Yael Aranoff is a fifth-year rabbinical student and an Abner and Roslyn Goldstine Fellow at The Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies at American Jewish University. Having attended many services at Valley Beth Shalom with her grandparents who were longtime VBS members, Rabbi Paul and Esther Dubin, Z”L, Yael is thrilled to be a part of the VBS community this year in an official capacity, as a rabbinic intern. Yael was a rabbinic intern last year at Temple Beth Am. She is a fellow with the CJLS, the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards. Last spring, she completed a field placement at Beit T’Shuvah. Yael was a Leffell Israel Fellow with AIPAC and has participated in the Shalom Hartman Institute iEngage Clergy Student Fellowship, the Makom Fellowship, and the Shalom Hartman Institute’s Jerusalem Rabbinical Student Seminar. In addition to her love of Israel, Yael is passionate about interfaith work, and serves as co-president on the board of the Academy for Judaic, Christian, and Islamic Studies. She has co-planned and participated in several InterSems, an annual interfaith seminarian retreat, and has attended the Interfaith Seminarian Retreat of the Multicultural Alliance in Texas. Yael is also dedicated to prayer and spiritual music. This High Holiday season will be Yael’s 15^th year of leading High Holiday services at UCLA Hillel. She has sung in and organized various Ziegler liturgical choral ensembles. While at the Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem, she created a Torah Toranut program, bolstering the Torah reading skills of her fellow students. Born and raised in Los Angeles, Yael graduated with a BA in history and theatre from U.C. Berkeley, and spent the next decade working as an actor, singer, director, writer, and educator. She looks forward to using these skills in her rabbinate.