Rabbi Emily Barton, Morton and Lois Bookey Rabbinic Chair
Rabbi Emily Barton has been the rabbi of Tifereth Israel Synagogue in Des Moines, IA, since July 2017. She received her ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America where she also earned an MA in Bible, an MA of Sacred Music and was a Gladstein Fellow in Entrepreneurial Rabbinics. A former pastry chef who worked for several years on both coasts of the U.S., she also worked as a chaplain for a year and a half in a Seattle trauma hospital before rabbinical school. Rabbi Barton holds a B.Com in International Business and a BA in English Literature from McGill University as well as a Baking and Pastry A.O.S. from The Culinary Institute of America. She has served communities in Manhattan, the Bronx, Baltimore, upstate New York, Seattle and Beersheva, Israel. She is a former Rabbis without Borders Student Fellow, an Encounter Davar Acher Fellow, an AIPAC Leffell Fellow, and an American Jewish World Service Global Justice Fellow. Rabbi Barton enjoys leading Jewish communities through spirited, songful worship, and teaching Torah to adults and children in a variety of settings, including in the kitchen! She is working with her congregational leadership to build the only community mikveh in the state of Iowa and is collaborating on the new Rabbinical Assembly/Cantors Assembly Clergy Manual. In her spare time, she enjoys reading and is proud to be a Blue Ribbon winner in needlework at the Iowa State Fair.