Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg is an award-winning author and writer. She serves as Scholar in Residence at the National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW). Ruttenberg was named by Newsweek and The Daily Beast as one of ten “rabbis to watch;” as one of 21 “faith leaders to watch” by the Center for American Progress; and by The Forward as one of the top 50 most influential women rabbis. She has been a Washington Post Sunday crossword clue (83 Down) and called a “wunderkund of Jewish feminism” by Publishers Weekly. She has written for The New York Times, The Atlantic, Salon, Time, Newsweek, and many other publications, and contributes regularly to The Washington Post and The Forward.
She is the author of seven books, including Nurture the Wow: Finding Spirituality in the Frustration, Boredom, Tears, Poop, Desperation, Wonder, and Radical Amazement of Parenting (Flatiron Books), which was a National Jewish Book Award finalist and PJ Library Parents’ Choice selection; Surprised By God: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Religion (Beacon Press), nominated for the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish literature and a Hadassah Book Club selection.
Before her ordination from the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies in 2008, she worked as a freelance writer, and has in the years since also served as rabbi and educator at Tufts and Northwestern Universities, for Hillel International, for the dialogue project Ask Big Questions and Avodah, an organization dedicated to creating leaders for economic justice. She lives in the Chicago area with her spouse and three children.
