The great-great-granddaughter of one of the great Hasidic rabbis, Rabbi Levi Isaac of Berdichev, Talia Avnon-Benveniste grew up secular on a kibbutz. It was only through researching her family tree that she learned of her legacy and decided to become a Reform rabbi. Avnon-Benveniste was ordained by Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, and then served as Head of the Education Department of Beit Daniel, the Center for Progressive Judaism in Tel Aviv, where she worked to establish a national policy for Jewish curriculum in Israeli secular schools. She served as the director of the International School for Peoplehood Studies at Beit Hatfutsot, the Museum of the Jewish People in Tel Aviv. She is now serving as the head of the Rabbinical Seminary at Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem. She has received The Moshe Zemer Award for the writing of a Halachic Responsa.