About
Our Community
Our Name
Our Founder/Rabbi
Our Music Director
Our Community
Come be a part of a new effort to build a progressive Jewish spiritual community in Western Queens (LIC, Astoria, Jackson Heights, Sunnyside, Woodside). Our vision is to transform Jewish people, fellow travelers and the world by creating connections to each other, to the One and to our greater community. We practice ecstatic, musical, and contemplative prayer, mindfulness through a Jewish lens, study of Jewish sources, and social justice work. We are building an open, inclusive community especially for young Jewish adults. We want to be community composed of Jewish individuals of all ages, fellow travelers, families with kids, interfaith couples, Jews of color, LGBTQ folks, and curious seekers.
What does Malkhut mean?
Malkhut and Shekhinah are both names God's divine aspects closest to us on the sephirotic tree in Jewish mysticism. It represents God's imminence and sovereignty. Our goal is that Malkhut the community can embody those aspects of the divine: closeness, palpable love, being held. The name is also a bit of a word play. Given that Malkhut represents sovereignty and is considered a female aspect of God, it seemed a good fit for the borough of Queens.
Rabbi Rachel (pronounced Ra-khel רחל ) Goldenberg
After more than a decade serving wonderful established pulpits, Rabbi Goldenberg wanted to move back to the urban core of New York City to have more of an impact on the lives of young adults and interfaith families and to form an open, outreach-driven community around authentic, yet experimental, ecstatic and contemplative Jewish spiritual practices.
Influenced by her training through the Institute for Jewish Spirituality, she teaches mindfulness meditation, chant-based prayer in order to open our hearts to one another and to the Divine. She also teaches Torah through the lens of mindfulness. These practices of prayer and study also move us to engage in social justice, with a heightened awareness of, and desire to alleviate suffering.
Rabbi Goldenberg received her ordination from HUC-JIR in New York in 2003 and has served as Assistant/Associate rabbi at Temple Emanu-El in Dallas, TX and Rabbi of CBSRZ in Chester, Connecticut. She serves on the faculty of the Institute for Jewish Spirituality, teaching mindfulness meditation for Kivvun, a mindful leadership program for laypeople, and authoring a weekly text study from the perspective of Mindfulness and Social Justice. Rabbi Goldenberg is a graduate of Institute for Jewish Spirituality’s Clergy Leadership and Jewish Mindfulness Teacher Training programs. She serves on the Rabbinic Council of JFREJ (Jews for Racial and Economic Justice,) has served as co-Chair of T’ruah: the Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, and is a member of the JStreet Rabbinic Cabinet.
Rabbi Goldenberg and her family reside in Forest Hills, NY. She is married to Jim Talbott, and they have a daughter and a son, Amina and Ziv Goldenberg.
Kris Wettstein
Music at Malkhut is all about intimacy with the divine source of love, life and music happening in real time. This can take many shapes: playful, awe inspiring, messy, austere, ugly, beautiful, pretty much the whole spectrum of experience is fair game. From this intimate core, the music opens out in all directions. Ability levels are irrelevant, connecting is something we all can do. Anyone is welcome to join in!
Kris Wettstein makes music with global roots and swing-for- the-heavens ambition. He has performed around the world in different contexts, including with Senegalese pop star Carlou D. He studied music at Walla Walla University, and at Rice University, where he graduated with a Master’s in Piano Performance. In addition to being Malkhut's music director, he is on faculty at Art House Astoria teaching piano, percussion, guitar and songwriting. He also works as the music director of Mott Haven Reformed church, and directs a 'guerrilla love choir' he founded there called the Street Singers.
Our Name
Our Founder/Rabbi
Our Music Director
Our Community
Come be a part of a new effort to build a progressive Jewish spiritual community in Western Queens (LIC, Astoria, Jackson Heights, Sunnyside, Woodside). Our vision is to transform Jewish people, fellow travelers and the world by creating connections to each other, to the One and to our greater community. We practice ecstatic, musical, and contemplative prayer, mindfulness through a Jewish lens, study of Jewish sources, and social justice work. We are building an open, inclusive community especially for young Jewish adults. We want to be community composed of Jewish individuals of all ages, fellow travelers, families with kids, interfaith couples, Jews of color, LGBTQ folks, and curious seekers.
What does Malkhut mean?
Malkhut and Shekhinah are both names God's divine aspects closest to us on the sephirotic tree in Jewish mysticism. It represents God's imminence and sovereignty. Our goal is that Malkhut the community can embody those aspects of the divine: closeness, palpable love, being held. The name is also a bit of a word play. Given that Malkhut represents sovereignty and is considered a female aspect of God, it seemed a good fit for the borough of Queens.
Rabbi Rachel (pronounced Ra-khel רחל ) GoldenbergAfter more than a decade serving wonderful established pulpits, Rabbi Goldenberg wanted to move back to the urban core of New York City to have more of an impact on the lives of young adults and interfaith families and to form an open, outreach-driven community around authentic, yet experimental, ecstatic and contemplative Jewish spiritual practices.
Influenced by her training through the Institute for Jewish Spirituality, she teaches mindfulness meditation, chant-based prayer in order to open our hearts to one another and to the Divine. She also teaches Torah through the lens of mindfulness. These practices of prayer and study also move us to engage in social justice, with a heightened awareness of, and desire to alleviate suffering.
Rabbi Goldenberg received her ordination from HUC-JIR in New York in 2003 and has served as Assistant/Associate rabbi at Temple Emanu-El in Dallas, TX and Rabbi of CBSRZ in Chester, Connecticut. She serves on the faculty of the Institute for Jewish Spirituality, teaching mindfulness meditation for Kivvun, a mindful leadership program for laypeople, and authoring a weekly text study from the perspective of Mindfulness and Social Justice. Rabbi Goldenberg is a graduate of Institute for Jewish Spirituality’s Clergy Leadership and Jewish Mindfulness Teacher Training programs. She serves on the Rabbinic Council of JFREJ (Jews for Racial and Economic Justice,) has served as co-Chair of T’ruah: the Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, and is a member of the JStreet Rabbinic Cabinet.
Rabbi Goldenberg and her family reside in Forest Hills, NY. She is married to Jim Talbott, and they have a daughter and a son, Amina and Ziv Goldenberg.
Kris WettsteinMusic at Malkhut is all about intimacy with the divine source of love, life and music happening in real time. This can take many shapes: playful, awe inspiring, messy, austere, ugly, beautiful, pretty much the whole spectrum of experience is fair game. From this intimate core, the music opens out in all directions. Ability levels are irrelevant, connecting is something we all can do. Anyone is welcome to join in!
Kris Wettstein makes music with global roots and swing-for- the-heavens ambition. He has performed around the world in different contexts, including with Senegalese pop star Carlou D. He studied music at Walla Walla University, and at Rice University, where he graduated with a Master’s in Piano Performance. In addition to being Malkhut's music director, he is on faculty at Art House Astoria teaching piano, percussion, guitar and songwriting. He also works as the music director of Mott Haven Reformed church, and directs a 'guerrilla love choir' he founded there called the Street Singers.