Rabbi Emily Segal is passionate about engagement and building relationships. She is a dynamic and skilled teacher who makes each person feel seen and known. A vocal advocate, Rabbi Segal is a justice leader who puts our values into action. An author and national leader, she is an important and rising voice in the Jewish world. Rabbi Segal grew up in a small, tight-knit Jewish community in Virginia, nurtured by one of the first woman rabbis, and she is the proud product of an interfaith home. Seeing her father grow in love for Judaism and passion for Jewish learning and eventually become a Jew-By-Choice was formative in her development and her path in the rabbinate. After graduating from the University of Virginia, her studies continued at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion where she was ordained in Cincinnati. Rabbi Segal’s rabbinic thesis was entitled “Telling and Retelling: The Women’s Seder and Ritual Innovation.” Prior to joining Temple Chai as its Senior Rabbi, Rabbi Segal previously served as the Rabbi of Aspen Jewish Congregation in the Roaring Fork Valley of Colorado, and as the Associate Rabbi of Temple Jeremiah in the suburbs of Chicago. During her time in the rabbinate, Rabbi Segal is proud to have participated in a number of fellowships, including the Balfour Brickner (RAC/CLAL) Social Justice Fellowship, the Clergy Leadership Incubator Fellowship focused on leading dynamic change in congregations and organizations, the One America Movement’s Eilu V’Eilu Fellowship for Leading on Polarized times, and the Pardes Institute’s Makhloket Matters Fellowship focused on fostering civil discourse and healing societal rifts.

Rabbi Segal serves on the national boards of the Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR) and the Women’s Rabbinic Network (WRN) as the liaison between the two organizations. She is a past president of the WRN, having previously served as its Vice President of Social Action and Advocacy. She also serves as the Reform Vice-Chair of the Rabbinic Cabinet of Friends of Givat Haviva, supporting the organization’s groundbreaking work building Arab-Jewish shared society in Israel.

Rabbi Segal’s rabbinic interests include Jewish environmental and food justice, liturgical development, ritual innovation, biblical Hebrew, Jewish feminism, progressive Zionism, Mussar (Jewish mindfulness practice) and scriptural and halakhic (Jewish law) study. Her non-rabbinic interests include strong coffee, dark chocolate, good books, escapist baking, camping and paddle boarding, and live music. She is married to Rabbi Scott Segal, and they are the proud parents of two children (Samantha, 14 and Ezra, 11) and two golden retrievers (Nugget and Obie).