Two Illinois-based rabbis made this year’s list of “America’s Most Inspiring Rabbis,” selected by The Forward: Samuel Gordon, of Congregation Sukkat Shalom in Wilmette, and Phyllis Sommer, of Am Shalom in Glencoe. As Forward editor-in-chief Jane Eisner explains, “We’ve identified 33 of the most inspiring men and women from North America who are defining and redefining what it means to be a rabbi in the 21st century.”

Rabbi Gordon leads Sukkat Shalom after more than 25 years as a rabbi in the Chicago area. Gordon is Vice President of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, a member of the President’s Advisory Council of the Hebrew Union College, and a Senior Rabbinic Fellow of the Hartman Institute of Jerusalem. In 2013, President Barack Obama appointed Rabbi Gordon as a member of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council.

One nominator of Rabbi Gordon wrote: “For many years, Congregation Sukkat Shalom did not have its own building in which to conduct worship services or to gather. Instead, congregants were truly wandering Jews, coming together in various churches and community centers to observe our faith. Rather, Rabbi Gordon was (and is) our home. He makes Judaism a living faith, and the congregation is one of few that is demonstrably inclusive to people of other faith traditions and to non-traditional families and couples.” Today, the congregation does have a permanent structure, in Wilmette.

Rabbi Sommer has served Am Shalom since 2003, becoming Director of Congregational Learning in 2014. A Wisconsin native, she also has served congregations in New Iberia, Louisiana and Billings, Montana. She spends part of every summer on faculty at Olin-Sang-Ruby Union Institute, where she also leads a well-attended spring quilting retreat for adults. Her other blogs have included “Ima on and off the Bima: Real-Life Jewish Parenting and Living.”

Eisner said that Sommer “continues to write about the lessons she learned from her son’s battle with leukemia on her “Superman Sam” blog years close to two years after Sam, age 8, died.” One of her nominators wrote, “Rabbi Phyllis Sommer has created virtual communities of Jews all over the world. Her blog… still raises awareness of, and funding for, pediatric cancer research. She is a brilliant, beautiful writer who can make you laugh and cry in the same post.”