Since becoming University of San Francisco’s rabbi-in-residence in 2019, Rabbi Camille Angel has been busy, whether she’s creating inclusive on-campus spaces, helping to empower students through her classes, officiating Jewish lifecycle events or leading Passover seders.
When Angel’s hiring was announced, it made headlines. A Jesuit Catholic university appointing a rabbi-in-residence was unprecedented, especially when that rabbi is a lesbian and longtime LGBTQ activist. She says credit for her presence on campus is largely due to the Swig Program in Jewish Studies and Social Justice.
“I was trained and I’m a rabbi to serve Jews, and I do — I led a shiva two nights ago, so I’m definitely still serving Jews,” Angel told J. “But there’s something remarkable for me and totally unexpected about my rabbinate being primarily among non-Jews at this point and that my teaching is primarily with non-Jews.”
According to Angel, there is only one Jewish student in her “Queering Religion” class of 40. The other students represent a mix of religious affiliations, but they gravitate to Angel’s classes and programs because of the inclusive queer community she has cultivated on campus.
“I actually didn’t know much about Judaism and what a rabbi was or what they did,” said Jade Peñafort, a senior sociology major from Redwood City. “But honestly, I love it. I’ve learned from her that in Judaism, some of the core values are just working with other people and for other people and as a community. It’s not just about yourself.”
Angel said it’s important for her to be a visibly Jewish and queer presence on campus — both in and out of the classroom. She regularly wears an embroidered kippah and keeps a rainbow pride flag displayed in her office window. She emphasizes how much real representation and inclusion matter, especially when many students have never interacted with Judaism or Jewish thought or even met a rabbi.
“Students will often ask me, ‘What should I call you? Professor? Doctor? Rabbi?’” Angel said. “I tell them to call me rabbi, because everyone needs a rabbi, and if you didn’t have one before, now you do.”
Angel, who had been lecturing at USF for several years before joining the seven-person University Ministry staff as the on-campus rabbi, places a lot of emphasis on being a positive, identity-affirming spiritual adviser regardless of students’ backgrounds or belief systems. Angel finds that many of her students’ relationships with religion often are complicated by negative experiences due to their sexual orientations or gender identities. But they are also curious and seeking for themselves to figure out whether they want to explore spirituality.
“When I was teaching my first [theology] class, I encountered so many people who’d been really damaged and hurt by religion, or who had chosen not to be associated with religion, because they could see that it hurt people they loved,” said Angel. According to USF, a majority of undergraduate students are unaffiliated with a religion, while others identify as Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, atheist or Protestant. Fewer than half are Catholic….
The above comes from a Feb. 11 story in the Jewish News of Northern California.
A very injured person. And USF is using him to service a narrative of incoherency.
It’s as if USF is daring anyone to say that this person is a man.
They don’t even use ‘transgender’.
It’s the ultimate progressive psyops tactic. Present something so blatantly apparent (a man) call
him a woman and know the dissonance that is created in the minds of good people who know that if they say anything they’ll be marginalized and bullied for stating the truth.
Demonic. I feel like I’m living in a Stanley Kubrick film. Even he couldn’t have come up with this.
She is not trans.
The SF Archbishop, in Vatican II rules– is not allowed to discipline this extremely wayward school, which pretends to be Catholic, and pretends to serve the needs of Catholic students.
He could prohibit it from being identified as a Catholic school. He could also place it under interdict.
The archbishop is, howeved, able to make a personal appeal to the jesuit general to ask for an intervention. Archbishop Quinn did that in the 70’s, meeting with Pedro Arrupe
My comment of Feb. 16 at 7:04pm was edited. I stated clearly, that Catholic schools and universities are supposed to serve the needs of Catholic families and their children. Shame on the Jesuits and USF.
If St. Ignatius of Loyola could have seen what would happen in the future, I wonder if he still would have founded the Society of Jesus.
People like this have either lost their mind or are in league with satan.
Notice how they are all so physically unattractive, the ugliness in this case goes to the soul
Men aren’t supposed to look like women.
So now, if a woman doesn’t have the looks you like, they are a man?
It is the fact that she calls herself a “rabbi” that confuses people. Rabbi means a male teacher or father. A female “rabbi” is an oxymoron as is a female Catholic or Orthodox “priest”. Anyone calling herself that has to be an apostate of some sort.
By the way, over the years I have bought many books and magazines, including knitting and crochet books, put out by Jewish women. Some were pretty and some were “plain Janes”, but what they all had in common were that they never tried to confuse people about their sex and had motherly attributes.
“People like this have either lost their mind or are in league with satan.”
Or BOTH – like Joe Biden.
Click the link. Read the whole thing.
It is thought provoking (although some of your thoughts may be negative.)
If this is a real woman, she does not have many Jewish people in her classroom quite simply because Orthodox Jews, and most Conservative Jews, do not have women “rabbis” and would consider her an apostate. True Judaism is a patriarchal religion as is true Christianity. I suspect she uses the word “goddess” a lot.
She is a “real” woman and a “real” Jewish person.
why would she use the word goddess.
Judaism is a monotheistic religion.
And what is “true” Christianity?
True Judaism does not have women rabbis (fathers). Some women of Jewish descent are into the occult and the goddess religions. The magazines “Lilith” is named after Biblical female demon and is ran by radical feminists of Jewish descent. The radical feminist magazine called “Jezebel” has many contributors of Jewish descent. No pious Jew would name his/her child Lilith or Jezebel. Orthodox and Conservative Jewish people name their children after the godly women of the Old Testament, Esther, Sara, Rebekkah, Deborah and so forth.
Please stop.