Joy Levitt

Joy Levitt is an American rabbi, and from 1987 to 1989 was the first female president of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association.

Education In 1975 Levitt received a bachelor's degree from Barnard College; she later received a master's degree from New York University in 1976, and a rabbinical degree from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in 1981.

Career As a pulpit rabbi, Levitt served Congregation B'nei Keshet in Montclair, New Jersey and the Reconstructionist Synagogue of the North Shore in Plandome, New York.

She was an associate executive director, executive director, and CEO of the Manhattan Jewish Community Center from 1998-2021.

In 2024 she became the executive director of the Jerusalem Foundation.

Editing Levitt and her husband Rabbi Michael Strassfeld are coeditors of A Night of Questions, published by the Reconstructionist Press in 2000.

Honors In 2010 Levitt was named one of fifty of the most influential rabbis in America by The Sisterhood, The Jewish Daily Forward's women's issues blog.

In 2010 and 2011 she was named by Newsweek as one of the most influential rabbis in America.