Rabbi Michelle Dardashti ‘digs Moses,’ Jewish poets and Brown and RISD students

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Brown RISD Hillel Rabbi Michelle Dardashti was born in Los Angeles and grew up in Baltimore.

 

Dardashti was ordained and received an M.A. in Jewish education from the Jewish Theological Seminary. She came to campus life from the congregational world, first as the MTM Rabbinic Fellow at Congregation B’nai Jeshurun, in New York City, and then at Temple Beth El, in Stamford, Connecticut, where she cultivated those on the fringes of the community, such as young families and teens.

Prior to attending JTS, Dardashti lived in Israel, first studying under a Dorot Fellowship and later working for the Nesiya Institute. Later, she lived in Uruguay, where she taught at a Jewish day school, volunteered at Hillel Montevideo and wrote for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

During rabbinical school, Dardashti served as educator for the interfaith community, was a chaplain at Bellevue Hospital, and led JTS’s High Holy Day services. She was also trained in congregation-based community organizing by Jewish Funds for Justice and traveled to El Salvador as part of an American Jewish World Service Rabbinical Student Delegation.

Dardashti, who is also associate chaplain at Brown University, lives in Providence with her husband and three children.

Q: Favorite Jewish food?

A: “Shabaty” Persian eggs [family recipe for Shabbat].

Q: Favorite Jewish holiday?

A: Pesach.

Q: Favorite Jewish song?

A: “Ivdu et HaShem b’simha” –
“Serve God in Joy!” – from Psalm 100.

Q: Favorite Jewish movie(s)?

A: “The Prince of Egypt” and “Yentl.”

Q: Favorite Jewish celebrity?

A: I’m not much into celebrities...I dig Moses.

Q: Favorite Israeli city to visit?

A: Tel Aviv. I like the beach there.

Q: Favorite Israeli city to live?

A: Jerusalem. I lived there for four years, and I can’t ever get enough.

Q: Favorite Hebrew word?

A: Meratek [fascinating] because I learned it in a Hebrew University course and then fell in love with how intelligent I sounded when employing the word myself.

Q: Favorite Yiddish word?

A: Shpatzir [a stroll] because I learned it from my much more fully and proximately Ashkenazi husband – and there’s really no substitute for it once it’s in your vocabulary. “Going for a shpatzir” is much more exciting than going for a stroll....

Q: Best part of keeping Kosher, worst part of keeping Kosher?

A: Best part: You end up eating less junk food. Worst part: You can’t eat everywhere. It’s not so simple to have a nice meal anywhere you want.

Q: Favorite part of being Jewish?

A: It’s countercultural. It’s about being different and doing things differently, such that you are mindful and uplifting the mundane.

Q: Favorite part of being a rabbi at Brown?

A: Getting to work with incredible students and accompanying them on their Jewish journeys. I enjoy helping them figure out how and where Judaism intersects with all the different parts of their identity and life.

Q: Favorite Jewish memory from your life/childhood?

A: Performing with my family. I grew up performing Jewish music with my family. We were called “A Dash of Dardashti.” We performed at Jewish music festivals around the country.

Q: Greatest advice someone has given you, and who gave it to you?

A: If people are making you feel uncomfortable about who you are, showing up as your full self, it’s probably something about them. From my mother.

Q: If you could have three dinner guests, living or from history, who would they be and why?

A: Emma Lazarus, Hannah Senesh and Yehuda Amichai – I would be fascinated to hear these three bold Jewish poets (and fighters, each in their own right), reflect upon Jewish-American and Israeli identity today.

SAM SERBY is a native of East Greenwich and attended Temple Sinai, in Cranston, for many years. He is a recent graduate of Johnson & Wales University.