In his new book, Awakenings, American Jewish Transformations in Identity, Leadership, and Belonging,
Rabbi Ben Spratt speaks about the future of American Judaism with optimism.
“…Judaism offers a wellspring of tools to help us flourish…to meet modern needs.”
Rabbi Spratt’s Book

Awakenings: American Jewish Transformations in Identity, Leadership, and Belonging
by Rabbi Ben Spratt and Rabbi Joshua Stanton (Behrman House Publishing, August 2022)
About Rabbi Spratt

Ben Spratt (he/him) is the 11th Senior Rabbi in Congregation Rodeph Sholom’s distinguished 180-year history. He previously served as our 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, and eventually landing him as Rabbi here, one of the country’s renowned Reform congregations.
It is with a passionate drive that he works to build and shape community beyond existent boundaries. In 2009, Ben helped found 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. With prominently featured articles in the New York Times, The Jewish Week, Autism Speaks, Huffington Post, Jewish Journal, and Times of Israel, the Shireinu program has also received numerous national awards and grants including the Union for Reform Judaism’s Exemplar Award for Inclusion and the UJA-Federation of New York’s First Place Synagogue Inclusion Award. Ben serves as co-chair of Inclusion and Disability Awareness for the Central Conference of American Rabbis.


In 2014, he co-founded Tribe, a joint initiative to engage Jewish Millennials through grassroots leadership and a community of empowerment. In 2016, Rabbi Spratt and Cantor Shayna De Lowe collaborated to reimagine the future of a large legacy congregation, planting the seeds of Minyan, a Jewish small-group-based approach to human flourishing through connection. In 2017, he was co-editor of a special symposium edition of the CCAR’s Reform Jewish Quarterly Journal on Millennial Engagement and sparked the New Day Fellowship to foster connection between Muslim and Jewish Millennials.
After over two decades as part of the Rodeph Sholom family, in 2022 Rabbi Spratt was installed as Senior Rabbi. In his new book, Awakenings, American Jewish Transformation in Identity, Leadership, and Belonging, co-written with Rabbi Josh Stanton and published also in 2022, he speaks about the future of American Judaism with optimism. “…Judaism offers a wellspring of tools to help us flourish…to meet modern needs.”