Rabbi Paula Mack Drill
Rabbi Paula Mack Drill grew up in the close-knit Jewish community of Portland, Maine. She remembers sitting importantly next to her grandfather on the bima when he was president of the synagogue. Perhaps that was the beginning of her journey toward the rabbinate.
Rabbi Drill graduated with honors from Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania where she developed a broad world-view and a passion for learning. In 1987 she completed a Masters in Social Work from Columbia University as well as a Masters in Jewish Studies from the Jewish Theological Seminary.
Rabbi Drill's social work experience includes eleven years at the Daughters of Israel Geriatric Center and at the Solomon Schechter School of Essex and Union in New Jersey. During seven summers, she served as Assistant Director at Ramah Day Camp in Nyack, NY.
Though Rabbi Drill found much satisfaction in her social work career, she felt a call to do more. Being present when the first female was ordained at the JTS in 1985, she was profoundly moved, and new possibilities were impressed in her heart.
At the age of 39, with the support of her husband Jonathan and their four young children, (Noah, Sarah, Benjamin and Joshua), she returned to JTS for six years of full-time study toward the rabbinate, which she terms "a blessed sabbatical in the middle of my life".
As a rabbi, she still views the world through the eyes of a social worker, but she loves the fact that she can now add what she calls "the God piece" to her interactions with people. She loves to teach and to counsel, and endeavors to be open to the wisdom of others, from the tots in our nursery school, to our teenagers, to our elders.
Rabbi Drill is on the Advisory Board of Women's League Outlook Magazine to which she is a frequent contributor. She also serves on the boards of Masorti Olami, HUVPAC, and Helping Hands Outreach to the Homeless. She chairs the Faith Leadership Subcommittee of DELTA (Rockland County's initiative to prevent domestic violence).
Rabbi Drill's passion is to connect each person, in his or her own way, to essential Jewish values, to seek solutions by working together to repair the world, to strive toward holiness, to commit to community, Israel, and to God.
Email Rabbi Drill
Rabbi Drill is honored at the New York Board of Rabbis Dayenu Luncheon – April 1
