Joy Levitt

Who is Joy Levitt?

Joy Levitt is an American rabbi and from 1987 to 1989 was the first female president of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association. Levitt is also the founder of the Jewish Journey Project, an initiative that attempts to replace individual synagogue schools with an elective-driven communal coalition. She and her husband Rabbi Michael Strassfeld are coeditors of the A Night of Questions Passover Haggadah, published by the Reconstructionist Press. She is currently the Manhattan Jewish Community Center's Executive Director. In 2008 the PBS series "The Jewish Americans" had her as a featured commentator. In 2010 she was named one of fifty of the most influential rabbis in America by The Sisterhood, the Jewish Forward's women’s issues blog. She was also named by Newsweek as one of the most influential rabbis in America.

In 1975 she earned a bachelor's degree from Barnard College, followed by a master's degree from New York University in 1976 and a rabbinical degree from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in 1981.