David Jaffe is a writer, rabbi and spiritual seeker. His first book, Changing the World from the Inside Out (Trumpeter, 2016), explores how to walk a holy path that integrates deep spiritual wisdom with the daily work of peacemaking and social change. David’s social consciousness was forged by the busing era and legal desegregation of late 60s and early 70s in New York as well as the growing openness about the Holocaust in the Jewish community. He has spent his entire adult life pursuing Jewish wisdom and working for reconciliation and social justice. This journey has taken him from his home in New York to the homeless shelters of San Francisco’s Tenderloin, to traditional Yeshiva in Jerusalem, to refugee camps of Central Africa and faith-rooted community organizing in Boston. During this time David served as the Director of Social Justice Programs at the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston, as a founding board member of Avodah: The Jewish Service Corps and as the Spiritual Advisor at Gann Academy in Waltham, MA. David is the Founder and Principal of the Kirva Institute, where he teaches applied Jewish wisdom including Mussar and Tikkun Middot.
David’s teaching, organizing, writing and consulting explore the intersection of moral-spiritual development and ethical action in the world. He is bringing the lessons from Changing the World from the Inside Out to change makers and spiritual leaders throughout the country as an educator and consultant with such leading social justice organizations as Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, Keshet and Bend the Arc, and communal and educational institutions as the Hebrew College rabbinical school and Temple Israel of Boston. David is a sought after speaker and travels the country leading scholar-in-residence weekends. He serves as a faculty member at The Mussar Institute and the Institute for Jewish Spirituality retreats.
David is a Dorot Fellow, member of the AJWS Global Justice Fellowship and charter member of the International Rabbinic Fellowship. He received his rabbinic ordination from the Bat Ayin Yeshiva in Israel and has a B.A. in History from Cornell University, an M.A. in Jewish studies from the Jewish Theological Seminary and a Masters of Social Work from Columbia University. He lives in Sharon, MA with his wife Janette and two boys, Tani (15) and Binyamin (13).
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