Lydia Kukoff

Lydia Kukoff created and for thirteen years led the Reform movement’s Outreach program, the Jewish Community’s first national program for intermarried couples and Jews-by-Choice. In that capacity she traveled widely throughout North America, leading seminars and speaking about intermarriage, conversion, and the changing demography of the North American Jewish Community.

Lydia created and taught a professional development class for rabbinic, cantorial, and education students at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR) in New York. With Rabbi Steven Foster, she created the Denver Outreach Internship, which brought groups of these students to Temple Emanuel in Denver and enabled them to experience a complete Outreach program in a congregational setting.

Lydia is the author of Choosing Judaism, and also co-authored Every Person’s Guide to Judaism and Introduction to Judaism: A Course Outline with Rabbi Steven Einstein. She produced the videos “Choosing Judaism: Some Personal Perspectives” and “Intermarriage: When Love Meets Tradition”. She has also written numerous articles on the subject. She was executive editor of a library of training manuals and resource books for professionals working with intermarried couples, parents, and their children, and guides to enable synagogues to deal with issues around welcoming intermarried couples and Jews-by-Choice.

She served as the North American Director of the Avi-Chai Foundation. She was one of the founders, a past president and serves on the board of The Chatham Synagogue-Netivot Torah in Chatham Center, New York. She also served on the boards of Jewish Jumpstart and Interfaith.com.

Lydia was awarded the Weinberg-Chai Award by the Los Angeles Jewish Federation and the Isaac Mayer Wise Award by Temple Emanuel in Denver.

She holds a B.A. in English Literature from Beaver College (now Arcadia University) in Glendale, PA, and an M.A. in Jewish Studies from (HUC-JIR) in Los Angeles where she was awarded the Faculty Award for academic achievement.