Mordechai Liebling

Who is Mordechai Liebling?

Mordechai E. Liebling is the director of the newly created Social Justice Organizing Program at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. He has worked throughout his career toward tikkun olam, repair of the world, and RRC’s program is the first Jewish seminary-based initiative to offer a specialized certificate in justice organizing for rabbis.

Through his own experience, Liebling came to realize that spiritual leaders hold unique power to demonstrate and inspire ethical choices, and to lead a pursuit of justice fueled by caring rather than rage.

He served as the executive vice president of Jewish Funds for Justice; prior to that organization’s merger with The Shefa Fund, he held the title Torah of Money Director at TSF, providing guidance to help people apply Jewish laws and values to how they spend, invest and donate. For 12 years he was the executive director of the Jewish Reconstructionist Federation, and he later served there as senior consultant. Before entering the rabbinical program at RRC, he worked as a community organizer.

Liebling was a member of the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations for 12 years. He has served on the boards of various national and international non-profit organizations. He serves on the boards of the Faith and Politics Institute and Rabbis for Human Rights-North America, and is the president emeritus of the Shalom Center.