Ask most adults what they wanted to be as a child, and the answer is often returned with a laugh or remark about how much they’ve changed since then.
For Rabbi Jacki Honig, the vision stuck.
“This was my childhood dream,” Honig told Pioneer Press. “My bat mitzvah, I got up and was like, ‘I’m gonna be a rabbi,’ which is, in some ways, a very goofy thing for a 12-year-old to say.”
But it wasn’t foolish for Honig. It was her calling.
“There’s something special about getting to walk life’s journey with people in this particular way, and for me, I think a lot about, what does the way that I walk in the world give other people permission to do in their lives?”
Honig said she wants to set an example for young girls interested in the rabbinic profession, enabling a cultural shift that normalizes and encourages women to pursue and hold positions of leadership that haven’t been traditionally embraced in many faith practices.
Honig is the newest assistant rabbi at Congregation Beth Shalom in Northbrook, one of the largest Conservative Jewish synagogues on the North Shore and the spiritual home to roughly 1,000 families.
She’s also the first female clergy member in the synagogue’s history, a title Honig said she didn’t want included in the congregation’s official announcement.
“There have been female conservative rabbis for 40 years…Glencoe has had a female rabbi for 25 years,” Honig said. “What does it mean for anyone to see a youngish woman in power? And that has nothing to do with being a first, that just is.”
Conservative congregations are different from conservatism in the political sense, Honig explained, but the terms are often conflated.
“Big C Conservative is the movement,” she remarked. “We try to balance tradition and change, and so we are bound by Jewish law, [but] also feel like we can change it when we have new information.”
For instance, Orthodox Judaism, a branch of the religion that more strictly adheres to Jewish law, doesn’t typically allow female clergy. Conservative Judaism is more adaptive, she said.
“We look at the original laws and understand and say, women’s place in society has changed overall and so these laws don’t end up meaning the same thing that they did all those years ago.”
Rabbi Honig joined the clergy team on July 1, 2025 after being ordained back in May.
The synagogue’s formalized recognition of her role, known as an installation ceremony, took place Saturday, March 14.
“Rabbi Honig is deeply committed to nurturing Jewish spiritual connection, strengthening bonds with Israel, and inspiring individuals of all ages to discover joy and purpose in Jewish living,” said Sue Lampert, president of Congregation Beth Shalom, in the official announcement welcoming Honig to the congregation.
“Her work reflects a beautiful blend of scholarship, spiritual depth, and heartfelt dedication to Jewish life. We look forward with great excitement to the years ahead.”
Honig was raised in the Las Vegas area and attended the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She relocated to Detroit in 2015 and then Austin, Texas in 2017, where she served as the regional director for the Jewish Conservative women’s youth group.
In 2019, Honig moved to Los Angeles to attend the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies, where she spent the 2022-23 school year abroad in Israel, before relocating to the Chicagoland area this past July.
Upon reflecting on her time in Israel and navigating complex conversations around the current global conflict afflicting the region, Honig said she has increasingly tried to find a sense of togetherness within the division.
“In our community, we have folks in all sorts of places on all sorts of political issues and it’s our job to figure out, how do I rabbi to all these people?” she added.
“A rabbinic mentor of mine gave a sermon a few years ago about the [idea] that we come to shul/synagogue to pray and we don’t check people’s beliefs about God at the door…if that’s our central activity, and we can be in community with people who have different views on that, we can be in community with people who have different views on other issues.”
And that’s something that Honig’s deeply passionate about and hopeful to instill at Beth Shalom in this new role.
In just eight months at the congregation, Honig has made it her mission to go on “100 coffee dates with congregants” before the year’s end. She has a glass bowl on the end of her desk filled with rubber ducks, one marked for every member she’s met with so far.
“Getting to see people in a more informal setting has been really lovely,” Honig said. “Our community is incredible because we have people who are founding members, who are still here, and we have people who joined two years ago or a year ago.”
Senior Rabbi of Beth Shalom David Chapman described Honig as an “invaluable member” of the clergy team. “She brings boundless joy, wisdom and insight to her rabbinic work.”
Growing up, Rabbi Honig said synagogue was her second home, a place she frequented week after week. Now, she hopes to cultivate that same sense of belonging at Beth Shalom for other interested youth looking to build a sense of identity within their faith.
“The word feels so cheesy, but I want to use the word brave space…where people feel like they can be vulnerable and take chances, not that it’s easy, but it’s a space where people can be themselves and be wholehearted,” Honig added. “That’s what synagogue communities at their best can be.”
Congregation Beth Shalom offers a twice daily prayer service, followed by Shabbat services Friday evenings at 6 p.m. and Saturday mornings at 9:30 a.m.
The congregation is also preparing for the upcoming April 1 celebration of Passover, an eight-day Jewish holiday commemorating the Israelites’ freedom from slavery in Egypt.
Pesach (meaning Passover in Hebrew) dinner will be held on April 7 at 7 p.m.
