Like Walter Wink, who wrote about the power of nonviolence and pioneered Christian support for the LGBTQ community, Rabbi May Ye is a faith leader ahead of her time, forging a path that, while not easy, is one of deep conscience. A Chinese-American Jew from unceded Wabanaki land, May weaves tradition together with new liturgy and ritual that highlights the experiences of those who have been disenfranchised and marginalized from Judaism and Jewish spaces — especially in our current time, when Zionism (Jewish nationalism) falsely claims that oppression of one people is necessary for the safety of another. A passionate activist, May explores how to decouple Judaism from Zionism and is an ardent supporter of Palestinian liberation.
Rabbi May Ye (she/her) is a 2023 graduate of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, or RRC. She is the inaugural rabbi of Mending Minyan, located on unceded Quinnipiac land. As a rabbinical student, she worked as a rabbinical intern at Tzedek Chicago and with Puerto Rican activist and poet Aurora Levins Morales on new liturgy that centers the voices of Indigenous Jews and Jews of color. She also served as a teacher for Ammud: The Jews of Color Torah Academy; as a climate justice fellow with POWER, an interfaith social justice organization in Philadelphia; and as a chaplain at Yale New Haven Health.
Rabbi May is the founder of the Person of Color Havurah at Kol Tzedek Synagogue in Philadelphia. She organized with the Philadelphia chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace, or JVP, as a member of the steering committee and chair of the ritual committee, and she sits on JVP’s national rabbinical council. She also volunteers as a movement chaplain. In May 2022 she received the Tikkun Olam Award from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College “for her inspiring and passionate Palestine Liberation rabbinate and for connecting our politics to the way that we pray.” She is the 2023 recipient of the Rabbi Devora Bartnoff Prize for Spiritually Motivated Social Action. FOR-USA is proud to welcome her as our 2023-2024 Wink fellow.