Rabbi Francine Roston

Rabbi Francine Roston is the founder of Glacier Jewish Community which serves northwest Montana. She is co-founder of a local Interfaith Clergy group and volunteers for Glacier National Park and the North Valley Foodbank. Francine is also a board member and teacher for the mindfulness-based, online Jewish community Path With Heart. For sixteen years, Francine served Conservative congregations in New Jersey. In 2005, when she was hired by Congregation Beth El in South Orange, NJ, she broke the “stained glass ceiling,” becoming the first Conservative woman rabbi to serve a congregation larger than 500 households. The Roston family moved to Montana in 2014. Soon after, in the winter of 2016-17, her family and community experienced neo-nazi cyberterrorism and harassment. The lessons Francine learned from this experience directed her to focus her studies and teaching in the areas of trauma, healing, resiliency, and mindfulness. Francine is a trained teacher of the Community Resiliency Model helping individuals develop wellness skills and guiding communities to be trauma-sensitive and resiliency-focused. She is also a certified Teacher of Mindfulness Meditation under the direction of renowned teachers Tara Brach & Jack Kornfield. Francine writes on Substack @francineroston406.