Rab­bi Michal Mendel­sohn is the first woman rab­bi to head her own con­gre­ga­tion. She is also an attor­ney, a trained vocal­ist of sacred and sec­u­lar music, and a pub­lished poet, whose first book of poems, Chas­ing Moon­beams , is on Ama­zon. She has been nom­i­nat­ed for a Push­cart prize. She is recent­ly wid­owed after a mar­riage of 38 years to Fredric Mendel­sohn and lives in Naperville, Illi­nois. She has one adult child.