Rabbi Malka Michel

Malka Michél was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii. She is the proud daughter of an Ashkenazi father and Sephardic mother with Converso roots. She was a fellow in the first cohort of the Exploring Judaism's Writer's Fellowship. Malka regards her upbringing on the western extreme of the American Jewish Diaspora as having an enormous influence on her outlook as a Jew and the deep spirituality she cultivated as a child. As an intuitive and highly creative and soul, it was natural for Malka to pursue degrees in Western Classical music and performance. Seeking to reclaim a critical part of her Jewish identity, Malka taught herself Hebrew and then completed three years of cantorial school at Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem and New York. During that time, Malka fell in love with Hazzanut but longed to know more about the rich, beautiful and often challenging world of Jewish text. So, in 2020 Malka began her journey at the Ziegler School for Rabbinic Studies in Los Angeles. Malka sees her circuitous journey to the rabbinate as essential in shaping her as a person and a rabbi.