Our Clergy
Get to know our Clergy!
Rabbi Aaron Brusso
Cantor Randy Herman
Rabbi Lisa Sacks, Director of Community Engagement and Lifelong Learning
Rabbi Lisa Sacks is delighted to be joining Bet Torah as the new Director of Community Engagement and Lifelong Learning. In this role, Rabbi Sacks will help individuals continue their Jewish journeys and find their place in our community.
Rabbi Sacks will be ordained this coming April from the Academy for Jewish Religion, a pluralistic seminary based in Yonkers. As a student she served both Conservative and Reform synagogues in a variety of roles, most recently as the student rabbi for Ohev Sholom Congregation, a Conservative community in York, PA. In recognition of her service and creativity during rabbinical school, she was awarded the AJR Community Service Award and the Rabbi Chana Timoner Creative Liturgy Award.
Over the past ten years Rabbi Sacks developed a particular interest in contemplative practice and Mussar, a tradition within Judaism focused on developing one’s character traits as a spiritual practice. She was trained as a facilitator through The Mussar Institute and hopes to bring some of that tradition to Bet Torah.
Prior to entering the rabbinate, Rabbi Sacks had a wide-ranging career in the public sector working in local, state and national politics, serving as an Assistant Commissioner for the City of New York, as the Executive Director of Beit Rabban Day School, and as the Chief Financial Officer of Hazon, the Jewish environmental organization. She has a BA in government from Cornell University and an MPA from Columbia University. She also spent a year learning at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies on a Dorot Fellowship.
Originally from Santa Cruz, Rabbi Sacks now lives in Hastings-on-Hudson with her two daughters. And she is thrilled to continue the tradition of the Tent Service in offering a more relaxed atmosphere, inspiring prayer intentions, and an engaging participatory experience for the High Holy Days.