Rabbi Kendell Pinkney
Director of Education, Artistic Director of The Workshop, and Artist-in-Residence
Kendell Pinkney is a Brooklyn based playwright, arts advocate, and rabbi. His creative work and scholarship explore the intersections of race, religion, identity and sacred text. His storytelling has been featured on The Moth, and his theatre work has been presented or developed at venues such as Mercury Store, The TEAM, Theater J, Feinstein’s 54 Below, Joe’s Pub, Musical Theatre Factory, Two River Theater, and Goodspeed Opera House, to name a few. He was the recipient of a 2023 IDEA Residency at Opera America, as well as Theater J’s “Expanding the Canon” commission program in Washington DC.
Among his responsibilities as Reboot’s Director of Education, he leads The Workshop (theworkshopny.com / @theworkshopartist), a two-year multidisciplinary arts and culture fellowship that supports the work of artists of BIPOC-Jewish heritage.
Kendell sits on the boards of Ammud: The Jews of Color Torah Academy and Usdan Summer Camp for the Arts. He received ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary where he was a Davidson Fellow. kendellpinkney.com
Articles
Blog
Hate Speech Awakens “Triple Consciousness” of Being Black, Jewish and American
Reboot’s new rabbinical educator, Kendell Pinkney, shares his thoughts and perspective as a black Jew in an op-ed published by JTA. In all of the screaming over Kanye, he argues that black Jews have been overlooked in the latest public discourse. He digs deep into his “triple consciousness” as a black, Jewish American and what it might mean for society to grasp the full essense of his multifaceted identity. Read the full piece in JTA here