys to the rabbinate, challenges encountered, and experiences as spiritual leaders, scholars, community members, and gay Jews, they will explore how identities coexist and evolve. Offering participants a unique opportunity to hear their stories and perspectives, the distinguished presenters will consider authenticity, tradition, belonging, and the ways personal experience influences public roles in modern Jewish communities.
Event Information
DATE: Wednesday, July 15
TIME: 7:00 – 8:30 p.m.
LOCATION: Jewish Museum Milwaukee
COST: $5 members | $8 non-members | $5 gallery access
Add Gallery Access to your ticket for an additional $5/nonmember to visit Jewish Museum Milwaukee galleries from 5:00–7:00 p.m. prior to the program. Members receive free gallery admission during this time.
About the Presenters
Ordained at Jewish Theological Seminary in 1996, Rabbi Joel Alter began his career as a teacher, administrator, and school rabbi in Jewish day schools in Washington, Baltimore, and Boston. He later returned to JTS as director of admissions, recruiting future rabbis and cantors while helping address the evolving needs of the American Jewish community. Rabbi Alter moved to Milwaukee with his twin daughters, Ayelet and Annael, to lead a congregation for the first time.
A product of Jewish day schools and Camp Ramah, Rabbi Alter earned a BA from Columbia University, ordination and a master’s degree in Jewish Education from JTS, and additional leadership training through JTS and the Shalom Hartman Institute. He devotes himself to pastoral care, prayer, and community growth. A gay man, Rabbi Alter has helped make LGBTQ Jews more visible in the community and is working to deepen engagement with the racial and economic challenges that have long affected Milwaukee.
Rabbi Armin Langer is the spiritual leader of Congregation Shir Hadash. Ordained by the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, he holds a PhD in Sociology from Humboldt University of Berlin, two MAs in Jewish Studies, and is an alumnus of the Conservative Yeshiva. Born in Germany to a Hungarian-Jewish family and raised in Austria and Hungary, he brings a deep awareness of Jewish diversity and resilience. He has led prayer and taught in Reconstructionist, Reform, Conservative, Orthodox, and unaffiliated communities across Europe, the United States, and Mexico, and serves as a dayan on the Beit Din of Buda in Budapest.
A scholar of sociology and Jewish studies, he has held fellowships at Brandeis University and the University of Virginia. He integrates scholarship and leadership, emphasizing learning, justice, interfaith engagement, and an inclusive “big-tent” Judaism.
Jody Hirsh recently retired as Director of Judaic Education at Milwaukee’s Harry and Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center. He received the 2014 Morton L. Mandel Award for Jewish Educational Leadership and the 2005 Covenant Award for Outstanding Jewish Educator. He also served as Programme Director of the Hong Kong Jewish Community Centre and taught Jewish Studies at institutions including the University of California, Berkeley, University of California, Los Angeles, and Hebrew Union College.
An OBIE Award-winning playwright, Hirsh’s works have been produced internationally, including “Seeing Double” and “The Great King Herod Murder Mystery,” Israel’s longest-running play. He is also the author of the award-winning Tastes of Jewish Tradition. Hirsh helped form gay academic unions in San Francisco and Israel and contributed to the groundbreaking 1989 anthology Twice Blessed: On Being Lesbian, Gay, AND Jewish.