Sunday, January 23, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Rabbi continues family tradition

Mintz teaches, officiates at various events and works to help the homeless

Rabbi Yocheved Mintz is a rabbi at large who operates out of her home study. Photo by Clint Karlsen. Rabbi Yocheved Mintz discusses her calling as a rabbi with an open Talmud in front of her.

Longtime teacher, interior decorator, physician's wife, doting grandmother, breast cancer survivor. And now, rabbi and helper to the homeless.

Yocheved Mintz of Las Vegas wears a lot of hats. One of them is her kippah, a Jewish head covering that is more often worn by men.

She wears the kippah and other ceremonial attire when performing the functions of rabbi. She added that role to her identity when she was ordained in May by the Academy for Jewish Religion, California.

"Deserts have a way of transforming people," she jokes, referring both to her own move from the Chicago area to Las Vegas in 1990, and to the Old Testament exodus of her ancestors from Egypt through a desert.

Her description of her Jewish heritage is complex: "I was born in an Orthodox family, I was raised in a Conservative synagogue. I raised my family in a Reform setting. I am a life member of the reconstructionist movement. I am active in the Renewal `nonmovement' movement."

Her study to become a rabbi was perhaps many generations in coming and, yet, a rapid decision.

It is a tradition in her family -- six generations of rabbis precede her on her father's side. Her grandfather was an Orthodox rabbi who relocated in the 1920s to the United States from the Turkish-administered state of Palestine, which later became Israel.

Mintz, 64, always aspired to study Judaism in a formalized way but never felt comfortable pigeonholing herself into a theological school that limited itself to one strand of Judaism.

Meanwhile, her life took another path. At age 16 she entered the University of Chicago, graduating in education. Then she married young, had four sons and found herself immersed in Jewish education and community theater in the Chicago area. She taught at sectarian and Jewish schools, supplementing the family's income with interior decorating jobs. Eventually she and a friend founded an organization that provides curriculum tools to teachers of Judaica, and helps set up teacher resource centers throughout the country.

When she did presentations, she remembers, "people used to ask me whether I was a rabbi. ... I'd always say, `Not yet.' "

In the late '90s, she did a presentation to students at the Academy for Jewish Religion in New York. Her audience intrigued her. "Some were almost my age. None were kids straight out of college, which is what most of the rabbinical schools have."

Not long after, she visited the New York school's new sister school, the Academy for Jewish Religion, California, which opened in 2000. Both schools take a pluralistic approach that draws from all movements in Judaism, from Orthodox to Reform and beyond. The schools train rabbis, cantors and chaplains.

Mintz returned to Las Vegas with a plan.

"I said to my husband, `What would you think if I told you I'm going to commute to Los Angeles every week for five years' " to become a rabbi, she recalls, laughing. Alan Mintz, her husband of 45 years, was immediately supportive.

"He's gotten a lot of mileage out of this," she jokes. "I put him through medical school, and he said, `It's your turn.' "

Mintz graduated from the academy in less than four years, commuting weekly from Las Vegas for the school's three-day school week.

"I am a no-box rabbi because I am transdenominational," says Mintz. "I think I represent American Jews in many ways. Jews (today) join their synagogue because of social reasons or comfort level. ... They take from each denomination the things they feel most comfortable with, that they share in their heart. We all share the same Torah."

Mintz's spiritual studies were deepened midstream, in fall 2003, when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. During her final year at the academy, she also underwent a double mastectomy and chemotherapy.

"Last year was a year of blessings, even the cancer. I'm in remission," she says. Her studies were an enthralling distraction from her illness, she notes. Also, she was surrounded by a spiritual community of people who understood her needs. To her graduation, attended by her flock of grandchildren, she wore an oversize kippah that downplayed her bald head. "Eleven and two-thirds," she jokes, when asked how many grandchildren there are. "We have a new one due in the spring."

As graduation neared, she did not seek a staff position as a rabbi because she wasn't in a position, healthwise, to be able to commit to a term of employment. During her studies and cancer treatment she did an internship at Temple Beth Sholom in Summerlin.

Rabbi Felipe Goodman of the temple describes Mintz as a dynamo. She insisted, he recalls, on doing visits right after her own medical treatment to templegoers who were hospitalized: "She was more concerned about working with me and shadowing me, than her own health."

Mintz currently serves as what she calls a rabbi at large. She teaches private students the Talmud, Hebrew and other subjects in her home office. She officiates at weddings and other important life events, and does what she calls "life cycle counseling" related to such events.

Mintz says she was initially depressed at moving to Las Vegasto advance her husband's career. Her husband, trained as a radiologist, is the founder of the Las Vegas-based Cenegenics Medical Institute, which does "age management" with a regimen of diet, exercise and hormonal supplements. The institute will open a branch at Florida's University of Miami, it announced in early January. She says he selected Las Vegas as an easy-to-reach headquarters for patients, who come from across the world.

But Yocheved Mintz now views the city as an ideal place for her, too. The Jewish community in Southern Nevada numbers about 80,000, according to the Jewish Federation of Las Vegas. That's on a par with the communities in San Diego or Cleveland. It constitutes a great opportunity for a rabbi, because most Las Vegas Jews are not currently affiliated with a congregation.

One of her community interests goes beyond Jewish circles. In December she attended a vigil for the homeless who died on local streets, an annual event by Straight from the Streets, a local nonprofit group.

Linda Lera-Randle El, the founder of Straight from the Streets, recalls how Mintz attended the vigil to represent the Jewish community, because a local cantor who usually participated was not available.

"Rabbi Yo" is what Lera-Randle El calls Mintz, because "Rabbi Yocheved" is hard to pronounce. She says she could tell Mintz was "going to be more than a `fill-in.' She came early and talked to people. She mingled and she flowed easily. She didn't seem to be out of place. When it comes to issues (such as homelessness) some people are stand-offish."

Since the vigil, Mintz has introduced Straight to the Streets to parties who may be able to donate resources. She also has helped with intake of street homeless, Lera-Randle El recounts.

"She came and brought tables" and spent several hours at the intersection of Wilson and F streets, helping homeless applicants apply for various government benefits, Lera-Randle El recalls.

"My program relies heavily on volunteers. I was impressed to see her, a woman of faith. She (showed the ability to) lift people up."