Rabbi Jacob Staub, Ph.D.
Chair, Department of Medieval Jewish Civilization
Professor of Jewish Philosophy and Spirituality
Director, Jewish Spiritual Direction Program
Sadie Gottesman and Arlene Gottesman Reff Professor of Gender and Judaism
Acting Director, Kolot: The Center for Jewish Women’s and Gender Studies
215.576.0800, ext. 119
jstaub@rrc.edu
Rabbi Jacob Staub, Ph.D., graduated from RRC in 1977. Staub has served on the RRC faculty since 1983; he served as the College’s vice president for academic affairs and academic dean from 1989 to 2004. He was instrumental in developing RRC’s Spiritual Direction Program and has taught Jewish spiritual direction across North America, including at Spiritual Directors International and the Spirituality Institute of Metivta. He is also a faculty member at Nehirim: GLBT Jewish Culture and Spirituality, and he directs Nehirim’s Shalshelet Mentoring Program.
His prior teaching experience includes appointments as assistant professor of religion at Lafayette College and as a Mellon Fellow in Jewish Philosophy at Washington University. He has served as rabbi of Bristol Jewish Center in Bristol, PA, and of Congregation Beth Shalom in Arlington, TX. Staub has served as chair of the Academy for Jewish Philosophy, of which has been a fellow. He has been vice president of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association and currently serves on its board. Jacob also has chaired the RRA’s Gevulot Committee and its Committee on Intermarriage.
Staub earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from the State University of New York at Buffalo and a Master of Arts and doctorate in religion from Temple University, where he specialized in medieval Jewish philosophy. He trained as a spiritual director at the Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation. He completed certification in Mindfulness Leadership Training with Sylvia Boorstein and teaches meditation and contemplative practice at RRC.
Staub served as editor of The Reconstructionist from 1983 to 1989. He is the author of The Creation of the World According to Gersonides (1982) and of numerous articles, poems and essays. He is co-editor with Jeffrey L. Schein of Creative Jewish Education: A Reconstructionist Perspective (1985) and co-author with Rebecca T. Alpert of Exploring Judaism, A Reconstructionist Approach (1985, revised edition 2000).
Among the awards he has received are RRC’s Gladstone Award for Fine Teaching (1997), the Jewish Reconstructionist Federation’s President’s Award (1989), the RRA’s Yedei Emunah Award (2001) and RRC’s Keter Shem Tov (2004).
