Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Personal life | |
| Born | February 6, 1975 |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | Brown University, BA Religious Studies [1] |
| Religious life | |
| Religion | Judaism |
| Denomination | Conservative Judaism (formerly) |
| Semikhah | Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies |
| Website | danyaruttenberg |
Danya Ruttenberg (born February 6, 1975) [2] is an American rabbi, editor, and author. She has been called "the Twitter rabbi" for her social media presence. [3] She lives in Chicago. [4]
Her family attended a Reform synagogue in Chicago, and she described herself as having been atheist around that time. [5] Ruttenberg later became a part of the Conservative movement within Judaism. [3]
When she was in college her mother died of breast cancer, and Ruttenberg reconsidered religion, practiced Jewish mourning rituals, which she said allowed her to "make friends with Judaism, to be open to it"; in 2008 she published a memoir of her spiritual awakening titled Surprised by God: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love Religion. [6] [7] [5]
She was ordained in 2008 by the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies in Los Angeles. [8]
She served as the Senior Jewish Educator at Tufts University Hillel, [9] and subsequently Campus Rabbi at Northwestern Hillel and Director of Education for the campus dialogue program Ask Big Questions. [10] She served as Rabbi in Residence for the community service group Avodah. [3]
On the evening of February 6 2017, Ruttenberg and 18 other rabbis associated with human rights organization T'ruah were arrested while protesting the Trump travel ban outside of Trump Tower. [11] She described her arrest as a "profoundly holy experience" and compared it to sacrifices made at the Temple in Jerusalem. [12]
In 2020, she became Scholar in Residence for the National Council of Jewish Women. [13] [14] While at the NCJW, she launched Rabbis for Repro, a reproductive rights group. [15] [16]
In 2021, she wrote an open letter condemning attempts to rehabilitate the reputation of Steven M. Cohen after his 2018 departure from Stanford University over sexual harassment. The letter was signed by 500 rabbis. [17] In 2023, she and several other former students of the Ziegler School sent a letter to the Rabbinical Assembly regarding sexism, homophobia, and sexual harassment at the school. The letter asked for an investigation and a change in leadership. [18] [19]
In July 2024, she announced that she had disaffiliated from the Conservative movement within Judaism, and was in the process of joining a different rabbinical association. [20]
Book chapters Ruttenberg has written include:
Ruttenberg has also published pieces in The Atlantic , The Forward , The Huffington Post , The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles , Kveller , The New York Times , Newsweek , Time Magazine , Salon , The San Francisco Chronicle , Sojourners , Tablet Magazine , and The Washington Post , and other publications. [27]
The Rabbinical Assembly (RA) is the international association of Conservative rabbis. The RA was founded in 1901 to shape the ideology, programs, and practices of the Conservative movement. It publishes prayerbooks and books of Jewish interest, and oversees the work of the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards for the Conservative movement. It organizes conferences and coordinates the Joint Placement Commission of the Conservative movement. Members of the RA serve as rabbis, educators, community workers and military and hospital chaplains around the world.
Women in Judaism have affected the course of Judaism over millennia. Their role is reflected in the Hebrew Bible, the Oral Law, by custom, and by cultural factors. Although the Hebrew Bible and rabbinic literature present various female role models, religious law treats women in specific ways. According to a 2017 study by the Pew Research Center, women account for 52% of the worldwide Jewish population.
Elliot N. Dorff is an American Conservative rabbi. He is a visiting professor of law at UCLA School of Law and Distinguished Professor of Jewish theology at the American Jewish University in California, author and a bio-ethicist.
The Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies is the graduate program of study leading to ordination as a Conservative rabbi at the American Jewish University, offering a Masters in Rabbinic Studies degree.
The National Council of Jewish Women(NCJW) is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. Founded in 1893, NCJW describes itself as the oldest Jewish women's grassroots organization in the United States, currently comprising over 225,000 members. As of 2021, there are 60 sections across 30 states. The NCJW focuses on expanding abortion access, securing federal judicial appointments, promoting voting integrity, and mobilizing Israeli feminist movements. These objectives are advanced through lobbying, research, education, and community engagement.
Loolwa Khazzoom is an Iraqi American-Jewish writer, journalist, activist, and musician. She has spoken and written extensively about Jewish multiculturalism as well as the cultural traditions and modern struggles of Sephardi, Mizrahi, Yemenite, and Ethiopian Jews. She was heavily involved in the Jewish feminist movement of the 1990s and is the founder of the Jewish Multicultural Project. She has also worked as a public relations manager for health and wellness practitioners.
Jewish feminism is a movement that seeks to make the religious, legal, and social status of Jewish women equal to that of Jewish men in Judaism. Feminist movements, with varying approaches and successes, have opened up within all major branches of the Jewish religion.
Rachel Adler is Professor Emerita of Modern Jewish Thought and Judaism and Gender at Hebrew Union College, at the Los Angeles campus.
Bradley Shavit Artson is an American rabbi, author and speaker. He holds the Abner and Roslyn Goldstine Dean's Chair of the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies at the American Jewish University in Los Angeles, California, where he is also Vice-President. He supervises the Louis and Judith Miller Introduction to Judaism Program and provides educational and religious oversight for two Camp Ramah campuses, Ojai and Monterey Bay. He is Dean of the Zacharias Frankel College at the University of Potsdam in Germany, ordaining Conservative/Masorti rabbis for Europe.
Conservative Judaism views halakha as normative and binding. The Conservative movement applies Jewish law to the full range of Jewish beliefs and practices, including thrice-daily prayer, Shabbat and holidays, marital relations and family purity, conversion, dietary laws (kashrut), and Jewish medical ethics. Institutionally, the Conservative movement rules on Jewish law both through centralized decisions, primarily by the Rabbinical Assembly and its Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, and through congregational rabbis at the local level. Conservative authorities produced voluminous Responsa literature.
Orthodox Jewish feminism is a movement in Orthodox Judaism which seeks to further the cause of a more egalitarian approach to Jewish practice within the bounds of Jewish Law. The major organizations of this movement is the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance (JOFA) in North America, and Women of the Wall (WOW) and its affiliates in Israel and internationally, known as The International Committee for Women of the Wall (ICWOW). In Israel, the leading Orthodox feminist organization is Kolech, founded by Dr. Chana Kehat. In Australia, there is one Orthodox partnership minyan, Shira Hadasha, in Melbourne.
The first openly lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender clergy in Judaism were ordained as rabbis and/or cantors in the second half of the 20th century.
Forbidden relationships in Judaism are intimate relationships which are forbidden by prohibitions in the Torah or rabbinical injunctions.
Musar literature is didactic Jewish ethical literature which describes virtues and vices and the path towards character improvement. This literature gives the name to the Musar movement, in 19th century Lithuania, but this article considers such literature more broadly.
Jewish Veg is an international 501(c)(3) charitable organization whose mission is to encourage and help Jews to embrace plant-based diets as an expression of the Jewish values of compassion for animals, concern for health, and care for the environment. Jewish Veg was formerly called Jewish Vegetarians of North America (JVNA) and, prior to that, the Jewish Vegetarian Society of America.
The prohibition of extracting semen in vain is a Biblical prohibition derived from, this is explained in the Midrash and Talmud. The prohibition forbids a male from intentional wasteful spilling of his semen. Unintentional wasting of seed is also a (lesser) sin according to the Oral Torah.
This is a timeline of LGBT Jewish history, which consists of events at the intersection of Judaism and queer people.
Aryeh Cohen is an American rabbi and scholar who serves as a professor of Rabbinic Literature at American Jewish University. His scholarship focuses on the Talmud, Jewish ethics, and social justice.
Sandra Lawson is an American rabbi and the first director of Racial Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Reconstructing Judaism. She previously served as Associate Chaplain for Jewish Life at Elon University. Lawson became the first openly gay, female, and black rabbi in the world in 2018. She is a veteran, vegan, sociologist, personal trainer, food activist, weightlifter, author and musician.
Jody Cohen is an American retired rabbi who became the first woman to serve as rabbi for a Jewish congregation in Connecticut. In 1984, she became the first female associate rabbi to serve a Connecticut congregation at Congregation Beth Israel in West Hartford. There she founded Noah's Ark, the first synagogue-run preschool daycare in North America. Cohen went on to serve as solo rabbi at Temple Beth Hillel in South Windsor—another first—from 1989 to 1995.
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