Rabbi Sandy Sasso served as the Rabbi of Congregation Beth-El Zedeck in Indianapolis from 1977 to 2013. She is currently the director of the Religion, Spirituality, and the Arts Initiative. Rabbi Sasso is an active member of the arts, civic and interfaith communities, and has written and lectured on women and spirituality, as well as the discovery of religious imagination in children.
She received her B.A. Magna Cum Laude and M.A. from Temple University, and she was ordained from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in 1974. After 25 years in the rabbinate, she received her Doctor of Divinity. Rabbi Sandy has received several honorary doctorates, including one of Humanities from DePauw University, one of Humane Letters from Butler University, one of Divinity from Christian Theological Seminary, and one of Divinity from Franklin College. In 2013, she received the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.
Rabbi Sandy is also an author of many nationally-acclaimed books for children, including “God’s Paintbrush,” “In God’s Name,” “But God Remembered: Stories of Women From Creation to the Promised Land,” “Noah’s Wife: The Story of Naamah,” “God In Between,” “For Heaven’s Sake,” “God Said Amen,” “Cain and Abel: Finding the Fruits of Peace,” “Adam and Eve’s First Sunset,” “Butterflies Under Our Hats,” “The Shemah in the Mezuzah and Creation’s First Light,” “Who Counts: 100 Sheep, 10 Coins, 2 Sons,” and “The Marvelous Mustard Seed” (the last two with Amy-Jill Levine). She is also the co-author of “God’s Paintbrush Celebration Kit: A Spiritual Activity Kit for Teachers and Students.” In 2013, her book for adults, “Midrash: Reading the Bible with Question Marks,” was reprinted in paperback. In 2015, she co-authored “Jewish Stories of Love and Marriage- Folktales, Legends and Letters.”
Rabbi Sandy was the first woman ever to be ordained from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, and the first to serve a Conservative congregation together with her husband, Rabbi Dennis C. Sasso. Rabbi Sandy Eisenberg Sasso and her husband are the first practicing rabbinical couple in world Jewish history. They are the proud parents of two children, David and Debbie, and the grandparents of Darwin, Ari, and Levi.