After realizing at an early age that she was a lesbian, Shulamit Izen devoted herself to creating a supportive environment for Jewish LGBTQ teens. In seventh grade, Izen came to the dual realization that she wanted to be more religiously observant and that she was a lesbian, prompting her to ask if she could be both gay and Jewish. Her rabbi responded that this challenge might be what made her soul special. When she learned that LGBTQ teens were at greater risk of violence, suicide and drug use, Izen decided that making the Jewish community inclusive towards LGBTQ members was an issue of pikuach nefesh, the Jewish value of saving a life. In ninth grade, she campaigned to create a gay-straight alliance at her Jewish day school, followed by her creation of a group for Jewish LGBTQ teens in the Boston area. She was the subject of a documentary, Hineini: Coming Out in a Jewish High School, and was ordained as a rabbi by Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in 2013. She became a chaplain the next year and trained at Cleveland Clinic from 2015 to 2018 to become an ACPE Certified Educator. As of 2023 she is the Director of Clinical Pastoral Education at Massachusetts General Hospital.