Shorter bio
Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg is the award-winning author of eight books who now makes her primary writing home at Life is a Sacred Text. She has received the Lives of Commitment Award from Auburn Seminary, and the Rabbinic Human Rights Hero Award from the human rights organization T’ruah, was named by Newsweek as a “rabbi to watch,” and as a “faith leader to watch” by the Center for American Progress, and has been a Sunday Washington Post crossword clue (83 Down). Her most recent book, On Repentance and Repair: Making Amends in an Unapologetic World is a National Jewish Book Award winner and an American Library Association’s Sophie Brody Honor Book. It was hailed by Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley as “A must read for anyone navigating the work of justice and healing.” Her North Star is the belief that we have a moral and religious obligation to care for one another, and to fight for a more just world.
Longer Bio
Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg is the award-winning author of eight books who now makes her primary writing home at Life is a Sacred Text.
She has received the Lives of Commitment Award from Auburn Seminary, and the Rabbinic Human Rights Hero Award from the human rights organization T’ruah, was named by Newsweek as a “rabbi to watch,” and as a “faith leader to watch” by the Center for American Progress, and has been a Sunday Washington Post crossword clue (83 Down).
Her most recent book, On Repentance and Repair: Making Amends in an Unapologetic World is a National Jewish Book Award winner and an American Library Association’s Sophie Brody Honor Book. It was hailed by Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley as “A must read for anyone navigating the work of justice and healing.”
She has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Time, and many other publications, and been featured on NPR, Good Morning America, in The Atlantic, USA Today, NBC News, CNN, MTV News, and elsewhere.
Her seven other books include the National Jewish Book Award finalist Nurture the Wow: Finding Spirituality in the Frustration, Boredom, Tears, Poop, Desperation, Wonder, and Radical Amazement of Parenting; the Sami Rohr Prize-shortlisted Surprised By God: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Religion; The Passionate Torah: Sex and Judaism; Yentl’s Revenge: The Next Wave of Jewish Feminism, and three books on Jewish ethics.
She has served as the leading rabbinic voice on Judaism and reproductive freedom, organizing a network of 2500 Rabbis for Repro before– and leading it through and beyond– the fall of Roe. She has also organized the Jewish community to fight for economic justice; created frameworks for understanding across lines of difference; and led student communities on several college campuses. She has also been instrumental in shaping the Jewish response to sexual misconduct, including helping steward the creation of new organizations; reshaping denominational policies; and consulting on numerous cases across the Jewish organizational landscape in both more and less visible ways.
She currently serves on the Advisory Board to EducateUS, which advocates for better sex ed policy in schools and beyond, and the Shalom Center, which brings prophetic Judaism to the urgent justice issues of the day. Her work for change has taken many forms, from anonymous work behind the scenes to preaching from a protest megaphone, from the White House to the holding cell after civil disobedience. Her North Star is the belief that we have a moral and religious obligation to care for one another, and to fight for a more just world.
For media inquiries, please reach out to Life@LifeIsASacredText.com.