Educational Leadership & Staff  

Kehilla's approach to Jewish education focuses on developing a positive Jewish identity, as exemplified by our educational program Directors. 

Rabbi Dev Noily, School Director

Rabbi Dev Noily has worked for fifteen years as a Jewish educator, prayer leader, liturgist and lifecycle facilitator, serving at Congregations Sha’ar Zahav in San Francisco, Mishkan Shalom in Philadelphia, Beit HaChidush in Amsterdam, Bet Haverim in Atlanta and Beth El in Bennington, Vermont.  She has served as a chaplain and spiritual caregiver at Jewish Family and Children’s Service of Philadelphia, The Attic LGBT Youth Center (Philadelphia) and Alta Bates Summit Medical Center. Dev was a Rabbinic Intern with Greenfaith: Interfaith Partners for the Earth, and is currently active in LGBT interfaith work and intra-Jewish dialogue work, facilitating difficult conversations in Jewish communities about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.  She was ordained by the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Philadelphia in 2009, where she received the Dvora Bartnoff Memorial Prize for Spiritually-Motivated Social Action. 

Dev is drawn to Kehilla School by its spirited practices of building joyful community, nurturing Jewish identity, fostering spiritual connection, and learning with and from interfaith families, queer families and Jews of all hues.  As the new School Director, Dev is working closely with Kehilla’s Youth Education Committee, spiritual leadership and staff to continue to bring to life our community’s vision of exciting, progressive Jewish education.

Sandra Razieli, Bar/Bat Mitzvah Program Director

Sandra Razieli is the Bar/Bat Mitzvah Program Director and has been teaching at Kehilla since 2000.  She is also a service leader and enjoys participating in the community as a congregant. 

Sandra has studied and lived extensively in Minnesota, Israel, and California, and has degrees from the University of Minnesota and Stanford University.  As an anthropologist with a focus on the modern Middle East, her academic interests overlap nicely with her work at Kehilla.  She created the 6th grade curriculum at Kehilla and is the author, along with Alaiya Aguilar, of Tree of Life: Torah for Bar/Bat Mitzvah Students.

Sandra also teaches yoga with a specific interest in yoga for scoliosis.  She holds a Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT500) designation from Yoga Alliance and a teaching certification from the Institute of Yoga and Jewish Spirituality.  She is also an avid soccer player. 

Sophia Cohn, School Assistant

Sophia Cohn was hired by Kehilla in August 2009, but has been a part of the community since her family joined in 1999, in preparation for her Bat Mitzvah.  She spent her earlier years in Hebrew School in Sara Shendleman and Avram Davis’ living room, learning about the Hebrew alphabet and Jewish customs and holidays.  Sophia is the daughter of Jill and Russ Cohn, an identity which she proudly references to reacquaint herself with the community.  She was born at home in Kensington, California, grew up in Berkeley, and is a recent graduate of Pitzer College with a bachelor’s degree in Sociology and Art.  She fondly remembers the time spent with her Bar/Bat Mitzvah Havurah, and missed Kehilla’s upbeat Renewal services while she was away at college.  She now lives in Oakland and is happy to be back in the Bay Area, reconnecting with her Jewish Renewal background at Kehilla!