Rabbi Sarah Noyovitz
Rabbi Noyo is serving as HBT’s interim Rabbi from July 2023 to June 2024.
About Rabbi Noyo
Rabbi Noyo (they/she) grew up in southern New Hampshire, where they fell in love with Judaism. She graduated from Goucher College in Baltimore with a major in psychology and a minor in music. Goucher was also where Rabbi Noyo first got involved with Jewish text study. They went on to attend Hebrew College Rabbinical School in Newton, MA, graduating with a Master of Arts in Jewish Studies and rabbinic ordination in 2020.
Prior to Temple Hillel B’nai Torah, Rabbi Noyo served the Woodstock Jewish Congregation in Woodstock, NY, helping the community transition from their beloved previous rabbi, and she is very excited to accompany Temple HBT through their transition as well.
Rabbi Noyo comes with extensive musical skills and experience. They began playing guitar in high school and quickly became a songleader in their hometown synagogue in Amherst, NH. She worked as a service leader and music teacher in several communities from that point right through rabbinical school, in addition to teaching Hebrew and Judaica. She also writes her own original music!
In 2016, a rabbinic classmate at Hebrew College, now Rabbi Micah Shapiro, initiated a musical Kabbalat Shabbat (Friday evening) prayer experience called Shabbat Nariya – the Shabbat Sing-Out. Shabbat Nariya was almost entirely Rabbi Shapiro’s original music set to the psalms of Kabbalat Shabbat, and the service was arranged in concentric circles with the musicians in the center. Rabbi Noyo was one of the original musicians of Shabbat Nariya, helping bring it from Hebrew College to Temple Beth Zion in Brookline, and later to her own congregations as well as back to Jerusalem where Rabbi Shapiro wrote most of the music. The year Rabbi Noyo studied in Jerusalem, they organized a monthly Shabbat Nariya and was asked to present the Nariya music at the Jacob’s Ladder Music Festival, an international three-day festival for people of all ages. Rabbi Noyo put together a band of musicians, held regular rehearsals, and led the “prayer performance” on Friday evening of the festival in 2018.
During Rabbi Noyo’s year in Israel she also had the immense privilege to be invited into the Levite Circle, the musicians of Nava Tehila. Nava Tehila is a Jerusalem-based community, and at its heart is its founder and spiritual leader, Rabbi Ruth Gan-Kagan, and her exclusive group of musicians. Rabbi Ruth and the musicians have written dozens of songs and settings for the text of Psalms, Shir HaShirim, prayer book liturgy, and more. They have monthly Kabbalat Shabbat services in Jerusalem, where hundreds of locals and visitors attend for the song and soul. Rabbi Ruth was Rabbi Shapiro’s songwriting mentor when he wrote the music for Shabbat Nariya, and the concentric circle format was based on Nava Tehila as well.
Another of Rabbi Noyo’s skillsets comes from their participation in Toastmasters, an international organization to help people build their public speaking skills. Rabbi Noyo joined a club in 2014 to prepare for rabbinical school when she was first accepted because she knew that effective communication would be extremely important for her as a rabbi, and Toastmasters would help her continue to grow. Beyond the skills of delivering a prepared speech, Toastmasters also provides the opportunity to learn or hone the skills of critical listening, offering effective feedback, impromptu speaking, and running a meeting with protocols. Members can advance through books that guide them through projects that focus on various elements of these skill sets, such as serving as a timer or evaluator or delivering a speech that uses props or intentional body language. Rabbi Noyo’s background in theatre and flair for the theatrical also helps with a lot of this! Rabbi Noyo remained an active member of Toastmasters until the pandemic but hopes to rejoin in the near future.
A surprising fact about Rabbi Noyo is that they are also a Zumba instructor! They earned their license in 2012, and have taught regularly in gyms and dance studios over the years. More recently, she has been teaching on Zoom. One might think that this has nothing to do with being a rabbi, but when Rabbi Noyo applied to rabbinical school, she was asked: “Where do you see the intersection between Zumba and the rabbinate?” Having never considered this before, she didn’t know how they intersected, making a joke about offering “alternative” Shabbat morning services in the Zumba studio (which actually did happen at Dorshei Tzedek in Newton!). But now Rabbi Noyo can’t stop seeing the parallels – teaching a Zumba class can be compared to leading a prayer experience, physical and spiritual safety are taken into consideration, and no two instructors or rabbis are the same, just to name a few. Being a Zumba instructor informed Rabbi Noyo’s rabbinic education in surprising and useful ways, and continues to be her favorite way to get moving.
In their rabbinate, Rabbi Noyo is passionate about accessibility and inclusion. Whether that means ramps and large print siddurim, adjustments in the requirements for a b. mitzvah service, or using language that makes non-Jews feel welcome, Rabbi Noyo is all about finding ways that make people feel safe, happy, and spiritually nourished.
Rabbi Noyo lives in Newton with her partner, Ari (he/him), where they hope to someday adopt a bearded dragon. She is looking forward to meeting you at HBT or elsewhere in the community!