syvjc clergy
RABBI DEBI
Rabbi Deborah Lewis (Rabbi Debi) is a Rabbi as well as an Information Technology professional. After working in the financial industry for most of her career, she decided to exchange her suit for a kippah and a squint (the Talmud is not written in large letters).
Rabbi Debi wishes our community to embrace all: those coming to the tradition for the first time, educated Jews, and those once estranged, blended families of every flavor, as well as individuals of all capacities, ethnic, racial and gender pluralities.
A native of the Greater Los Angeles area, she moved to Santa Barbara over 20 years ago.
She has a bachelor’s degree in Jewish Studies from Gratz College in Melrose Park, Pennsylvania and completed her ordination with a master’s in arts from the Academy of Jewish Religion in Los Angeles.
In her free time, Rabbi Debi enjoys reading, traveling, and spending time with her wife Traci and their pups.
She believes that what enlivens religious community is the sense of its relevance to the questions our lives are asking. She looks forward to her relationships with the Santa Ynez Valley Jewish Community, each of us seen, given voice, offered enrichment, and pastorally served.
Should anything arise in your life where you need clergy, please contact Rabbi Debi. You will find her to be comforting, non-judgmental, warm, knowledgeable and above all, a truly caring rabbi. We are indeed fortunate.
“I feel very honored to be selected to serve as the spiritual leader of the Santa Ynez Valley Jewish Community. I am excited to help our members find their own paths to live modern and meaningful Jewish lives. I want to help ensure that this community is a place for all to assemble; a place where all are included, and everyone feels valued. The Torah tells us that everyone in the assembly is considered of equal importance in G-d’s eyes.”
cantor phoebe light
Phoebe Light has served as the cantorial soloist for SYVJC since 2022. She enjoys serving the Jewish community and embraces the Jewish values of community, education, social justice, and mitzvot.
A Santa Barbara native, Phoebe holds an associate degree in music from SBCC, a bachelor’s degree in linguistics from UCSB, and a master’s degree in clinical psychology from Antioch University, Santa Barbara. She has been involved in music since childhood, performing and writing songs from a young age, and spent a year songleading for Santa Barbara Hillel in 2012.
Phoebe is an Associate Marriage and Family Therapist in Santa Barbara, specializing in OCD, anxiety disorders, and trauma. In her free time, she enjoys cooking, baking, reading, spending time with friends and family, exercising, and walking the Ellwood Bluffs. She lives in Goleta with her husband, Seva Shipitcyn, and their blind cat, Steve.