Rabbi Paul Kipnes and Michelle November, MSSW

Rabbi Paul Kipnes and Michelle November, MSSW, are co-authors of Jewish Spiritual Parenting: Wisdom, Activities, Rituals and Prayers for Raising Children with Spiritual Balance and Emotional Wholeness. They have been married for thirty years and burst with pride at the admirable adults their three children are becoming. They spend every summer as faculty at the Camp Newman, a Jewish summer camp, fostering Jewish spirituality in campers.

 

Michelle November, MSSW, has guided families as a parenting teacher and family camp retreat designer.  Michelle is Director of Admissions at de Toledo High School in West Hills, the second largest Jewish High School in the United States. As the national college director of the Union for Reform Judaism, she  established Jewish college groups on campuses across the country. At Stephen Wise Temple, she expanded its Family Support Center, facilitated family camp and women’s retreats, and taught parenting classes. At URJ Camp Newman, Michelle provided support to summer camp counselors and camper parents.

Rabbi Paul Kipnes, MAJE, a popular lecturer on raising ethical, resilient Jewish children, is spiritual leader of Congregation Or Ami in Calabasas, California, former camp director, and North American Federation of Temple Youth regional advisor. His latest project, Mensch-ify, is an 18-session parenting workshop about nurturing kind, compassionate children, surrounded by a pre-K to 6th grade religious learning curriculum, all wrapped in a family program. A trained addictions spiritual care counselor, he designed and supervised Shmirat HaGuf v’Hanefesh: Caring for the Teen Body, Mind, and Soul, a multiyear project to bring synagogue realities in line with their desire to be safe spaces for teens. In 2018, he led the San Fernando and Conejo Valleys’ Jewish community response to the devastating Woodley fires. He blogs at paulkipnes.com.