Rabbi Toba Spitzer has served Congregation Dorshei Tzedek since she was ordained in 1997 at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College (RRC).
Rabbi Spitzer is a popular teacher of courses on Judaism and economic justice, Reconstructionist Judaism, new approaches to thinking about God, and the practice of integrating Jewish spiritual and ethical teachings into daily life. She has written innovative curricula for children on the Book of Exodus and in the Reconstructionist prayer book, Kol Haneshama. She served as the President of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association from 2007-2009, and was the first lesbian or gay rabbi to head a national rabbinic organization. Rabbi Spitzer has received the honor of being included in Newsweek’s Top 50 Rabbis in America 2008 list, the 2008 Forward 50 list, as well as the 2010 Forward list of 50 Female Rabbis Who Are Making A Difference. In January 2015, Rabbi Spitzer was awarded the Elizabeth Wyner Mark Peace Award by Americans for Peace Now.
Rabbi Spitzer has been involved for many years in American Jewish efforts to help foster a peaceful resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. She serves as Treasurer of Truah: The Rabbnic Call for Human Rights, on the Advisory Board of J Street, and as co-chair of the Boston chapter of the J Street Rabbinic Cabinet. Rabbi Spitzer has a special interest in Jewish approaches to economic justice and the mindful use of money in daily life. Rabbi Spitzer’s writings on process theology, Judaism and social justice, and explorations of Biblical texts have been published in The Reconstructionist Journal and in the anthology Torah Queeries: Weekly Commentaries on the Hebrew Bible. While a student at RRC, Rabbi Spitzer organized a rabbinic delegation to Haiti to serve as human rights witnesses during the military junta. The trip and resulting Haitian-Jewish seder are described in her article “Of Haiti and Horseradish”, in The Narrow Bridge: Jewish Views on Multiculturalism, edited by Marla Brettschneider.
Click here to see Rabbi Spitzer’s divrei torah for the High Holy Days. Rabbi Spitzer is a devoted and relatively patient Red Sox fan and also has a life goal of bowling in all 50 states. She has 31 down so far!
Rabbi Spitzer is now blogging at the Huffington Post and ON Scripture – The Torah, produced in collaboration with Odyssey Networks and Hebrew College. You can also read her blog posts here.
You can contact Rabbi Toba Spitzer by email at rabbi [at] dorsheitzedek.org.