Rabbi Muhlbaum loves working with people of all ages and life stages. She has many years of youth engagement experience, both as a rabbi and as a youth professional. She loves working with youth group boards, junior youth groups, and emerging adults / college students.

Throughout her rabbinate, she has had countless opportunities to engage young people in Jewish traditions, helping make ancient rituals and teachings relevant to their lives. From social justice programming to teaching Hebrew High, from introducing kindergarteners to the lulav and etrog during Sukkot to engaging with teen leaders at URJ Eisner camp, Rabbi Muhlbaum loves any chance to engage with the youngest members of our community. She has lead services for tots and their families, welcomed babies into the Jewish covenant at brit milah and naming ceremonies, accompanied b’nei mitzvah students through their rites of passage, and raised up a new generation of students who love to lead prayer.

At Fairmount Temple, Rabbi Muhlbaum helped launch the Tamid Initiative, a new accessible onramp for engagement for emerging adults. The Tamid Initiative brought together Temple alumni, whether in town or elsewhere, with local Clevelanders under the auspices of Fairmount Temple. They had opportunities to learn, explore, and experience Judaism together in-person and remotely. This new dynamic program is a way for folks to continue or build a meaningful connection to Jewish life in an embracing and engaging context.

As a rabbinic intern in Tenafly, NJ, Rabbi Muhlbaum co-faciliated two incredible cohorts of teen engagement: Teen Foundation (a program for 8th graders) and Netivot/Pathways (a new mode of Confirmation class). Teen Foundation was a way to do hands-on service learning. Teens would meet in local non-profit organizations, meet senior leadership, stakeholders, and clients, and then participate in a project on-site. At the end of the school year, the group solicited grant proposals, ran successful fundraisers, met as a foundation board to decide allocations, and provided generous grants to several of the non-profits they had partnered with throughout the year. It is an inspiring and empowering program. Netivot/Pathways replaced the old model of Confirmation class. Together with the Senior Rabbi, Rabbi Muhlbaum worked to rejuvenate and reJewvenate the Jewish Identity development of the youth. They would bring students in relationship with local organizations for regular service learning, and create meaningful trips and experiences in the greater New York region for the students.

As a rabbinical student at HUC-JIR in New York, she partnered with the office of President Aaron Panken (z’l) to co-found the Smashing Idols Fellowship (now called Founders’ Fellows). The Smashing Idols Fellowship sought to invigorate progressive Jewish life on college campuses throughout the Northeast. The program has since expanded and a new generation of college students now have access to empowering leadership skills and a dynamic partnership with the Reform movement.

For the first two years of her rabbinate, Rabbi Muhlbaum served as both the Assistant Rabbi and Religious School Principal at Temple Beth-El of Great Neck. During that time, she revolutionized the Hebrew program, facilitated high-level teacher training programs, partnered with the Religious School Committee, upgraded family education programs, and transformed the T’filah (prayer) experience for the school. She maintains an active role in the Religious School as the Associate Rabbi, working with all grades K-12. As the rabbi/instructor of the 8th-9th grade class, she has seen excellent retention in the post-b’nei mitzvah cohort.