Trienah Anne Meyers

RabbiTrienahMeyers@gmail.com
RabbiTrienahMeyers.com
Ordination June 20, 2026

I am a non-traditional rabbinic student, preparing for ordination at the age of 73. My path to the rabbinate has been shaped by decades of professional, communal, artistic, and spiritual experience, all of which have deepened my commitment to Jewish life and service. I come from an extremely creative and intellectually engaged family grounded in both the arts and academia. Having lived in many parts of the United States, experiences have shaped my understanding of the diversity of Jewish life, community, and culture. My educational background is similarly broad and interdisciplinary. Throughout my life, I have been blessed with diverse experiences, challenges, and opportunities that have given me resilience, empathy, and perspective.

Leadership

For more than forty years, I have been deeply involved in synagogue leadership and communal life. Throughout that time, I have been affiliated with Reform congregations. I currently serve as co-president of my congregation and previously served as president approximately ten years ago. I have served on the Board of Trustees at my current shul for over twenty years, in addition to multiple years as Sisterhood president. During my time at my current spiritual home, we have experienced great change and great growth in contrast with many Jewish communities. We have gone through the retirement of a thirty-eight-year Rabbi and multiple Rabbinic searches. We successfully completed a major capital campaign and now have a new endowment of over one million dollars and growing still. These experiences have taught me the importance of flexibility, compassion, and steady presence in Jewish communal life.

Program Development and Education

I have been involved in program development of many kinds. I helped to formulate what is now our practice of a communal Shabbat dinner one Friday a month, I helped create (and cook) model seders, I taught our first adult beginning Hebrew, and with my current co-president created a program called Simcha Sundays (a rotating of intimate dinners with new and longtime members) and started regular challah baking and hamantaschen baking sessions with congregants. I connected us to Repair the Sea which our congregation now engages in every year as a contrast to the traditional tashlich (which we also observe). I was the director of our then very small religious school as well as teaching the upper class (pre-b’nei mitzvah). My cooking class with religious school students was a big hit in the last few years as our school has grown and taken on new leadership. Teaching the basic aleph bet to third and fourth graders was a wonderful experience for me and I hope for them. I tutored individual b’nei mitzvah students in basic liturgy, recording melodies and helping them to build confidence and connection to Jewish worship. I especially value helping students and families discover that Jewish learning can be both meaningful and joyful and can be found in numerous places including the dinner table and the kitchen.

Liturgy and Music

I have helped sustain congregational continuity during periods without full-time rabbinic leadership in serving for many years on and off as a lay service leader. I am most familiar with Reform liturgy but have learned and am adaptable and have the resources to customize, and/or support other liturgical practices as needed. I assist the Rabbi currently in chanting liturgy for Shabbat services including Torah service, and Festival services. Music has always been central to both my spiritual life, my communal service, and my personal life. I am a singer-songwriter whose non-liturgical music is available on platforms including Spotify and YouTube. I have sung in all kinds of bands from gospel to jazz to country rock and now Jewish liturgical music. Within my congregation, I sing both traditional Reform liturgy and original liturgical compositions with a fellow musician, I created and direct the choir for High Holy Day services and work closely with our High Holy Day cantor and rabbi in organizing worship and music. I was able to step in for the Cantor one Rosh Hashanah, when she was ill, for the complete service. I am familiar with a broad range of Jewish liturgical music and believe deeply in the power of music to create connection, healing, memory, and prayer.

Service

Before retirement, I spent many years as a felony and death penalty public defender and advocate, representing individuals in some of the most difficult and vulnerable moments of their lives. I have served as court appointed advocate for children in need of services. My legal career strengthened my commitment to justice, careful listening, ethical responsibility, and human dignity—values that continue to guide my rabbinic path. My work with those charged with the death penalty changed both me and my relationship with G-d. I currently work for a nonprofit Recovery Community Organization as part of its outreach team, serving primarily the unhoused community in our area, as well as others who are deeply underserved. My entire life has taught me the value of service to community, and I believe that tikkun olam is critical to every congregation’s growth and spirituality.

My Background

I grew up in a completely non-religious non-spiritual home with secular parents. As a youngish adult I felt the pull of my ancestors and began a journey as an adult Jew. I raised a Jewish son and kept a Jewish home; my father would say channeling my grandmother. Through several congregations, multiple Rabbis and constant learning, the path to first to becoming an adult Bat Mitzvah and now to the Rabbinate has unfolded almost organically; drawing me onward sometimes when I didn’t know myself where it would end. I believe that my life’s work with vulnerable populations played a huge part in the path I now find myself on. I have come to believe that callings unfold in their proper time, and that the many chapters of my life have prepared me for this sacred work. I feel profound gratitude for the opportunity to serve the Jewish community in a role that feels deeply authentic and spiritually meaningful.