{"id":1543,"date":"2025-06-14T18:10:55","date_gmt":"2025-06-14T22:10:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/jewsinmaine\/?page_id=1543"},"modified":"2025-06-14T18:10:55","modified_gmt":"2025-06-14T22:10:55","slug":"lily-solochek","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/jewsinmaine\/lily-solochek\/","title":{"rendered":"Lily Solochek"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/jewsinmaine\/files\/2025\/04\/Lily-Solochek.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"973\" src=\"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/jewsinmaine\/files\/2025\/04\/Lily-Solochek-1024x973.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1544\" style=\"width:355px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/jewsinmaine\/files\/2025\/04\/Lily-Solochek-1024x973.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/jewsinmaine\/files\/2025\/04\/Lily-Solochek-300x285.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/jewsinmaine\/files\/2025\/04\/Lily-Solochek-768x730.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/jewsinmaine\/files\/2025\/04\/Lily-Solochek-1536x1459.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/jewsinmaine\/files\/2025\/04\/Lily-Solochek-2048x1946.jpeg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>About the narrator:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lily Solochek is a Reconstructionist rabbi based in Nobleboro, Maine. With a background in theater and Jewish studies from Brandeis University and rabbinical training in the Reconstructionist movement, Rabbi Lily has played a significant role in fostering inclusive Jewish practices and revitalizing Jewish communities in rural Maine. Their leadership has included serving as the rabbi of Adas Yoshuron in Rockland and contributing to the Center for Small Town Jewish Life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In this excerpt from their interview with Papa Yaw Owusu Nti on January 17, 2025 at Colby College, Rabbi Solochek discusses imposter syndrome in the Jewish community and the need for greater access to meaningful rituals like the mikvah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/jewsinmaine\/files\/2025\/04\/SOLOCHEK_EXCERPT.wav\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Transcript:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;We don\u2019t know what we don\u2019t know.&nbsp;The mikvah might be the perfect ritual for somebody, but if they\u2019ve never been exposed to it\u2014there\u2019s a lot of imposter syndrome in the Jewish community.&nbsp; People feeling, &#8220;Well, I\u2019m not Jewish enough,&#8221; or, &#8220;I only do this, so I\u2019m a bad Jew.&#8221; Many people in their life have had their &#8220;I\u2019m a bad Jew&#8221; moment.&nbsp;There are no bad Jews.&nbsp; We\u2019re all just on different parts of our journey.&nbsp; But I think as people discover that the mikvah is here and discover the ways it can be used\u2014I have the privilege of having lived in the communities I\u2019ve lived in and having the Jewish education that I have.&nbsp; That is not something everyone has. And sometimes we just don\u2019t know that the perfect ritual is out there for us.&#8221; &#8211; Rabbi Lily Solochek<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Rabbi Lily Solochek\u2019s full oral history interview is available through Colby\u2019s Special Collections &amp; Archives.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>About the interviewer:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Papa Yaw Owusu Nti is a sophomore at Colby College studying Computer Science and Math. Having grown up in a Christian household in Ghana, he is deeply interested in cultural and religious traditions from all over the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Owusu Nti expressed surprise at how deeply learning about the evolving ritual of mikvah impacted him. &#8220;It made me wonder, how many people never step into this ritual because they assume it\u2019s not for them,&#8221; he wrote. &#8220;Maybe they don\u2019t see themselves as religious enough, or they don\u2019t know where to start. As Rabbi Lily described, &#8216;the mikvah might be the perfect ritual for somebody, they might have never been exposed to it.&#8217; That really resonated with me. So much of what I learned about Judaism in Maine is about access and about making traditions feel open instead of closed off.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>About the narrator: Lily Solochek is a Reconstructionist rabbi based in Nobleboro, Maine. With a background in theater and Jewish studies from Brandeis University and rabbinical training in the Reconstructionist movement, Rabbi Lily has played a significant role in fostering inclusive Jewish practices and revitalizing Jewish communities in rural Maine. Their leadership has included serving&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18487,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/jewsinmaine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1543"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/jewsinmaine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/jewsinmaine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/jewsinmaine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18487"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/jewsinmaine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1543"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/jewsinmaine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1543\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1628,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/jewsinmaine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1543\/revisions\/1628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/jewsinmaine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}