As a young out gay boy, Rabbi D’ror Chankin-Gould was explicitly told that God hated him. Yet, it is through his journey from that boy to the rabbinate and insistence that we find God’s love in our Jewish tradition and that we learn we learn how important and necessary it is that we Jews turn to our children, our friends, and our congregants to tell them, “God loves you.”
Rabbi D’ror Chankin-Gould is one of the rabbis at Anshe Emet Synagogue in Chicago, Illinois. Previously he worked as a chaplain at UCLA Medical Center, a classroom teacher, retreat director, and curriculum author for Los Angeles Hebrew High School, an education fellow at the Brandeis Collegiate Institute, and the JCSC Fellow at Columbia/Barnard Hillel. D’ror was the first openly gay man to be accepted by the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies, where he was ordained in 2013. In 2007 he served as editor in chief of “The Hillel LGBTQ Resource Guide”, and in 2008 he published an article in the “Journal for the Study of the Old Testament” documenting a Feminist recovery of Bathseba. D’ror is a Wexner Graduate Fellowship. At Anshe Emet Synagogue, D’ror focuses on pastoral care and counseling, religious school education, youth programs, and supporting the community’s reach to diverse populations. D’ror is a grateful talmid of Rabbi Dr. Reb Mimi Feigelson.
