As senior rabbi of Washington DC’s Sixth & I Historic Synagogue, Shira Stutman found new ways to engage Jews at the intersection of Jewish practice and social justice. Stutman graduated from Columbia University in 1995 with a degree in political science and worked as education director of Or Shalom Jewish Community in San Francisco and executive director of Lights in Action, a non-denominational Jewish group that facilitates student programs and leadership training. Before entering rabbinical school at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, she spent a year travelling through Asia and South America, where she realized the impact that Chabad’s welcoming environment had in energizing Jewish communities around the world. After her 2007 ordination, she became the director of Jewish programming at Sixth & I in 2010, remaining in the role until 2021. As of 2023, she serves as interim rabbi at Aspen Jewish Congregation, as well as co-hosting Chutzpod, a podcast that shares Jewish approaches to life’s great predicaments. In 2021, she founded Mixed Multitudes, an organization dedicated to sharing the beauty, power, and diversity of Jewish life, tradition, and conversation. Stutman practices what she calls “radical welcoming,” based on cross-denominational experiences she has encountered throughout her career, which involves everything from welcoming interfaith couples no matter how religion is practiced in the home to offering a wide array of prayer experiences and cultivating social justice activism within the community. Hailed as one of the Forward 50 in 2013, Stutman serves on the J Street rabbinic cabinet and served as board chair of Jews United for Justice from 2013 to 2021.