Rabbi Jess Belasco

Jess Belasco is a radical Torah teacher, organizer and community convener primarily focused on disabled and queer Jewish communities. They were ordained as a rabbi at the Jewish Theological Seminary, where they focused on midrash, TaNaKh and pastoral care, and were a Wexner Graduate Fellow. Jess’s interests include using Jewish sources to facilitate honest conversations about human and spiritual experience, developing disability-justice-informed readings of Jewish text and helping more marginalized people speak truth to power. They believe that the Covid pandemic is a crucial moment to develop both the pastoral and prophetic aspects of disability Torah. Jess runs the Disability Justice Torah Circle, which hosts classes, facilitates connection and provides pastoral resources for disabled, high-risk and chronically ill people who desire Jewish community.