Allison Goldman-Blustin, 34, has been studying women’s mitzvah rituals for years now, but that wasn’t always what she wanted to do.
After studying political economics at the University of Pennsylvania, Goldman-Blustin went to work at her first job in Beijing for the Canada-China Business Council. However, today she works as a Jewish educator at the Pearlstone Center, a retreat aimed at cultivating Jewish life in connection with the earth.
Goldman-Blustin moved to Baltimore in 2024 because her husband, Rabbi Sam Blustin, joined the clergy team at Chizuk Amuno. However, she is originally from Toronto, where she grew up a secular Jew. As the granddaughter of two Holocaust survivors, she was always curious about her Jewish identity.
“When I came to be the age when my friends were starting to prepare for their b’nai mitzvahs, I realized that I also wanted to have a bat mitzvah,” she explained. “So, I asked my parents if we could have a bat mitzvah, and they actually joined a Reform community specifically for that.”
At Penn, Goldman-Blustin joined Hillel but said she felt like an outsider. “I just didn’t have all the same kind of life experiences and shared culture of all the kids who had grown up in BBYO and stuff like that,” she said.
“I ended up starting an interfaith Shabbat with some of my friends, and that really took off, and it became this kind of defining experience, I guess, for me, of realizing that I could also create spaces in the Jewish world where I would feel at home and others would feel at home,” Goldman-Blustin added. “I think that’s kind of how I’ve continued to be over the course of my Jewish life. I really enjoy creating spaces in particular, things like Rosh Chodesh circles and women’s Torah studies and interfaith spaces.”
After two years of working in Beijing, Goldman-Blustin took a job in Los Angeles, still in the Chinese economic space. There, she had more opportunities to be involved in the Jewish community. “I loved it, and I realized that I was feeling envious of Jewish professionals who just got to do Judaism all the time,” she said.
“The type of Judaism that exists in California is a little bit different. It’s very expansive. I met some musicians who were really my way into deeper connection. I love music, and I love singing, and I was invited to join the davening team at this local synagogue that was on the beach, and it was a once-a-month musical Kabbalat Shabbat service. And I think I just really found my place there.”
“A job came up at the mikvah at the American Jewish University, so I applied for it, and I got that job. That was my first job in the Jewish world.”
At the American Jewish University, she served as interim director of the mikvah, where she was trained on the different mikvah rituals for women.
“I also learned for the first time about Jewish laws and traditions around bodies and sexuality that I’d never been exposed to before. So, that job really changed the trajectory of my career, because I realized that that is the work that I want to do forever,” Goldman-Blustin said. “It was really meaningful. And around that time, I met my husband.”
Currently living in Pikesville, she teaches at Pearlstone’s Farm and Forest School, leading nature walks and group rituals.
“I was brought in specifically because Pearlstone did a stream restoration a couple years ago, and they built a really beautiful, natural mikvah, and I am really passionate about mikvah rituals and specifically embodied Judaism, our relationships with the earth, our relationships with our bodies,” she explained.
Goldman-Blustin said her favorite part of her job is exploring the connection between nature and Judaism, in addition to the community within Pearlstone.
“I was brought in as a consultant just to train the staff on mikvah rituals,” she said. “Then I guess we liked each other so much that they brought me on more fully as a staff member.”
