Joel Seltzer

Vice Chancellor for Institutional Advancement

Email: joseltzer@jtsa.edu

As vice chancellor for Institutional Advancement, Rabbi Joel Seltzer leads the development and communications departments in their mission of securing JTS’s role as a preeminent institution of higher education and a source of learning and inspiration that fuels the vitality of North American Jewish life.

Rabbi Seltzer attended The Rabbinical School of JTS after receiving a BA, Magna Cum Laude, from Florida State University. He was ordained in 2008 and received the Rabbi Sidney Greenberg Prize for Homiletics.

Rabbi Seltzer has built a career based on relational philanthropy, with 15 years of experience as a pulpit rabbi, camp director, and not-for-profit executive. He led the Camp Ramah in the Poconos community for over a decade, substantially increasing both enrollment and philanthropic support for the organization and its mission. As executive director, he managed the day-to-day and long-term strategy of this seven-million-dollar not-for-profit organization, which includes an overnight camp, day camp, and Tikvah programs for campers with various disabilities. Prior to his work at Ramah, Rabbi Seltzer served as spiritual leader of Temple Emanu-El in Providence, Rhode Island from 2008-2012.

In 2019, Rabbi Seltzer graduated from the Executive Leadership Institute of the Foundation for Jewish Camp, a fellowship focusing on executive leadership, communication and marketing, board development and fundraising, and business, financial, and operational management. Rabbi Seltzer has also been a presenter on the topics of master planning and building a culture of philanthropy at various conferences and webinars, including the JCamp180 conference, a division of the Harold Grinspoon Foundation.

An author whose writings have appeared in Haaretz.com, eJewishPhilanthropy, and Conservative Judaism Quarterly, Rabbi Seltzer is currently a member of the Siddur Lev Shalem for Weekdays Editorial Committee.