Dr. Sandra Lilienthal
Dr. Sandra Lilienthal is a teacher, scholar, and curriculum developer who has transformed adult education in her South Florida community and beyond. Her Living Wisdom nine-course curricula is taught all around the world through the Melton School of Adult Jewish Learning. Her tenth curriculum for the Melton School is being released early springs. She is also the author of Pillars of Judaism, a four-module, 50-session curriculum, which effectively led to stronger Jewish identity and more meaningful Jewish experiences for its participants. She is the Curriculum Director at the Institute for Jewish Knowledge and Learning, where she is also a faculty member. Sandra is a frequent speaker at Jewish education conferences, synagogues, and other Jewish organizations in the US.
Dr. Lilienthal has also served as an adjunct professor at Gratz College in Melrose Park, Pennsylvania, where she taught online undergraduate and graduate courses and on-site courses during the one-week intensive Summer Institute. She has mentored many of her online students and has been an informal advisor to students currently working on their doctoral comprehensive exams and dissertations.
Dr. Lilienthal was Director of Lifelong Learning in Parkland, Florida. In that position, she supervised all areas of congregational Jewish education; designed curricula for both the religious school and the adult education program; trained teachers; established and oversaw the Judaic component of the Early Childhood Center curriculum; created educational material for the congregation’s website; and led regular educational meetings with parents of students preparing for their bar and bat mitzvah services. Previously, in Waco, Texas, she was responsible for teaching religious school classes and tutoring b’nai mitzvah students.
Passionate about adult Jewish education, Dr. Lilienthal is heavily involved in many different programs that promote non-denominational learning, bringing together Jews of different beliefs, practices, and levels of knowledge, such as Limmud, NewCAJE, and the Global Day of Jewish Learning, a project of Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, z”l, for which she both has written and edited curricula. Her ELI Talk has been viewed thousands of times. Sandra is a 2015 winner of the prestigious Covenant Award for Excellence in Jewish Education, and has great enthusiasm for teaching Judaism as a living religion, infusing true passion for it among those who study with her.
