Rabbi Shohama Wiener is Rosh Hashpa'ah-- Director of Spiritual Direction and Development for the Aleph Ordination Programs, the Jewish Renewal seminary, and founding director of HASHPA'AH, their program for ordination as Spiritual Director and Mashpia (Jewish Spiritual Guide). Aleph is the first Jewish seminary to include such training in their curriculum.

Rabbi Shohama also serves as the Rabbi of Temple Beth-El of City Island, NY, (an island in the Long Island Sound off the Bronx) where she leads programs in SHOHAM: Spiritual Healing of Heart and Mind, a unique psychospiritual process of growth and healing that she has developed based on Biblical texts and mystical Jewish practices.

Rabbi Wiener writes Torah and Spiritual Guidance columns for ReclaimingJudaism, a new nonprofit organization dedicated to revitalizing Judaism through a focus on spirituality.

Shohama Wiener teaches and leads workshops on topics related to Jewish meditation and healing, blessings, personal prayer, transformative rituals, and spiritual journeys. She is a composer of spiritual music, and uses her guitar to enhance her teaching. Shohama is known for her warm and personalized ceremonies, including weddings, baby namings, and healing rituals. She is also eagerly sought out as a spiritual counselor and guide.

Shohama Harris Wiener was the first woman in history to head a Jewish seminary, and the first to introduce meditation and spirituality into rabbinical and cantorial training. From 1994-2001 she served as President and Spiritual Director of The Academy for Jewish Religion, New York, the first pluralistic seminary to ordain both rabbis and cantors. Prior to her appointment as President, she headed AJR in the role of Executive Dean.

During her 15-year term of leadership at the AJR, she spearheaded the addition of a Cantorial Program leading to ordination as Cantor/Hazzan, and the opening of a California branch of AJR, with programs leading to rabbinical and cantorial ordination. She currently serves AJR as President Emerita.

Rabbi Wiener is a graduate of Wellesley College and Harvard University Graduate School of Education, a rabbinical ordinee of The Academy for Jewish Religion, and recipient of the Doctor of Ministry degree from New York Theological Seminary. In addition, she received ordination from Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi as mashpia (spiritual guide).

She is editor of The Fifty-Eighth Century-- A Jewish Renewal Sourcebook (Jason Aronson, 1996), co-editor of Worlds of Jewish Prayer (Jason Aronson, 1993), and contributor to numerous journals and books, including Meditation from the Heart of Judaism (ed. Avram Davis, Jewish Lights, 1997), and Jewish Spiritual Direction (eds. Howard Addison & Barbara Breitman, Jewish Lights, 2006).

Rabbi Shohama is an internationally-known teacher of Jewish spirituality, meditation and healing. She has led workshops at numerous Conservative, Reconstructionist and Reform Synagogues, as well as at Jewish conferences and retreat centers such as Elat Chayyim, the Aleph Kallah, CAJE, and the National Havurah Institute.

Rabbi Wiener has served High Holiday pulpits in a broad range of settings, and was Education Director in both Reform and Conservative synagogues. Prior to entering the rabbinate, she was an educator in the secular world.

Shohama Wiener is married to Alan Dattner, M.D., a physician specializing in Integrative Medicine and Dermatology, who often assists her in leading workshops on spirituality and healing. In their blended family, they are blessed with four children and six grandchildren.