About Us

Rabbi Linda Motzkin is a soferet, parchment maker, and scribal artist, and Rabbi Jonathan Rubenstein is a bread maker and baking teacher.  They were ordained by the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati and are Rabbis Emeriti of Temple Sinai of Saratoga Springs, NY, where they served as co-rabbis for over 36 years. In 2004 Rabbis Linda and Jonathan founded Bread and Torah, through which they offer hands-on interactive educational programs based on their scribal arts and baking activities.

Rabbi Linda is one of the first generation of sofrot (female scribes) and the founder of the Community Torah Project, a long-term educational endeavor which involves participants in various steps in the making of a Torah scroll, from processing deerskins into parchment to proofreading completed panels and sewing fully proofread panels together. She also offers Hebrew calligraphy, shiviti, and amulet-making workshops, and her distinctive midrashic artwork on hand-made parchment provides profound insights into Jewish texts and teaching through a unique aesthetic lens. Rabbi Linda is also the author of the four-volume adult Hebrew language curriculum: Aleph Isn’t Tough, Aleph Isn’t Enough, Bet is for B’reishit, and Tav is for Torah. In addition, she is co-author of The First Hebrew Primer: The Adult Beginner’s Path to Biblical Hebrew and Prayerbook Hebrew the Easy Way, from EKS Publishing.

Rabbi Jonathan began teaching bread making in 2004 and opened a non-profit, charitable bakery, Slice of Heaven Breads, out of the Temple Sinai kitchen. A volunteer enterprise that has continued since his retirement, Slice of Heaven Breads produces and sells a variety of breads and baked goods, with proceeds supporting hunger relief programs, Temple Sinai’s programs, and other charitable causes.

Rabbis Linda and Jonathan have brought Bread and Torah to communities in New Zealand, South Africa, Hungary, Poland, Israel, Argentina, Chile, Mexico as well as throughout the US. Since their retirement from Temple Sinai in January 2023, they have continued to travel and bring Bread and Torah programs to synagogues, school groups, college and university Hillels, retreat venues, community centers and civic organizations.

In addition to being co-rabbis at Temple Sinai, Rabbi Linda served for 29 years as the Jewish Chaplain, and from 2015 to 2022 as the High Holy Day Chaplain, at Skidmore College, and Rabbi Jonathan was, for over thirty years, Pastoral Care Director at Four Winds–Saratoga, a private psychiatric hospital.

The rabbis are the proud parents of Shira Bracha, a 2013 graduate of Brandeis University with an MS from the University of Oregon who is a poet, teacher, and translator (www.otherwordlyllc.com); Ari Shalom, a 2011 graduate of Brown University, who is the Managing Campaigns Director at Corporate Accountability; and Rabbi Ruhi Sophia, a 2007 Smith College graduate and a 2015 graduate of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, now serving Temple Beth Israel in Eugene, OR. She is married to Rabbi Jacob Siegel, Climate Finance Advisor at Dayenu: A Jewish Call to Climate Action.