Rabbi Richard Sarason, Ph.D.

Director, Pines School of Graduate Studies; The Deutsch Family Professor of Rabbinics and Liturgy

Contact Information

school/program: Pines School of Graduate Studies, Rabbinical School (US)
department: Academic Affairs, Dean's Office
academic field: Rabbinics and Liturgy
campus: Cincinnati
email: rsarason@huc.edu
phone: (513) 221-1875
extension: 3245

Rabbi Richard S. Sarason, Ph.D., is Director of the Pines School of Graduate Studies, Professor of Rabbinic Literature and Thought, and The Deutsch Family Professor of Rabbinics and Liturgy at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati, OH, where he has been a faculty member since 1979. Prior to that time, he was Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Brown University, where he received his Ph.D. in Religious Studies in 1977. He was ordained at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Cincinnati, in 1974. He received his A.B. in Economics from Brandeis University in 1969 and was a visiting graduate student at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem from 1970 to 1972, while attending HUC-JIR. He is the author of several books and numerous articles dealing with rabbinic literature and Jewish liturgy.

Dr. Sarason has taught at many Reform congregations around the country, and many programs of the Reform Movement, including URJ Summer Kallot, CCAR annual meetings and regional Kallot, Hadrachah Seminar for Lay Leadership, NATA certification program, Schindler Outreach Program, Mifgash Musicale, and others. He currently serves on the CCAR Worship Committee. He has represented HUC-JIR as Vice Chair of the Reform Movement’s Joint Commission on Worship, Synagogue Music, and Religious Living. He was a member of the Siddur Editorial Advisory Committee that worked on Mishkan T’filah, and was a special advisor to the editorial board that produced the current Reform Machzor, Mishkan HaNefesh. He is a recipient of the 2016 David Ellenson Faculty Award from the Women of Reform Judaism and the 2017 Shomeir Shirah (Guardian of Song) Award from the Guild of Temple Musicians. He is also an experienced choral musician with a strong interest in Jewish liturgical music.

He is married to Anne Arenstein. They have two sons, Jonathan (Yoni) and Michael.

Reform Prayer Books Then and Now

Music and Worship

The Rabbis Imagine God

Midrash: How the Rabbis Read Scripture

A Taste of Talmud

The Mahzor

Contemporary and Creative Liturgies

Reform Prayer Books

The Amidah in Talmudic Literature: Mishnah, Tosefta, Yerushalmi, Bavli

Introduction to Midrashic Literature

God’s Love and God’s Anger: Lamentations Rabbah and Song of Songs Rabbah

The Halakhic Midrashim

The Byzantine-Era “Homiletical” Midrashim

Thinking about Religion: Theories, Applications, Meanings

Rabbinic Hebrew

Ph.D. in Religious Studies, Brown University (1977)

M.A. in Hebrew Literature, HUC-JIR (1974)

Rabbinic Ordination, HUC-JIR (1974)

A.B. in Economics, Brandeis University (1969)