Base LNCLN
Located in Lincoln Park, Chicago, Silverstein Base Lincoln Park is the home of Rav Sarah Mulhern, Rav William Friedman, and Liana and Shimon Mulhern-Friedman (aka the Friedherns). We’re so excited to welcome you into our home. Together we are working to create a special space where you can build a deeper relationship with others and with your heritage. Some stuff we do: delicious sacred meals, raucous discussion, invigoration Torah- and service-learning, and soulful singing. Wherever you are coming from and wherever you are going we can’t wait to connect.
Rabbi Sarah Mulhern
ravsarah@metrochicagohillel.org
Lifelong Learner, Former Mediocre Rodeo Competitor, Work-in-Progress
Rav Sarah serves as the Rabbi of Base Lincoln Park, opening her home and her heart to students and young adults in Lincoln Park, Chicago. She passionately believes that Torah matters and that Judaism can enrich human life and better society.
Sarah grew up in Murray, Utah, and is the descendant of Jewish pioneers, Congregationalist ministers, and at least two different signers of the Declaration of Independence. Having discovered a new relationship to her Yidishkeit in college and several times since, she is especially excited to support you as you figure out what your Jewishness means for you!
Sarah is also a faculty member of the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America and is a nationally-regarded adult education teacher. She formerly led the Created Equal Project, and is committed to building a Jewish community which upholds the human dignity of people of all genders and uses its power ethically. Previously, Sarah has worked as a Rabbi and Jewish Educator in a variety of settings, including pulpits, social justice organizations, mikvaot, hospitals, and in formal and experiential education. Sarah has been involved in the leadership of several independent minyanim and is a lover of singing inflected traditional-liturgy davening.
Sarah was ordained by the Rabbinical School of Hebrew College and received private rabbinic ordination from Rabbi Daniel Landes. She also earned a Masters in Jewish Education from Hebrew College. She is an alumna of Brandeis University, Yeshivat Hadar, Pardes Institute, Drisha Institute, Beit Midrash Har El, the Wexner Graduate Fellowship, and the David Hartman Center Fellowship.
Sarah has been learning Torah and building Jewish community with Rabbi William Friedman for 15 years, and happily they also got married and became the parents of two amazing kiddos, Liana and Shimon.
Rabbi William Friedman
Torah Scholar, Trekkie, Family Cook
Rav Will serves as the Senior Educator of Base Lincoln Park, working alongside his family to build a Jewish home for students and young adults.
Originally from New York City (Queens, and yes, the outer boroughs are still part of the city), he majored in Computer Science at MIT before finding his not-quite-as-lucrative calling as a teacher of Torah. His switch was motivated by a desire to work with people instead of screens, and a growing conviction that Judaism’s three millenia of wisdom can broaden horizons and offer new and better ways to live our lives. In addition to feeding brains, Will loves to fill stomachs. Between the rules of kashrut, healthy eating, and kids’ food allergies, he finds cooking to be a fun engineering challenge, and is looking forward to feeding, and getting to know, you soon!
Will is a Fellow of the Kogod Research Center at the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America where he researches and teaches Jewish perspectives on enduring ethical issues. He has taught Torah in communities around the world and at the Pardes Institute, Hebrew College Rabbinical School, Harvard University, the Jewish Theological Seminary, and the Academy for Jewish Religion. He was the Founding Director of Nishma: A Summer of Torah Study in the JTS Beit Midrash and the Rosh Kollel of the Northwoods Kollel at Ramah Wisconsin. In addition to teaching, Will has been the Rabbinic Educator at the Tremont Street Shul, a pluralistic synagogue in Cambridge, MA (motto: come more often and bring more friends!), and served as the gabbai of several traditional-egalitarian independent minyanim.
Will is a doctoral candidate in Ancient Judaism at Harvard University, writing a dissertation on legal reasoning in ancient Jewish law. He received rabbinic ordination from Rabbi Daniel Landes, former Rosh Yeshiva of the Pardes Institute for Jewish Studies, and an MA in Talmud and Rabbinics from the Jewish Theological Seminary. He was also a member of the second cohort of North American David Hartman Center Fellowship.
Will is the loving partner of Rabbi Sarah Mulhern and proud Abba to Eliana Tzipporah and Shimon Meir Mulhern-Friedman, who will some day forgive their parents for their names.
Discover Base LNCLN’s upcoming events and offerings
Base locations in Chicago are operated by Metro Chicago Hillel and the Jewish United Fund with generous support from:
Crown Family Philanthropies
Judy & Abel Friedman
Anonymous
JUF’s Breakthrough Fund