Rabbi Sobel has served congregations in Toronto, California, Massachusetts, Chicago, and New York, and is widely recognized for her work with communities navigating leadership transitions. She brings extensive training in leadership development, long-range and strategic planning, organizational behavior, and change management, with particular expertise in interim and transitional rabbinic work.

For more than nine years, Rabbi Sobel served as Executive Director of the Union for Reform Judaism’s Canadian Council for Reform Judaism and ARZA Canada. She later held the role of Judaic Consultant for the York Region of the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto, where she was responsible for developing and enhancing Jewish spiritual life in one of the fastest-growing Jewish populations in North America.

Rabbi Sobel’s work has been featured nationally, including an episode of The Sacred Feminine, a Canadian television documentary series that explored women’s spiritual leadership, which aired in June 2001. She is a sought-after teacher, writer, and speaker, leading lectures, workshops, and retreats across North America. Her areas of expertise include congregational leadership, Jewish ethics and biomedical ethics, and Jewish law. She has also traveled extensively on behalf of the Reform Movement in South Africa and the former Soviet Union.

Rabbi Sobel’s rabbinate is deeply grounded in relational Judaism. As Dr. Ron Wolfson teaches in Relational Judaism: Using the Power of Relationships to Transform the Jewish Community:

“What really matters is that we care about the people we seek to engage. When we genuinely care about people, we will not only welcome them, we listen to their stories, we will share ours, and we will join together to build a Jewish community that enriches our lives.” (Dr. Ron Wolfson, Relational Judaism: Using the Power of Relationships to Transform the Jewish Community, Jewish Lights Publishing, 2013.)

An avid cyclist and fitness enthusiast, Rabbi Sobel has participated for many years in the Israeli Reform Movement’s “Riding4Reform” bike ride in Israel, consistently raising the highest funds among participants. She also enjoys running, hiking, and participating in races with family and friends.

Rabbi Sobel views food as a powerful catalyst for community and sacred connection. She understands the table as a “mikdash m’at,” a small sanctuary, where the holy and the ordinary meet through hospitality, conversation, and shared nourishment.

The daughter of a Reform rabbi, the late Rabbi Richard J. Sobel, z”l, of Glens Falls, New York, Rabbi Sobel was ordained by Hebrew Union College Jewish Institute of Religion in New York in 1989. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Mass Communications from Boston University’s School of Public Communications.