The Art of Leading a Relational Sacred Community: Dr. Ron Wolfson and Ziegler Rabbinical School Alumni Published New Book

AJU Professor Dr. Ron Wolfson, along with his student and colleague Rabbi Brett Kopin, a Ziegler Rabbinical School Alumnus, has authored a book in a Masterclass format called Creating Sacred Communities: Leading Practitioners Share Lessons Learned. Each chapter reads like a lecture in a classroom and spotlights a class contributor. The contributors include other Ziegler Alumni including OpenDor Media’s Sara Himeles, AJU professors such as Rabbi Ed Feinstein, as well as Special Guest Master Class Contributor Rick Warren, the Senior Pastor of Saddleback Church. Each chapter features actual transcripts of the conversations between the outstanding Master Class contributors and the students. 

Creating a sacred community is one of the most important tasks facing congregational leaders—rabbis, cantors, educators, executive directors, and lay leaders—in the twenty-first century. This unique book presents a master class by frontline practitioners who share cutting-edge lessons learned from their success in shaping sacred communities. 

Dean of Ziegler Rabbinical School Rabbi Brad Artson says of the book, “Ron Wolfson has been teaching how to create sacred communities for years with our students in the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies. Now we can all learn from him, his students Rabbi Brett Kopin and Rabbi Sara Himeles, and his Master Class contributors. Creating Sacred Communities is a gift for each of us, for the people we serve, and for the Jewish tradition we love!” 

You can order the book here. 

Ron is the Fingerhut Professor of Education at American Jewish University and president of the Kripke Institute. He is a much sought-after consultant and lecturer on building sacred communities in synagogues, schools, community centers, and camps around the world. 

He has had a profound effect on the Jewish community through his books Relational Judaism: Using the Power of Relationships to Transform the Jewish Community and The Relational Judaism Handbook (with Rabbi Nicole Auerbach and Rabbi Lydia Medwin).