Rebecca Starr is the Director of Regional Programs for the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America, where she also oversees all program development, management, and partnerships in the Midwest region. In this role she manages strategy and organizational synergies throughout North American regional hubs, and works closely with local partners in her home base of Detroit, MI.

Rebecca is a respected educator and community organizer. She served as an assistant director at Federation’s Alliance for Jewish education at the Jewish Federation of Metro Detroit, where she organized learning opportunities for teachers in congregational and day schools and directed the award-winning Detroit branch of the Florence Melton Adult Mini-School.

As a lifelong Ramahnik, Rebecca pioneered the role of program director for the Ramah fellows program in Detroit for the National Ramah Commission, and spent many summers working with campers and staff at Camp Ramah in Canada. Raised on a sheep farm in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, Rebecca is a proud product of the University of Michigan where she earned undergraduate degrees in education and Judaic studies as well as a master’s degree in social work and a certificate in Jewish communal service.

Rebecca is married to Rabbi Aaron Starr, a graduate of Hartman’s Rabbinic Leadership Initiative (RLI), and they are the proud parents of two sons.