Sandra Lawson | |
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| Born | 1970 (age 53–54) |
| Education | |
| Occupation | Rabbi |
Sandra Lawson (born 1970) [1] is an American rabbi and the first director of Racial Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Reconstructing Judaism. [2] 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. [3] [4] She is a veteran, vegan, sociologist, personal trainer, food activist, weightlifter, author and musician. [5]
Lawson was born in St. Louis, Missouri, and grew up in a military, non-practicing Christian family. [3] [6] Lawson graduated magna cum laude from Saint Leo University in Florida with a degree in sociology. She also holds a master's degree in sociology from Clark Atlanta University in Georgia. [3]
As a college student, Lawson came out as a lesbian and enlisted in the U.S. Army. In the army she served in military law enforcement working on child abuse and domestic violence cases. [6]
After graduating from college and leaving the military, she opened a personal training business. Through her client, the Reconstructionist Rabbi Joshua Lesser, she came to discover Judaism and fell in love with Lesser's synagogue, Congregation Beth Haverim. She ultimately converted to Judaism in 2004. [6] [7]
Lawson went on to serve as an investigative researcher for the Anti-Defamation League and later began rabbinical school at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. [8] She chose this path after attending an LGBT memorial for Coretta Scott King where she represented the Jewish community. [7] She was the first African-American, and the first openly gay African-American accepted into the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, which occurred in 2011. [6] She was ordained as a rabbi in 2018 and was hired by Elon University that year. [3] She served as Associate Chaplain for Jewish Life at Elon until she began a new position as the first Director of Racial Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Reconstructing Judaism in 2021. [9]
Lawson has been noted for her efforts to teach Judaism in unique locations. As a rabbinical student, Lawson ran a Friday night service at Arnold’s Way, a vegan cafe and health store near Philadelphia. [8] [10] [11] She also has been noted for her efforts to teach by using social media and live video feeds. [9] [10] Lawson has been described as "Snapchat’s Top Rabbi" [12] and the Best TikTok Rabbi. [13]
In 2019 the JTA named Lawson one on "The 50 Jews everyone should follow on Twitter" [14] and in 2020 Lawson was named one of "The Forward 50 in 2020: The people we (mostly) needed in the year we (definitely) didn’t". [15] The Center for American Progress (CAP) named Lawson one of 22 Faith Leaders to watch in 2022. [16]
Geoffrey Claussen describes Lawson as contributing to musar literature, citing her writing about curiosity. [17]
Lawson has stated "I support the State of Israel, but I'm not invested in the political atmosphere of the State of Israel...I'm more concerned about the current struggles in our country. I don’t even write about Israel." She has said that she has received antisemitism online from "people claiming to be pro-Palestinian." [18] In 2020, she participated in a program hosted by the Hadassah Women's Zionist Organization of America titled "Zionist Women of Color", a panel of Jewish women of color discussing their challenges. [19]
The subject of homosexuality and Judaism dates back to the Torah. The book of Vayikra (Leviticus) is traditionally regarded as classifying sexual intercourse between males as a to'eivah that can be subject to capital punishment by the current Sanhedrin under halakha.
Reconstructionist Judaism is a Jewish movement based on the concepts developed by Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan (1881–1983) that views Judaism as a progressively evolving civilization rather than just a religion. The movement originated as a semi-organized stream within Conservative Judaism, developed between the late 1920s and the 1940s before seceding in 1955, and established a rabbinical college in 1967. Reconstructionist Judaism is recognized by many scholars as one of the five major streams of Judaism in America alongside Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, and Humanistic.
The Musar movement is a Jewish ethical, educational and cultural movement that developed in 19th century Lithuania, particularly among Orthodox Lithuanian Jews. The Hebrew term Musar (מוּסַר) is adopted from the Book of Proverbs (1:2) describing moral conduct, instruction or discipline, educating oneself on how one should act in an appropriate manner. The term was used by the Musar movement to convey the teachings regarding ethical and spiritual paths. The Musar movement made significant contributions to Musar literature and Jewish ethics. The movement has been revived in the 21st century amongst Jews of all denominations, particularly in the United States.
Jewish ethics is the ethics of the Jewish religion or the Jewish people. A type of normative ethics, Jewish ethics may involve issues in Jewish law as well as non-legal issues, and may involve the convergence of Judaism and the Western philosophical tradition of ethics.
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.
Rabbi Ira Eisenstein was an American rabbi who, along with his mentor and—through his marriage to Judith Kaplan—father-in-law, Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, founded Reconstructionist Judaism over a period spanning the late 1920s through the 1940s. Reconstructionist Judaism formally became an independent denomination within Judaism with the foundation of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in 1968—for which Eisenstein served as founding president.
Rabbi Rebecca Trachtenberg Alpert is Professor of Religion Emerita at Temple University, and was one of the first women rabbis. Her chief academic interests are religions and sports and sexuality in Judaism, and she says that her beliefs were transformed by a Sabbath prayer book that refers to God as 'She'.
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.
The Jewish Reconstructionist Federation (JRF), founded in 1955, was the synagogue arm of Reconstructionist Judaism, serving more than 100 congregations and havurot spread across North America. In June 2012, the Reconstructionist movement underwent a restructuring that merged JRF with the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College to form a new national organization initially named RRC and Jewish Reconstructionist Communities. The merged organization was initially headed by Rabbi Dan Ehrenkrantz, a 1989 graduate of the College, and currently by Rabbi Deborah Waxman who took over in 2014. In January 2018, the merged organization changed its name to Reconstructing Judaism.
Rabbi Ira F. Stone is a leading figure in the contemporary renewal of the Musar movement, a Jewish ethical movement.
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.
Tza'ar ba'alei chayim, literally "suffering of living creatures", is a Jewish commandment which bans causing animals unnecessary suffering. This concept is not clearly enunciated in the written Torah, but was accepted by the Talmud as being a biblical mandate. It is linked in the Talmud from the biblical law requiring people to assist in unloading burdens from animals.
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.
Linda Joy Holtzman is an American rabbi and author. In 1979, she became one of the first women in the United States to serve as the presiding rabbi of a synagogue, and the first woman to serve as a rabbi for a solely Conservative congregation, when she was hired by Beth Israel Congregation of Chester County, which was then located in Coatesville, Pennsylvania.
This is a timeline of women rabbis:
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.
This is a timeline of LGBT Jewish history, which consists of events at the intersection of Judaism and queer people.
Geoffrey Claussen is an American rabbi and scholar who serves as a professor of Religious Studies at Elon University. His scholarship focuses on Jewish ethics, theology, and the Musar movement.
Shefa Gold is an American rabbi, scholar, and Director of the Center for Devotional, Energy and Ecstatic Practice (C-DEEP) in Jemez Springs, New Mexico. Gold is a teacher of chant, Jewish mysticism, Jewish prayer and spirituality who Rabbi Mike Comins described in 2010 as "a pioneer in the ecstatic practice of Jewish chant." Her chants have been used in synagogues, minyanim, and street protests; perhaps her most well known being "Ozi V'zimrat Yah". Combining traditional Jewish liturgical music with Hebrew chant, Gold has worked to cultivate a distinctly Jewish gratitude practice. Her "Flavors of Gratefulness" mobile app has 109 different chants for Modeh Ani, the brief prayer traditionally recited by religious Jews upon awakening. In 2024 she released "Flavors of Praise" with 61 different chants.
Susan Schnur is an American rabbi, psychologist, editor, and writer of children's books. Schnur was ordained by the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in 1982, making her among the first 12 Reconstructionist rabbis and among the first 61 female rabbis in the world. She received a Masters in Creative Writing from the Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars and a Doctorate in Psychology from Rutgers University.
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