Rabbi Sassoon Brown (they/them) - Program Director

Rabbi Sassoon Brown wants Jews and their loved ones to feel that they are inheritors of Torah, stories, poetry, and music that they can use to experience and express their spirituality. Rabbi Sass teaches with a strong sense of identity and ancestry, and believes Torah is enriched when interpreted through the many cultures and backgrounds that make up Jewish community. 

Rabbi Sass was ordained at the Jewish Theological Seminary in 2025, where they were a Wexner Graduate Fellow and Crown Fellow. They hold an MA in Spiritual Care and Counseling (JTS), an MFA in Creative Writing (NCSU), and BA in Communications (UNC Chapel Hill). Before rabbinical school, Rabbi Sass worked running programs for Beth Meyer Synagogue and Camp JCC in Raleigh, NC. While at JTS, they worked as a rabbinic intern for USY, The Emanuel Synagogue, Ft. Tryon Jewish Center, and Ammud. They also worked as a chaplain intern supporting older adults at the New Jewish Home, people exiting incarceration through the Fortune Society, and the trauma and surgery department at UNC Hospitals. Rabbi Sass once wrote a book of queer Jewish poetry, The Shortest Skirt in Shul, which is available through Ben Yehuda Press. They currently live in Raleigh, NC.