Rachel Silton

Rachel Silton spent the majority of her childhood in Charlotte, North Carolina, a city with a rather small Jewish population and community.  Hailing from families raised in the Conservative movement in New York, Rachel’s parents strived to provide her with a strong Jewish upbringing both inside and outside the home. Rachel regularly accompanied her family to synagogue, studied at Jewish supplemental school until graduating high school, attended Jewish camps, and participated in BBYO. In the home, Rachel always gravitated toward Jewish life and practice, and soaked up opportunities to learn Jewish family recipes from her mother and help lead her family in holiday rituals.   

After graduating from high school, Rachel attended Vassar College where she doubled majored in both Jewish Studies and Anthropology. During her time at Vassar, Rachel debated the professional route she wanted to pursue and ultimately decided that she wanted to explore Jewish learning at the graduate level to have a career in academia.   

Not coming from a Hebrew-speaking home or attending Jewish Day School, Rachel did not begin learning Modern Hebrew until her studies at Vassar and knew she needed to improve her skills before attending graduate school. Rachel applied to participate in a Masa sponsored program called Otzma and lived in Israel for a year after graduating from college. During her time in Israel, she attended Ulpan to improve her Hebrew, volunteered in a variety of settings around the country, forged life-long friendships, and reaffirmed her commitment to pursuing a career in the Jewish world. While in Israel, Rachel applied for masters programs in Jewish Studies and ultimately decided to attend the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City.   

At JTS, Rachel initially studied Ancient Jewish History, but soon realized that she wanted to teach children and adolescents rather than adults, so she also enrolled at the Davidson School of Jewish Education at JTS. After three years of serious coursework and student-teaching, she was ready to begin her formal teaching career. Rachel stumbled upon a job listing for a Judaic Studies teacher at The Emery/Weiner School and began teaching there in 2013.   

At EWS, Rachel spent nine years teaching a Tanakh course for 7th graders and recently switched divisions. She now teaches a course in Rabbinics for 9th grade and a Holocaust course for 12th grade. During her time at EWS, she has built curriculum that aligns with JTS’ Standards and Benchmarks, developed a Sexuality and Relationships curriculum based on Jewish texts, coordinated and facilitated a weekly Torah service, and most recently planned and presented programming with her students for Kristallnacht and Yom HaShoah.   

Rachel is an active member of Congregation Brith Shalom. She has taught in its religious school and leads the monthly Junior Congregation service. Since living in Houston, Rachel has adopted two dogs; met and married her husband, Seth; had her first daughter, Libby; and forged lifelong connections to the Houston Jewish community.

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