Temple Hillel B'nai Torah

V’Samachta: A Night of Spirit and Legacy

We’ve heard from so many who were there: the installation of Rabbi Aliza Schwartz and HBT’s 55th anniversary celebration was moving, joyful, and unforgettable. That was no accident. The evening was crafted with deep intention—to combine spirit with joy, tradition with celebration, and legacy with renewal. V’Samachta truly lived up to its name.

Among the most powerful moments was Rabbi Emerita Barbara Penzner passing the Torah to Rabbi Aliza, symbolizing not just continuity but transformation. With music, memory, blessing, and vision, the night honored our past and celebrated a future grounded in justice, compassion, and community.

Now, you can relive the power of that night—or experience it for the first time—by watching the full video, complete with chapter markers that take you straight to unforgettable moments like Jeff Klepper’s L’dor Vador, the 55-year history presentation, the candle lighting ceremony, or Rabbi Aliza’s inspiring installation speech.

If this moment moves you—as it moved so many of us—please consider a contribution or becoming a member. There’s never been a better time to be part of HBT’s vibrant, values-rooted community.

Rabbi Installation video, now up on YouTube

Rabbi Aliza Schwartz Installation & HBT’s 55th Anniversary – May 15, 2025 (Version: HD Final)

RABBI ALIZA SCHWARTZ BIOGRAPHY

Rabbi Aliza Schwartz believes that the work of creating connection and belonging is sacred. She strives to always be a part of bringing people toward one another and toward larger containers of “home.” She feels certain that when we are embraced for our whole selves, we are able to bring our whole selves to everything we do, and communities and worlds deeply benefit. 

In this particular world moment, and always, Rabbi Aliza fights for a deeply-rooted Judaism that stands loudly against racism, loudly against antisemitism, loudly against Islamophobia, and loudly against the systems that allow for dehumanization and that pit humans against one another. She fights for a Judaism that embodies at its root the knowing that all of humanity is sacred, is divine, is made b’tselem elohim, in the image of Gd. 

Rabbi Aliza was ordained by the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in 2024. She is a board member of T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights. During rabbinical school, she worked for two years as a Cooperberg-Rittmaster Rabbinical Intern at Congregation Beit Simchat Torah (CBST) in New York, the world’s largest LGBTQ synagogue. Additionally, she served as an interfaith hospital chaplain and interned at Lions Gate Continuing Care Retirement Community. She spent one year of her rabbinic training in Jerusalem, both studying at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies and doing protective presence and solidarity work, especially in Masafer Yatta, an area home to several Palestinian villages in the South Hebron Hills of the West Bank.

Before rabbinical school, Rabbi Aliza was in leadership for many years at Kavod, a multi-ethnic, multi-racial community led by young Jews that lives out its values through vibrant Jewish ritual, transformative social justice organizing, and collective responsibility. Rabbi Aliza served on Kavod's board for four years and as Board President for two. Rabbi Aliza worked for about 3.5 years at the New Israel Fund as Assistant Director for the New England Region, and she has been a strategy coach and trainer for IfNotNow, especially in its early years. An alumna of AmeriCorps and JOIN for Justice’s Jewish Organizing Fellowship, Rabbi Aliza served as Community Organizer at Jewish Big Brothers Big Sisters. Before that, she spent a year in South Tel Aviv, working with Sudanese and Eritrean refugees and asylum seekers.

Rabbi Aliza is absolutely thrilled, and considers herself deeply blessed, to be joining the HBT community. She also considers herself enormously blessed to be following the rabbinic leadership of Rabbi Emerita Barbara Penzner, after Rabbi Penzner’s 28 years of inspirational leadership of HBT, and she is deeply grateful as well to Rabbi Noyo, for their interim year serving the community. Rabbi Aliza is so excited to build together, pray together, act in the world together, learn together, and be with one another. She cannot wait to get to know each and every person at HBT.

Rabbi Aliza’s quote to live by: “Never forget that justice is what love looks like in public.” -Cornel West