RACHEL ZENO MD AND MOHEL

I grew up in Cleveland Ohio and was raised as a conservative Jew. I attended Park Synagogue and Agnon Jewish Day School. I then attended Miami University and there I became heavily involved in Hillel and moved toward the reform movement. I attended medical school at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and joined Wise Temple where I practiced throughout my time in Cincinnati. After graduating medical school, I was hired as a pediatric resident at Nationwide Children's Hospital and moved to Columbus in 2020. After completing residency in 2023, I moved back to Cleveland to pursue a hematology/oncology fellowship.

The decision to become a mohelet came in the midst of my medical school training. A friend of mine had a baby boy and had great difficulty finding a mohel for her son's brit milah in Cincinnati. There was an orthodox mohel in Columbus, but because the brit fell on a religious holiday, he was unable to make the journey to Cincinnati. Fortunately, she found a reform mohel in Indiana who made the journey and performed a lovely ceremony. He then took the time to recruit me and my colleagues, explaining that there aren't enough local mohelim to meet the demand, and recommended NOAM - the National Organization of American Mohelim, through which I obtained my official mohelet certification. 

I enjoy practicing as a mohelet because it combines two distinct parts of my identity, my faith and my career, into one. Many families feel an added assurance having someone with both a medical background and a religious Jewish background performing their ceremony.