Rabbi Ricki Lobel

​

 

 

Rabbi Ricki Lobel has delighted in spending her entire adult life as a teacher and student with co-learners of all ages. She recently retired as a special education teacher having worked in all grades from kindergarten through adult.

​

In the Jewish community, she has taught both Hebrew and Judaica in local religious schools. She has served as Co-Director of the community Jewish high school, working with teens from every congregation in the greater Sacramento region. She has also been the Education Director for two congregational schools and has resumed that role since leaving public education. She has worked as Bar/Bat Mitzvah Program Coordinator as well as being an instructor to prepare both teens and adults for their B’nai Mitzvah.

 

With Junior Congregation at one end and adult Torah Study and educational programming at the other, her experience with learners from ages 4 to 94 has inspired her to continue her own Jewish education through study at Brandeis University, American Jewish University, the Whizin Center for Continuing Education, Rutgers University, and the Jewish Spiritual Leaders Institute.

 

In her years with Melton, Rabbi Lobel has enjoyed watching such a variety of learners find ways to both engage in dialogue and disagree with those who think differently, always coming to a respectful conclusion. She has watched Meltonians grow from feeling they are consumers of Jewish education, into being producers instead, taking their newly shared language, concepts, references, and experiences out of the classroom and into their homes and their worlds. Her association with Melton assures that she will continue to study in order to bring ever more to her students.