“Fierce Love” and “Awakenings” with The Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis, Rabbi Benjamin Spratt. and Rabbi Joshua Stanton

Seating is first come, first served and requires advanced registration.

In every corner of our Jewish American community, and religious communities in America generally, identity, wisdom, ritual, and power are being remixed and reimagined. As centralized authority declines, American Judaism moves and grows in a multitude of directions, navigating disruption and opportunities for renewal. Why are religious organizations on the decline? What changes have caused many of them to lose touch with modern spiritual needs? What does it take to remain relevant in today’s world? Rabbi Joshua Stanton, Rabbi of East End Temple and Director of Leadership at CLAL, and Rabbi Benjamin Spratt, Senior Rabbi at Congregation Rodeph Sholom are co-authors of Awakenings: American Jewish Transformations in Identity, Leadership, and Belonging, in which they take on these and other critical questions facing religious communities today. Their perspectives are frank and yet surprisingly upbeat – hear them in this special conversation.  They will be in conversation with The Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis, Senior Minister and Public Theologian at Middle Church in New York City.

A signing will follow, with books available for purchase.

Rabbi Joshua Stanton is spiritual co-leader of East End Temple and Director of Leadership at CLAL – The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, where he focuses on questions of religious pluralism in the United States and Israel. Rabbi Stanton serves on the Board of Trustees of the Interfaith America, the leading interfaith organization in the country, and on the Board of Governors of the International Jewish Committee on Interreligious Consultations, which presides over Jewish-Christian relations with the Vatican and World Council of Churches. Rabbi Stanton was ordained from Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion.

Rabbi Benjamin Spratt is senior rabbi of Congregation Rodeph Sholom in New York City. He previously served as the Senior Associate Rabbi and the Rabbi in Residence of Rodeph Sholom School. His Jewish journey took him from the Orthodox, Reconstructionist, and Renewal worlds to becoming ordained from the Conservative movement’s Jewish Theological Seminary. Rabbi Spratt founded CRS’s Shireinu, an inclusion initiative for Jewish families with special needs that now serves as a spiritual model for synagogues and churches around the world.

The Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis is Senior Minister and Public Theologian at Middle Church in New York City. In her activism, preaching, speaking, writing, and teaching, Dr. Lewis advocates for racial equality, gun control, economic justice, and equal rights for all sexual orientations/genders. A world-renowned theologian, Dr. Lewis has been featured on The Today Show, All In with Chris Hayes, AM Joy, The Melissa Harris Perry Show, NY1, ABC, NBC, PBS, CBS and many more. Her writing has appeared in outlets like Harper’s Bazaar, Vox, The Huffington Post and Religion News Service. She is the author of several books, most recently Fierce Love: A Bold Path to a Ferocious Courage and Rule-Breaking Kindness That Can Heal the World which was published by Penguin Random House in 2021.

Photo Credit: Rabbi Joshua Stanton © Hannah Stampleman, Rabbi Benjamin Spratt © Tricia Baron

This program is made possible in part by support from the Battery Park City Authority.