Our Rabbi Rabbi Carla Freedman was born and grew up in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Her lifelong Jewish involvement began when she became active in B'nai Brith Girls during high school, serving as international vice president of programming (1962). Rabbi Freedman, a gifted storyteller, won B'nai Brith Girls' International Storytelling Contest in1960. She went on to become founding member of Temple Shalom in Winnipeg; where she edited the newsletter, coordinated the choir, taught Hebrew and assisted the rabbi in teaching the conversion class. Rabbi Freedman was the first Canadian woman ordained a rabbi. She was also the first ordinee of Hebrew Union College (HUC) to become a grandmother. From 1990 to 1997 she served Temple Beth Israel in Plattsburgh, NY. She became rabbi of Jewish Family Congregation in July 1997. The job of rabbi today, as Rabbi Freedman sees it, is to engage people in Judaism by conveying its richness and its modernity regardless of its antiquity. All that she is and does is in service of that goal. "The opportunity to serve a congregation with so many children is what drew me to JFC," she says. "The children are, of course, our future, and it is exciting to contribute to their Jewish identity. I have always believed that a strong, proud Jewish identity is more important than anything else in terms of Jewish survival and continuity. Whatever information a person might lack can always be found in books, or nowadays online. But without that strong sense of Jewishness, there is no motivation to seek out the details. "While others bemoan the rise of intermarriage in our communities, I see a greater threat in the lack of Jewishness on the part of Jews. I love being Jewish, and I hope to convey that through teaching, writing, everything I do. That's why I'm here, and that's why I entered the rabbinate late in life." Rabbi Freedman earned her bachelor's degree in 1965 and her master's degree in educational psychology in 1980, from the University of Manitoba. She received her master's degree in Hebrew Letters from Hebrew Union College (HUC), Cincinnati in 1989 and was ordained at HUC in1990. Her rabbinic thesis was a history, "The Rebbitzin in America."