Rachel Biale was born and raised in Kibbutz Kfar Ruppin in Israel, so she spent her formative years digging dirt and weeding. After serving as a youth movement leader and in the army in Israel, she married David Biale and came to the US for college. She received her BA and MA in Jewish History from UCLA and then trained as a clinical social worker, getting her MSW from Yeshiva University. She is the author of Women and Jewish Law (Schocken, 1984) and two books for parents and children in a series titled “Let’s Make a Book about It:” My Pet Died and We Are Moving.Rachel has lived in Berkeley since 1986, where she and her husband, David, have raised their two kids, both adults now. The only dependents at home now are three chickens.

Rachel has worked in the Bay Area Jewish Community for over 20 years, first as a clinician for JFCS of the East Bay, then as Director of Community Education at the Osher Marin JCC and, most recently, as Bay Area Regional Director of Progressive Jewish Alliance. She has served as the Director of Bible by the Bay/Lehrhaus 360, a project of Lehrhaus Judaica, for over 10 years. She also has a private practice of parenting counseling, now in its 25th year, and writes a parenting advice column for Jweekly.com: Parenting for the Perplexed. She also writes and illuminates ketubot (Jewish marriage contracts).