Levy was born and raised in the
Boro Park section of
Brooklyn,
New York. She attended Bialik School and
Yeshiva of Flatbush. She attended
Cornell University, where she graduated
Phi Beta Kappa and
summa cum laude. In 1984, she was in the first class of women to enter The
Jewish Theological Seminary's rabbinical school. At the seminary, Rabbi Levy received honors as outstanding underclass student of
Talmud and outstanding underclass rabbinical student. In 1989, Rabbi Levy became the first female
Conservative rabbi to head a pulpit on the West Coast, at Mishkon Tephilo. She led Congregation Mishkon Tephilo in
Venice, California for seven years. Levy's first book,
To Begin Again (1998), discusses recovery from suffering and tragedy, and relates her own loss when her father was murdered in an armed robbery when she was 15. Her 2002 book,
Talking to God, discusses the transformative effect of prayer. In 2004, Rabbi Levy founded Nashuva, a spiritual outreach service for Jews turned off to traditional
Jewish service. Nashuva holds Shabbat services the first Friday of each month at a church in
Brentwood, drawing capacity crowds of 300 people. Nashuva, which means "we will return" in
Hebrew, also leads monthly social service and social action projects in the
Los Angeles area. "The goal of prayer isn’t only personal peace," says the group's web site. "At Nashuva we believe that prayer leads us to action. It reminds us that we are here to heal this broken world. Nashuva is a service that leads to service." Levy has appeared on
NBC's
Today Show and on
Oprah, and has been featured in
Parade,
Redbook,
SELF, and
Los Angeles magazines. She serves on the faculties of the Wexner Heritage Foundation and the Academy of Jewish Religion. She lectures widely on topics of faith, strength, renewal, spirituality, healing and prayer. Levy has made multiple appearances on
Newsweek magazine's list of the 50 most influential rabbis in the nation and on the Forward 50 list of influential Jewish Americans. In 2010, she published her third book,
Hope Will Find You: My Search for the Wisdom to Stop Waiting and Start Living, which deals with what happened after her then 6-year-old daughter was diagnosed with a serious disease. The 2022 art exhibit “Holy Sparks”, shown among other places at the
Dr. Bernard Heller Museum, featured art about twenty-four female rabbis who were firsts in some way; Judy Sirota Rosenthal created the artwork about Levy that was in that exhibit. Rabbi Levy lives in Venice, California, with her husband, Robert Eshman, editor-in-chief of the
Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, and their two children. ==Books==