About the Faculty

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As a student, you will study with an exceptional group of engaged and dedicated faculty. The diversity of our faculty’s backgrounds — personal, religious, intellectual and professional — offer a wide breadth of perspectives and knowledge. The faculty provides students new ways of thinking and the support they need in pursuit of their academic goals, interests and the rabbinates to which they aspire. Our faculty are published authors, sought-after speakers and leaders in the fields of:

  • Feminist and Queer Theory and Jewish Studies
  • Innovative Liturgy
  • Jewish Biblical Theology
  • Multifaith Engagement
  • Jewish Social Justice
  • Jewish Spirituality
  • Talmud and Ethics

The faculty’s highest priority is your growth and success as a student. They are passionate scholars and teachers who share a mission to help students cultivate a deep understanding of our Jewish legacy and powerful skills to serve the Jewish people as rabbis. RRC builds relationships of mentoring and collaboration that foster learning and growth in, and well beyond, the classroom.

A full list of faculty and staff is available here.


We’re proud to celebrate our faculty’s accomplishments outside the classroom

Joel Hecker, Ph.D.
Chair, Department of Modern Jewish Civilization; Associate Professor of Jewish Mysticism
Winner, 2017 Canadian Jewish Literary Awards in the Scholarship category
The Zohar, Pritzker Edition, Volume Eleven (Stanford Press)

Tamar Kamionkowski, Ph.D.
Chair, Department of Biblical Civilization and Associate Professor of Bible, Reconstructionist Rabbinical College
Wisdom Commentary: Leviticus (Liturgical Press); Bodies, Embodiment and Theology of the Hebrew Scriptures (Bloomsbury Press); Gender Reversal and Cosmic Chaos: Studies in the Book of Ezekiel (Bloomsbury Press)

Rabbi Mira Beth Wasserman, Ph.D.
Director of Center for Jewish Ethics, Associate Professor of Rabbinic Literature
Winner, 2018 American Academy for Jewish Research Salo Wittmayer Baron Book Prize for an outstanding first book in Jewish studies
Jews, Gentiles, and Other Animals: The Talmud After the Humanities (University of Pennsylvania Press)


 

Teaching Methods

We understand that every student learns differently. Our faculty mindfully adapt their teaching styles to meet the learning needs of each individual student. Interactions between faculty and students occur:

  • In our beit midrash (study hall), where students and faculty engage with Judaism’s sacred texts through traditional Torah study and discussion
  • In our classrooms, where lectures and group discussion engage students in topics related to Jewish history, culture and the work of the rabbinate
  • In digital classrooms taught by RRC faculty and other leading scholars and professionals
  • In workshops and hands-on training, where students learn through experience
  • In fieldwork supervision, as students work to integrate the academic and experiential
  • One on one through independent studies

Optimal Student-Faculty Ratio

The College maintains a low student-to-faculty ratio, which promotes active learning and inspired teaching and allows for profound student-faculty interactions.

The Reconstructionist Network