Rabbanit Leah Sarna almost never teaches the same text twice.

An energetic and creative teacher with a deep love of Torah, she is constantly seeking out new sources, interpretations and juxtapositions of texts to share. Always, she is open to what others have to share as well.

Over her career, she has taught Talmud and other texts to teens, women’s groups, communal organizations and synagogues.

When she received the Pomegranate Prize in 2021 she was working for the Drisha Institute for Jewish Education, running an intensive summer learning program for teenage girls. At Drisha, she was very much influenced by the educational approach of Drisha’s founder and dean, Rabbi David Silber, with his strong belief that Torah is for everyone, that every Jew should have access to the whole Torah library, with no barriers of gender, ability or age.

“When Jews talk about Torah,” she says, “there’s something holy going on there. They are connecting with a thousand-year old conversation and bringing it forward to the future. Every Jew deserves to be part of the conversation.”

“When you learn Jewish texts, you discover that you are not alone in the questions.”

In March 2024, she made a large career shift and became the spiritual leader of a small Modern Orthodox synagogue in suburban Philadelphia, Sha’arei Orah. She loves this new position, and is living out a childhood dream of leading a congregation. When she was growing up, she didn’t think it would be possible for an Orthodox woman to do this. Now, she spends her time teaching, supporting people in their lifecycle events, answering Jewish legal questions and doing pastoral work.

In addition, she does educational work for the International Beit Din working on issues of Halachah and justice, in connection with freeing Jewish women from marriages in which they are stuck against their will.

She now has a Sefaria Fellowship and is working on a book about Torah texts relating to pregnancy, birth and the beginning months of life. She explains that while there are books on the topic written by men, and other works about pregnancy written by non-Orthodox authors, “there is nothing quite like what I am putting together.” This is an area of Jewish law in which she is often sought out for her ideas and interpretations.

Rabbanit Sarna grew up in Newton, Massachusetts, the daughter of two academics: Professor Jonathan Sarna, who recently retired from Brandeis University as a Professor of American Jewish History, and Professor Ruth Langer, a Professor of Theology at Boston College. In 2018, Rabbanit Sarna was ordained at Yeshivat Maharat and also trained in pastoral care at Columbia

Presbyterian. In addition to being awarded the Pomegranate Prize, she is the recipient of a Wexner Graduate Fellowship.

Before moving to Philadelphia in 2020, she served as director of religious engagement at Anshe Sholom B’nai Israel in Chicago and before that she interned at the Hebrew Institute of White Plains. She has also worked at Harvard Hillel and has lectured and taught in Orthodox synagogues around the world.

“I was trying to get as much teaching experience in adult spaces as I could.”

An advocate for women’s advanced Torah leadership, Rabbanit Sarna supports women, whatever course of study they might pursue.

“So many talented women, who weren’t supported, became doctors and lawyers. Of course that’s not a bad thing, but it’s a loss to the Jewish people. I fight for women to stay in Torah study. I befriend and mentor young women coming up in the field and support them to the best of my ability.”

She points out that there’s been a generational shift, and she’s passionate about that change. She says that the women of her generation got very little communal support, and the women before them got none.

Rabbanit Sarna has used the Pomegranate Funds for her own continuing education in the form of private tutoring. She explains that it is very difficult to find opportunities for learning at a high level for women, so she arranged it on her own. (In contrast, men who complete their rabbinic training have additional years of learning they can pursue.) She spent one year studying the laws of constructing a mikveh and another year on Talmudic super-commentaries (“Acharonim”).

“I’m really an outlier for the Covenant Foundation. I’m so grateful for them to dive in with me, to do the deep text-based learning in the original language,” she says, adding that she’s enjoyed meeting and learning from other Pomegranate winners who are working in areas she hasn’t been exposed to before, like arts education.”

As for the future, Rabbanit Sarna, who is the mother of two sons, has many books and writing projects in mind. And, she says, “Running for office is not out of the question. Local office. It’s a back burner dream.”

“Now, I really love the jobs I have and don’t envision leaving the shul or the Beit Din. There’s so much work to be one in the world I’m inhabiting. I’m able to do a lot and I’m grateful for it.”