Rabbi Sandy Eisenberg Sasso, D. Min.

Rabbi Sasso served as Senior rabbi of Congregation Beth-El Zedeck, Indianapolis from 1977- 2013 and is now Senior Rabbi Emerita. She is the founding director of the Religion, Spirituality, and the Arts Initiative originally at Butler University, now at the Herron School of Art and Design at Indiana University at Indianapolis. Rabbi Sasso is active in the arts, civic and interfaith communities and has written and lectured on women and spirituality and the discovery of the religious imagination in children.  She received her B.A. Magna Cum Laude (1969) and M.A. (1972) from Temple University.  She was ordained from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in 1974 and received her Doctor of Divinity after 25 years in the rabbinate. She is the recipient of a Doctor of Ministry from Christian Theological Seminary (1996), an Honorary Doctorate of Humanities from DePauw University, an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Butler University, an Honorary Doctor of Divinity from Christian Theological Seminary, and an Honorary Doctor of Divinity from Franklin College.  She received the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in June 2013.   

Rabbi Sasso is the author of the nationally acclaimed children's books. Publisher’s Weekly selected two of her books, But God Remembered and Noah’s Wife; The Story of Na’amah as Best Books of the Year. Abuelita’s Secret Matzahs is the winner of the 2005 Sugarman Family Children’s Book Award and the 2006 Best Books of Indiana Award.  She is a contributor to Children and Childhood in World Religion - Children’s Spirituality in the Jewish Narrative Tradition and one of the editors of Nurturing Child and Adolescent Spirituality:  Perspectives from the World’s Religious Traditions.  In an article celebrating the tenth anniversary of God's Paintbrush, her first book, which has sold over 100,000 copies, one journalist remarked “they may not know who she is, but if a generation of young people has grown more comfortable expressing their views about God, they may want to thank Sandy Eisenberg Sasso.”  

A book for adults, Midrash:  Reading the Bible with Question Marks, has been reprinted in paperback. She edited Urban Tapestry, Indianapolis Stories, Indiana University Press.  She has written column for The Indianapolis Star, Indianapolis Business Journal and contributes a blog for The Times of Israel. In July 2000, she was a keynote speaker at the first International Conference on the Spiritual Life of Children in West Sussex, England.  She is the 2004 recipient of the Helen Keating Ott Award for Outstanding Contribution to Children’s Literature.  Her children’s book, The Shemah in the Mezuzah won the 2012 National Jewish Book Award for Best Illustrated Children’s Book. She is the recipient of an Indiana Author’s Award. In 2018 she received the Indiana Author’s Award for Best Regional Author. 

She was the founding Director of the Religion, Spirituality, and the Arts Initiative at Herron School of Art and Design at Indiana University, Indianapolis. 

Rabbi Sasso has lectured on Religion and Judaism at Butler University and Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis.  She has served on the Lake Institute of Faith and Giving Board, Board of Advisors of Indiana University at Indianapolis, and is presently on the board of Indiana Humanities Council, and the editorial board of Encyclopedia of Indianapolis. Rabbi Sasso is a Theological Advisor for the Center for Spiritual Development in Childhood and Adolescence.  Rabbi Sasso served on the Prayerbook Commission of Kol Haneshama, a Reconstructionist prayerbook, and was co-editor for a prayerbook for children, Kol HaNoar. 

Sasso is Past Chair of the Spirit and Place Advisory Board, an annual festival in Indiana celebrating the Arts, Religion and Humanities, Past-President of the Indianapolis Board of Rabbis, the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association and the Past-President of Gleaners Food Bank. She has served on the boards of Planned Parenthood, the Women’s Fund, and the Julian Center. In 2016 she co-founded Women4Change Indiana, a statewide organization of 5000 focused on educating, equipping, and mobilizing Hoosiers to create positive change for women.  

Rabbi Sasso is the recipient of the 2013 Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association Lifetime Rabbinic Service Award.  She has been recognized as one of the “Influential Women in Indiana” by the Indianapolis Business Journal and was featured among “Indy’s Most Influential Clergy” by NUVO News Weekly.  She is the recipient of the “Sagamore of the Wabash”, the highest civilian honor awarded by the Governor of the State of Indiana, Heritage Keepers Award (Indiana State Museum), Spirit of the Prairie (Conner Prairie Museum), and Torchbearer Award (Indiana Commission of Women). She and Dennis C. Sasso were designated “Interfaith Ambassadors of the Year” by the Center for Interfaith Cooperation and recognized as “Hoosier Jewish Legends” by the Indiana Jewish Historical Society.  In 2022 they were named “Indiana Living Legends” by the Indiana Historical Society and were listed by the Indianapolis Business Journal among the most influential leaders in Indiana. 

Rabbi Sasso was the first woman 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 parents of Dr. David A. Sasso (Dr. Naomi Libby) and Dr. Debora S. Herold (Dr. Bradley).  They are the proud grandparents of Darwin, Ari, Levi, and Raven.