Skip to main content
Back to News →

Century of Crossroads: Rabbi Sandy Sasso

 

This alumni story is from CTS’s Oral History Project, A Century of Crossroads, which captured the stories and memories of our alumni from our first 100 years in printed and digital formats.

 

Rabbi Sandy E. Sasso – DMin ’96, Honorary Doctorate ’00

Submitted on 3/9/2022 

Rabbi Sandy E. SassoI had been practicing as a rabbi in my congregation for a number of years. I heard about the opportunity to continue my studies by getting a Doctor of Ministry. I had completed PhD classwork before I started as the rabbi of the congregation. This was a wonderful opportunity for me to study with some of the faculty at CTS and expand my education. The class that made the most difference for me was a seminar taught by Professor Nell Slater about children and religion. I worked with youngsters in my own congregation, so I wanted to learn more about the spiritual education of children. I asked Dr. Slater if she would mind if I tried my hand at writing a children’s story about God. Dr. Slater was generous in allowing me to use the story for my assignment. I changed the topic of my dissertation project to the spirituality of children. The story I had written for Dr. Slater’s class became my first children’s book. My first book was called ‘God’s Paintbrush.’ I have now written 25 children’s books. It all started at CTS. I had always used my writing to translate academic material for the general public, so I was very interested in seeing how I could do that for children. My experience at CTS moved me to explore studies in children’s spirituality. I now often speak about that around the country. Most of my books are written for people of all faiths. We know that all children have a deeply spiritual life, but what they don’t have is the language to express it. It is our responsibility as adults and teachers to give them that language. One of the ways we can do that is through a story. Children can find themselves in a story. Stories help them wrestle with the bigger questions that they have about the world. The most important things I learned at CTS were to always be open to engaging in new ideas, be willing to stretch yourself, learn about other faith traditions, and be willing to challenge some of my assumptions about faith.