Gabrielle Ariella Kaplan-Mayer is an author and educator whose work focuses on spirituality, creativity and disability. Her personal essays have been featured in Tablet, Shondaland, NBCThink, Wisdom Daily, WHYY and many other publications and she has published several nonfiction books as well as plays for children. Gabrielle is currently working on a memoir about the power of intuition and ongoing conversations with her ancestors. She writes a Substack newsletter called “Journey With The Seasons,” a weekly practice of meditative reading with creative self-expression prompts. 

Gabrielle holds a BFA in theater and creative writing from Emerson College and an MA in Jewish Studies from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. For the last 12 years, she has held various positions at Jewish Learning Venture —an organization based in the Philadelphia suburbs — and has also been part of the education staff at Congregation Mishkan Shalom, in Philly proper, where she’s been a member for 25 years.  

She is the proud recipient of the 2022 Covenant Award and currently edits the Jewish Disability Inclusion News. 

Gabrielle is thrilled to become Ritualwell’s director of virtual content and programs, a position she thinks of as ‘her dream job’’— integrating her passions for creating community, creative ritual, self-expression and spiritual practice and growth. 

Gabrielle’s family includes husband Fred, kids George (20) and Jeremy (18) and fur baby Odin (a Saluki rescued from Qatar). She lives in Elkins Park, Pa.