Joy Levitt

Last updated

Joy Levitt is an American rabbi and from 1987 to 1989 was the first female president of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association. [1] Levitt is also the founder of the Jewish Journey Project, an initiative that attempts to replace individual synagogue schools (in Manhattan) with an elective-driven communal coalition. [2] She and her husband Rabbi Michael Strassfeld are coeditors of the A Night of Questions Passover Haggadah, published by the Reconstructionist Press. [3] She was until December 2021 the CEO of the Marlene Meyerson Jewish Community Center. In addition to the Jewish Journey Project, Levitt has presided over some of the JCC's biggest accomplishments, including the founding of the Adaptations program, the Literacy and Math Tutoring Program, Saturday Morning Community Partners, the Other Israel and ReelAbilities Film Festivals, and oversaw the creation of the JCC's ten Centers of Excellence, including the groundbreaking Wechsler Center for Modern Aging, founded during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the 16 Over 61 Honors in 2021. She also spearheaded advocacy efforts such as the New York response to the ''Save Darfur'' Coalition rally in 2006; the 2021 Save the Climate march to Battery Park; the Upper West Side's response to the 2018 Tree of Life massacre and the January 6, 2021 Capitol Insurrection; the UWS response and starting point for the March for Our Lives (for gun safety); and organized advocacy for immigration with HIAS following the closing of the US borders to predominantly Muslim countries in early 2017.

In 2008 the PBS series "The Jewish Americans" had her as a featured commentator. [4] In 2010 she was named one of fifty of the most influential rabbis in America by The Sisterhood, The Jewish Daily Forward's women's issues blog. [5] She was also named by Newsweek (in 2010 and 2011) as one of the most influential rabbis in America. [6]

In 1975 she earned a bachelor's degree from Barnard College, followed by a master's degree from New York University in 1976 and a rabbinical degree from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in 1981. [7]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arthur Waskow</span> American author, political activist, and rabbi

Arthur Ocean Waskow is an American author, political activist, and rabbi associated with the Jewish Renewal movement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reconstructionist Rabbinical College</span> Jewish seminary in Wyncote, Pennsylvania

The Reconstructionist Rabbinical College (RRC) is a Jewish seminary in Wyncote, Pennsylvania. It is the only seminary affiliated with Reconstructionist Judaism. It is accredited by the Commission on Higher Education of the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools. RRC has an enrollment of approximately 80 students in rabbinic and other graduate programs.

The Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (RCRC) is an abortion rights organization founded in 1973 by clergy and lay leaders from mainline denominations and faith traditions to create an interfaith organization following Roe v. Wade, the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion in the U.S. In 1993, the original name – the Religious Coalition for Abortion Rights (RCAR) – was changed to the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice.

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Avi Weiss</span>

Avraham Haim Yosef (Avi) haCohen Weiss is an American Open Orthodox ordained rabbi, author, teacher, lecturer, and activist who led the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale in The Bronx, New York until 2015. He is the founder of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah for men and Yeshivat Maharat for women, rabbinical seminaries that are tied to Open Orthodoxy, a breakaway movement that Weiss originated, which is to the left of Modern Orthodox Judaism and to the right of Conservative Judaism. He is co-founder of the International Rabbinic Fellowship, a rabbinical association that is a liberal alternative to the Orthodox Rabbinical Council of America, and founder of the grassroots organization Coalition for Jewish Concerns – Amcha.

Michael Strassfeld is an American rabbi. Strassfeld was rabbi of the Society for the Advancement of Judaism, a Manhattan synagogue. Before that he was the rabbi of Congregation Ansche Chesed.

The Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association (RRA) founded in 1974, is the professional association of rabbis affiliated with Reconstructionist Judaism. It has approximately 300 members, most of whom are graduates of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Wyncote, Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia. The RRA is a member of a number of national coalitions including the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sara Hurwitz</span> American rabbi

Sara Hurwitz is an Orthodox Jewish spiritual leader aligned with the "Open Orthodox" faction of Modern Orthodox Judaism in the United States. She is considered by some to be the first female Orthodox rabbi. She serves as Rabba at the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, and the president and co-founder of Yeshivat Maharat, both in Riverdale, New York.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Denise Eger</span> American rabbi

Denise Leese Eger is an American Reform rabbi. In March 2015, she became president of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the largest and oldest rabbinical organization in North America; she was the first openly gay person to hold that position.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bonnie Koppell</span> American rabbi

Bonnie Koppell is an American rabbi. She was one of the first female rabbis in the United States, and was the first woman rabbi to serve in the U.S. military. Since 2006, Rabbi Koppell has served as a rabbi to the Temple Chai community, located in Phoenix, Arizona.

Sharon Kleinbaum is an American rabbi who serves as spiritual leader of New York City's Congregation Beit Simchat Torah. She has been an active campaigner for human rights and civil marriage for gay couples.

Rebecca Dubowe is the first deaf woman to be ordained as a rabbi in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shmuly Yanklowitz</span> American rabbi, activist, and author

Shmuly Yanklowitz is an Orthodox rabbi. In March 2012 and March 2013, Newsweek and The Daily Beast listed Yanklowitz as one of the 50 most influential rabbis in America.

Rabbi Dayle A. Friedman is a pioneer in the development of a Jewish spiritual vision for aging, spiritual care and healing. She was the founding director of Hiddur: The Center for Aging and Judaism at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, which provided education, spiritual resources, and scholarship for elders and their caregivers.

This is a timeline of women rabbis:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deborah Waxman</span> American rabbi

Deborah Waxman is an American rabbi and the president and CEO of Reconstructing Judaism. Waxman was inaugurated as the president of both on October 26, 2014. The ceremony took place at the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia. Waxman is believed to be the first woman rabbi and first lesbian to lead a Jewish congregational union, and the first lesbian to lead a Jewish seminary; the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College is both a congregational union and a seminary. She previously served as the vice-president for governance for the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. In 2015 she was named as one of The Forward 50.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ritualwell</span>

Ritualwell is a website that allows users to find, create and share Jewish rituals. It was initially launched in 2001 and was nominated for a Webby Award in the Religion & Spirituality category in 2003. The site was redesigned and relaunched in 2005. It seeks to "increase the number of rituals available for holidays, Shabbat and traditional lifecycle events.

Carole Beth Balin is a Reform rabbi and professor of Jewish history at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York City. Her research interests include Eastern European and American Jewish history, the history of Reform Judaism, and gender studies. She received laudatory reviews for her 2003 book To Reveal Our Hearts: Jewish Women Writers in Tsarist Russia, and has co-edited two other books. She is a co-curator of "Bat Mitzvah Comes of Age", a traveling exhibition sponsored by the Smithsonian-affiliated National Museum of American Jewish History and the Moving Traditions Jewish non-profit.

This is a timeline of LGBT Jewish history, which consists of events at the intersection of Judaism and queer people.

References

  1. Academic Dean and Professor of Church History Emeritae Rosemary Skinner Keller; Rosemary Radford Ruether; Marie Cantlon (2006). Encyclopedia of Women and Religion in North America: Native American creation stories. Indiana University Press. pp. 553–. ISBN   0-253-34687-8.
  2. "New Jewish Education". December 2011. Retrieved 29 October 2014.
  3. "A Night of Questions: Passover Haggadah". stores.jewishreconbooks.org. Archived from the original on 2012-09-15.
  4. "PBS Video". PBS . Retrieved 29 October 2014.
  5. "The Sisterhood 50". The Jewish Daily Forward. 21 July 2010. Retrieved 29 October 2014.
  6. "Newsweek List Takes a Page From 'The Sisterhood 50'". The Jewish Daily Forward. 18 April 2011. Retrieved 29 October 2014.
  7. "Schenectady Gazette" . Retrieved 29 October 2014.