While a rabbinical student, I was a Tisch Fellow, a Be Wise Fellow, an NIF Elissa Froman Fellow, spent three years as TNT's rabbinic intern, and also trained as a rabbinic intern at Finchley Progressive Synagogue in London. I was ordained rabbi by Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion in New York City in May 2025, where I also earned a Master of Arts in Hebrew Literature. My rabbinic thesis, T’hilei Shivah: Psalms of the Seventh, Psalms of Shivah, a reading of select psalms through the lens of October 7th, remains an ongoing creative and scholarly project.

As part of my rabbinic training, I completed a unit of Clinical Pastoral Education at Bellevue Hospital, serving as primary chaplain for an acute medicine floor, an ICU step-down floor, and an in-patient psychiatric floor.

Prior to pursuing the rabbinate, I served as the Digital Communications Manager for The OneVoice Movement, a global initiative that supports grassroots activists in Israel, Palestine, and internationally who are working to realize a just and negotiated resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and as the Foreign Relations Coordinator for the progressive Israeli non-partisan movement Darkenu.

Throughout my year-and-a-half tenure as an editor of Out Magazine and The Advocate, I wrote regularly on a range of issues from entertainment and literature to marriage equality, domestic and international politics, the Middle Eastern LGBT refugee crisis, and religious affairs. I have interviewed, among many others, YouTube sensation Tyler Oakley, poet and author Sjón, pop-star Troye Sivan, marriage equality pioneer Jim Obergefell, comedian Margaret Cho, former Congressman Barney Frank, author and activist Roxane Gay, Syrian refugee and activist Subhi Nahas, artist Gio Black Peter, and gay Palestinian-Israeli activist Khader Abu-Sief.

My writing has been published under the names James McDonald and James Feder in Buzzfeed, Haaretz, Vice News, the London Evening Standard, Kirkus Reviews, The Forward, Attitude, Hello Mr., the Huffington Post, and the Lambda Literary Review. I have also appeared live on CNN. My media mentions include the New York Times and Moment Magazine.