Mariya (she/her) is a queer, cisgender writer, researcher, leader, and strategist and a proud founding member of Hinenu. Mariya has over 23 years of experience in advocacy and labor journalism, grassroots organizing for racial and economic justice, and nonprofit leadership. 

Mariya values community, relationships, ethics, ecology and the environment, and happiness, and strives to embody these values as she goes about her daily work. She lives in Ednor Gardens with her two children, Sasha and Taiyo, her partner, Marc, more than a dozen house plants, and two rambunctious cats, Helix and Martin. 

I believe that ritual is transformative. I believe that our brightest moments of joy only make sense in the context of our darkest trials. I know that community is capable of great things, and that we have great capacity to create the World to Come, a just world that we long to see, here in this world. I believe our ancestors have shown us what it means to organize despite the worst odds, and win for ourselves, and with everyone around us.

Listen to Rabbi Ariana on Judaism Unbound

Rabbi Ariana Katz couldn’t separate joy from Judaism if she tried. Jewishly educated and grown within an 11 mile radius, Ariana was born and raised just north in Philadelphia, PA. She was ordained by the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College June 2018. Ariana received her B.A. with distinction in Sociology with a minor in women’s, gender, and sexuality studies from Boston University.

Rabbi Ariana has served congregations Kol Tzedek and Tikkun Olam Chavurah in Philadelphia. She has worked at T'ruah: the Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, Avodah: The Jewish Service Corps, at college campus Hillel centers, online journals, and as a chaplain at Planned Parenthood. She completed a unit of Clinical Pastoral Education at Hebrew SeniorLife in Boston, MA. She is a member of the Jewish Voice for Peace Rabbinical Council.

Rabbi Ariana created and hosted Kaddish, a podcast about death and identity, and co-hosts God Crush with Pastor Lura Groen. Rabbi Ariana has collaborated on dynamic Jewish ritual projects at the intersection of justice and Judaism, like Soul Candles for the Days of Awe kits and workshops, and the Years of Radical Dreaming Jewish calendar. She is the co-author of For Times Such as These: A Radical’s Guide to the Jewish Year with Rabbi Jessica Rosenberg, from Wayne State University Press.

Rabbi Ariana is the founding rabbi of Hinenu: The Baltimore Justice Shtiebl, and is honored to nurture and serve this community from its very earliest dreaming phases to now. She lives in Charles Village with her partner, Ever, and their son, Meir Gamzu.