Our Staff

Rabbi Joshua Boettiger
Rosh Yeshiva 

Rabbi Joshua Boettiger serves as Rosh Yeshiva of the Center for Contemporary Mussar.

Rabbi Boettiger is Jewish Chaplain and Visiting Assistant Professor of Humanities at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. He previously served as the Associate Rosh Yeshiva at CCM, and for the last decade, directed the Mussar program at Temple Emek Shalom in Ashland, Oregon. Joshua also teaches Jewish Meditation, and co-leads silent retreats. He is a graduate of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, and has an MFA in Poetry from Pacific University.

Rabbi Ira Stone
Rosh Yeshiva Emeritus

Rabbi Ira Stone serves as the Rosh Yeshiva Emeritus of the Center for Contemporary Mussar. He has served congregations in Seattle, WA, and Philadelphia, PA. He was the spiritual leader at Temple Beth Zion-Beth Israel, Philadelphia, for 27 years and is now Rabbi Emeritus.

Rabbi Stone received his education at Queens College, the University of California at Santa Barbara, the American Jewish University in Los Angeles, and the Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS), where he was ordained a Rabbi in 1979.

Rabbi Stone has been visiting lecturer in Jewish Philosophy at the JTS, and at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Philadelphia. He has taught and lectured widely on Talmud and the world of Emmanuel Levinas. He travels widely as a scholar-in-residence at synagogues and conferences.

Rabbi Stone’s first book on mussar is A Responsible Life: The Spiritual Path to Mussar (Aviv Press, 2006). His innovative commentary on Rabbi Moshe Hayyim Luzzatto’s Mesillat Yesharim was published by The Jewish Publication Society in September 2010. With his collaborator, Dr. Beulah Tray, he is currently writing a translation of and commentary on the Mussar classic, Rabbi Moshe Cordovero’s Tomer Devorah. These commentaries are central to the curriculum of CCM.

He is also the author of Reading Levinas/Reading Talmud (JPS, 1998), Seeking the Path of Life: Theological Meditations on the Nature of God, Life, Love and Death (Jewish Lights, 1993) and Sketches for a Book of Psalms (Xlibris, 2000) as well as numerous articles in various journals of Jewish thought.

Sonia Voynow
CCM’s Director of Outreach and Madrichim Development

Sonia Voynow is a psychotherapist in private practice, and the founder of Surviving and Thriving, an organization that draws on Mussar teachings to help parents and grandparents of children with autism. Raised in a conservative Jewish family, and a member of Germantown Jewish Centre In Philadelphia, Sonia has found that Mussar has not only enlivened her religious and spiritual practice, it has also provided valuable guidance in many other aspects of her life. She has studied Mussar since 2005 with Rabbi Ira Stone. Sonia has her BA from the University of Pennsylvania and her Masters in Social Work from Temple University.

Samantha Freeman

Administrator

Samantha Freeman graduated with a degree in journalism from the University of Minnesota. She has worked for a variety of non-profits over the past five years in both administrative support and communications roles, most recently as a Communications Specialist. She’s excited to get started at CCM and help the organization grow and flourish.

Please direct any administrative questions to: [email protected]