REBECCA LEICHT

What do you enjoy doing with your time outside of work?
Reading Poetry, Teaching Poetry, spending time in nature, theater, film, digging in the dirt, seeing and promoting good art (and sometimes bad art for a good cause), communing with non-human species, watching all kinds of good and terrible television with my kids (and without them), and reading.

What was the best class you took in college?
Hands down, car mechanics.

What has been your most formative Jewish experience?
Probably a combination of living within an expansive and progressive era and community in the modern Orthodox movement, plus Jewish summer camp, and throw in a little teaching in the former Soviet Union.

Who is are figures from Jewish text/ history that you would like to meet?
Bat Pharoah, Vashti, and Tamar. Also Bella Abzug. And maybe everybody else.

What was your proudest accomplishment as a child?
Befriending the men and women who lived in the 79th street Boat Basin (now a restaurant), inviting those friends to my birthday parties in Riverside Park, and advocating for them as I grew up.

Which elementary school teacher had the biggest impact on you and why?
Maybe Mrs. Fran Fine. She expected a great deal of us, and treated us with dignity. Also Mr. Goldman, because he gave us the freedom to imagine.