Rabbi Appel creates and leads Clal’s Jewish community training programs in innovation and entrepreneurship, including the on-the-ground program “Spark” and the graduate course for rabbinical and cantorial students “Leading Through Innovation.” She most recently launched The Belonging Project, which enables Jewish communal institutions to measure and improve the culture of belonging among their community members. Rabbi Appel has been bringing her entrepreneurial lens to congregational and organizational settings for over a decade in both the United States and Canada. While at Hillel at the University of Toronto, Rabbi Appel led a major four-year design thinking process as part of the Organizational Design Lab of Hillel International, resulting in Hillel at the University of Toronto being one of the top three Hillels in the world for engagement improvement in 2019. Prior to that, she served as Assistant Rabbi of Temple Emanu-El-Beth Sholom and of Congregation Dorshei Emet in Montreal, in both roles bringing programming to new demographics and creating new approaches to Jewish community. A talented educator, she has also trained in community organizing, diversity and inclusion, and relational engagement. Rabbi Appel has served on the executive committee of the Toronto Board of Rabbis since 2019. Her writing has been featured in such publications as The Forward, The Globe and Mail, The Walrus, e-Jewish Philanthropy, The Wisdom Daily, and the Canadian Jewish News. Originally from Boston, Rabbi Appel holds a B.A. from Harvard University and an M.A. in Jewish Studies and Rabbinic Ordination from Hebrew College and lives in Toronto, Ontario.