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Rabbi Dan Ehrenkrantz

Having served as president from 2002 to 2013, Rabbi Dan Ehrenkrantz now advises various departments of RRC, helping them to achieve their strategic aims. Ehrenkrantz draws on many years of experience in nonprofit leadership. He was named one of the 50 most-influential American rabbis by Newsweek magazine for seven consecutive years and was the first graduate of RRC to assume its presidency. 

During his tenure at RRC Ehrenkrantz directed an organizational restructuring that brought together the Reconstructionist movement’s seminary and its congregational services in one unique entity. He also energized a grants program that raised more than $2.5 million for interfaith initiatives, alumni education and work in social justice, aging and gender studies. And he completed a rebranding effort that included the launch of a new website, www.rrc.edu

Previous to his work at RRC, Ehrenkrantz served for 14 years as rabbi of Bnai Keshet, a Reconstructionist congregation in Montclair, NJ. There he led a successful capital campaign and oversaw the purchase of the congregation’s first building—a project that entailed preserving a historic mansion and constructing a new facility. During the time he served as its spiritual leader, the congregation doubled in size.

As RRC’s Aaron and Marjorie Ziegelman Presidential Professor, Ehrenkrantz taught courses on Jewish and Hebrew literature, darshanut (text interpretation), the Jewish holiday cycle, and the Jewish lifecycle. He has written rabbinical commentary for Dream of Zion: American Jews Reflect on Why Israel Matters to Them(Jewish Lights), the Men’s Torah Commentary (Jewish Lights), The Guide to Jewish Practice (RRC Press) and the Kol Haneshamah prayer book series (Reconstructionist Press). 

He graduated magna cum laude from Tufts University with a Bachelor of Arts in religion and received both rabbinical ordination and a Master of Arts in Hebrew Letters from RRC. Ehrenkrantz lives in the Philadelphia area with his family. 

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