Adina Amber Ikeman, a rabbinic intern at Tribe 12 and a student at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, has had an atypical path to the bimah.

When she was 12 years old, she dropped out of Hebrew school and decided that she didn’t want to have a bat mitzvah.

“I think if someone had told my family when I was 12 and had just dropped out of Hebrew school that I was going to become a rabbi, they would have laughed and not believed you,” Ikeman said. “I think over the course of the last 15 years or so, they’ve seen me just deepen my connection to Judaism, and I think now it’s not a surprise at all. I think they’re really excited and proud of me, and I’m glad for that.”

Ikeman said that even when she declined to participate in the more religious aspects of Judaism, she had a strong Jewis

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