Erica
Brown
Vice Provost for Values and Leadership, Director, Sacks-Herenstein Center
Dr. Erica Brown is the Vice Provost for Values and Leadership at 酴圖弝け and the founding director of its Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks-Herenstein Center for Values and Leadership. She was both a faculty member and a student of Rabbi Sacks at Jews College, where Rabbi Sacks served as her Masters thesis advisor. Erica previously served as the director of the Mayberg Center for Jewish Education and Leadership and an associate professor of curriculum and pedagogy at The George Washington University. Erica is the author of twelve books on leadership, the Hebrew Bible and spirituality. Erica has a daily podcast, Take Your Soul to Work. Her latest book Esther: Power, Fate and Fragility in Exile (Maggid) was a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award.
She has been published in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Tablet, First Things, and The Jewish Review of Books and wrote a monthly column for the New York Jewish Week. She has blogged for Psychology Today, Newsweek/Washington Posts On Faith and JTA and tweeted on one page of Talmud study a day @DrEricaBrown.
Dr. Brown has Masters degrees from the Institute of Education (University of London), Jews College (University of London) and Harvard University and a Ph.D. from Baltimore Hebrew University. Erica was a Jerusalem Fellow, is a faculty member of the Wexner Foundation, an Avi Chai Fellow and the recipient of the 2009 Covenant Award for her work in education. She was the scholar-in-residence at both The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington and the Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Boston and as the community scholar for the Jewish Center of New York. She currently serves as a community scholar for Congregation Etz Chaim in Livingston, NJ.
Books
Ecclesiastes and the Search for Meaning (forthcoming, Maggid)
The Book of Esther: Power, Fate and Fragility in Exile (Maggid/OU, 2020) National Jewish Book Award finalist
The Book of Jonah: The Reluctant Prophet (Maggid/OU Summer 2017)
Take Your Soul to Work: Daily Meditations on Every Day Leadership (Simon and Schuster, December 2015)
Seder Talk: A Conversational Haggada (Koren/OU March, 2015)
Happier Endings: A Meditation on Life and Death (Simon and Schuster, 2013) winner of Wilbur and Nautilus Awards for Spiritual Writing
Leadership in the Wilderness: Authority and Anxiety in the Book of Numbers (OU/Koren 2013)
Return: Daily Inspiration for the Days of Awe (OU/Koren, September 2012)
In the Narrow Places (OU/Koren 2011)
Confronting Scandal (Jewish Lights, 2010)
Spiritual Boredom (Jewish Lights, 2009)
The Case for Jewish Peoplehood (Jewish Lights, 2008)
Inspired Jewish Leadership (Jewish Lights, 2008), Jewish National Book Award finalist
Journal Articles
Journal of Religious Education
The Relationship of Vulnerability to Religiosity in the Adult Jewish Learner, (Spring/2019)
Education for an Ex-Role: Perceptions of Schooling from the Newly Un-Orthodox, (113:5, 2018)
An Intimate Spectator: Jewish Women Reflect on Adult Study, (97:2, 2002)
The Torah U-Madda Journal
The Jewish Spirit of Leadership, (2005)
Sincerity and Authenticity in Teaching (2002-03)
Turning All the Past to Pain: Current Trends in the Memorialization of the Holocaust, (September, 20001)
Tradition
The Emotional Range of R. Norman Lamms Sermons, (Fall, 2021)
The Jonathan Sacks Haggada: Judaism Begins at Home (March 7, 2021)
What is Life Worth? Thoughts on the Siyyum Ha-Shas (Jan. 31, 2020)
Pedagogic Disturbances in the Jewish Adult Classroom: The Teaching and Learning of Morally Problematic Biblical Texts, (Summer/2019)
Standing Idly By: When Leaders Enable Sexual Abuse, (vol. 50, no. 2, summer, 2017)
Review Essay: A Strictly Kosher Review (Winter, 2012)
Jewish Quarterly Review
In the Image: Thoughts on Modernist Form and Jewish Identity, (vol. 61, issue 3-4, 2014)
Jewish Thought Leadership
The Atlantic
Tweeting the Talmud, January 3, 2020
Having and Esther Moment, March 8, 2020
First Things
Jonahs Prayer, September 2, 2021
Ruth and the Long Embrace, June 1, 2021
Friendship After COVID, January 5, 2021
Spiritual Social Distancing, September 17, 2020
Scrolls of Hate and Love, January 31, 2020
The New York Times
Death: A Nice Opportunity for Regret, November 9, 2012
Featured in David Brooks, The Arduous Community, December 20, 2010
Wall Street Journal
Review of Happier Endings, Amy Finnerty, A Better Journey to the Final Exit, April 5, 2013
Jewish Review of Books
Jewish Acculturation in America: A Symposium (Aug 31, 2018)
The Burnt Pot (August 30, 2018)
Tablet
Redeem Yourself, June 7, 2019
Waiting for the World to Change, March 23, 2018
Storms are a Wake-Up Call to Humanity, September 12, 2017
Can a Divided America Heal?, November 9, 2016
Lehrhaus
Joyful Planting: COVID and the Prohibition of Planting During the Three Weeks, July 12, 2021
Get Rid of the Manels and Panels Too, September 25, 2020
Why Wasnt Jonah Punished? Reading Jonah during COVID, September 24, 2020
The Power of Secrets: Jacob, Laban, and the Passover Haggadah, April 5, 2020
Who Knows? Jewish Leadership in Times of Uncertainty, March 23, 2020
Joy at Last: Reflections on the End of Esther, February 25, 2020
Journal of Jewish Communal Service
Consumers and Stakeholders: Becoming a Welcoming Organization, (Winter/Spring, 2013).
Personal, Institutional, and Communal Leadership: Rethinking Leadership Development for the Jewish Community, (Winter, 2007).
Making Inspired Leaders: New Approaches to Jewish Leadership Development (Winter, 2006).
The Federation as an Educational Catalyst, vol.75, no.4 (Summer, 1999)
Orthodox Forum Book Chapters
Orthodoxy and the Search for Spirituality in Jewish Adult Education, Orthodox Forum series, 酴圖弝け Press/Ktav (2012)
What Are We Afraid Of? Fear and Its Role in Jewish Adult Education, Orthodox Forum series, 酴圖弝け Press/Ktav (2007)
The New York Jewish Week
Monthly Column, (2012-2018)
Journal of Jewish Ideas and Ideals
Walking Humbly: A Brief Interpretive History of Micah 6:8
Reading Tamar
eJewish Philanthropy (select titles)
Prayers for National Healing, November 25, 2020
Spiritualizing Job Loss, June 17, 2020
Seeing Ruths Face, May 27, 2020
A Cup Full of Gratitude for Teachers and a Challenge, Dec. 9, 2019
What Are We Talking about When We Talk about Engagement? August 28, 2019
The Case for Jewish Day Schools Jan. 2, 2018
Reflecting and Celebrating: Conversations on Jewish Education, March 5, 2018
A Jewish Public Service Confessional, Sept., 2018
Peoplehood Fatigue (appeared first in Paperhood Papers volume 22 Israel@70: A Peoplehood Perspective published by the Center for Jewish Peoplehood Education, Oct. 2, 2018
Jewish Educational Leadership Journal, Lookstein Center, Bar-Ilan University
Leave Meeting: Creating Closure in Adult Online Classes (Sept. 30, 2021)
HaYidion, education publication of Prizmah
"Building More Trusting Partnerships" (Spring, 2021)
Sit Next to Me: An Invitation for Second Stage Mentoring (Summer, 2019)
Educational Excellence in Day Schools: What It is and How We Get There (Winter, 2019)
The All Chiefs Crisis in Jewish Education (Spring, 2012)
Strengthening Et
Inspiring Innovation in Jewish Day Schools (Summer, 2009)