Rabbi Karen Bodney-Halasz, a native of the Kansas City Jewish community, was recently honored by the YWCA of Greater Dayton (Ohio) as a 2019 Woman of Influence.
Since 1998, the YWCA Dayton WOI awards have recognized and honored the most influential women in the Dayton area. According to the UWCA, they choose visionaries and thought leaders who have made a difference in the community through their dedication to the YWCA mission of eliminating racism, empowering women, and promoting peace, justice, freedom and dignity for all.
More than 100 were nominated and only six individuals were honored.
“This is a very humbling honor,” Rabbi Bodney-Halasz said. “There were a lot of worthy nominees who are dedicated to making Dayton a better place. It’s an honor to be counted among these very powerfully influential women.”
In Rabbi Bodney-Halasz’s role as senior rabbi at Temple Israel, her focus on social justice, compassionate care, inspired worship and relationship building has enriched both Temple Israel and the broader Dayton community. She is the first woman to hold the role in the 168-year history of Temple Israel, which is Dayton’s largest Reform congregation.
Fran Rickenbach, her nominator, wrote, “Reform Judaism places a high value on tikkun olam, the repair of the world. Rabbi Karen was one of the organizers of the battle against Islamophobia in the Miami Valley in 2016, understanding that a community that does not embrace all its members is not a strong community. Her leadership is truly inspiring.”
Rabbi Bodney-Halasz has an overarching goal of creating a community in which all feel recognized and welcome, starting at Temple Israel, and then expanding to initiatives within the Dayton Jewish community and the community at large. She sits on the board of LEAD, Leaders for Equality and Action in Dayton, which works to improve the lives of Dayton residents through structural change. She also works with the Religious Action Center for Reform Judaism as part of RAC Ohio’s core leadership team, translating global thinking into local action. Rabbi Bodney-Halasz established a women’s Torah study group at a local coffee shop, coordinated a civil rights trip for teens, and led a group of 20 congregants on a week-long humanitarian trip to aid the Cuban Jewish community.
Rabbi Bodney-Halasz is a member of the Central Conference of American Rabbis and the Women’s Rabbinic Network. She earned a bachelor’s degree in comparative literary studies from Northwestern University and a master’s degree in Hebrew letters from Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati.
“Her work to represent Judaism to the broader community is essential now more than ever, and she does that with each class she teaches, each individual she helps to better understand Judaism, and each small but vital task she accomplishes to make Dayton a strong, vibrant, inclusive community,” Rickenbach wrote.
Rabbi Bodney-Halasz is the daughter of Lynn and Martin Pollman and Howard and Beatrice Bodney, all of Overland Park. She lives in suburban Dayton with her husband, Scott, a reporter for a local newspaper, and their two sons, Jonah, 9, and Ethan, 5.