Our Team
Executive Director, Benjamin Ross
Rabbi Benjamin Ross
Rabbi Benjamin Ross is a passionate spiritual leader, educator, and community builder who believes in the transformative power of relationships. Blending a love of Jewish tradition with a commitment to justice, creativity, and spiritual growth, he designs learning experiences that invite vulnerability, courage, and connection.
Rabbi Ross’s career spans community organizing, congregational leadership, seminary teaching, spiritual direction, and entrepreneurial ventures. He served as a community organizer in Harlem and Brooklyn, and later as Director of National Leadership Initiatives at Bend the Arc: A Jewish Partnership for Justice, where he led a 15-person team and managed a $3 million budget. After ordination from Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion in 2016, he served as Associate Rabbi at Leo Baeck Temple (Los Angeles) for six years and then directed engagement work at Temple Shaaray Tefila (NYC).
A serial innovator, dynamic teacher and reflective practitioner, Rabbi Ross currently teaches Spiritual Leadership at HUC-JIR in New York, co-authored a recent report on spiritual formation in rabbinic education for HUC-JIR, co-founded Project Zug (now part of Hadar) serving thousands each year, served on the board of Congregation B’nai Jeshurun (NYC) from 2006-2011, co-created Manna: A Jewish Food Initiative and currently serves on the boards of the Institute for Jewish Spirituality and PICO California.Most importantly, Benjamin is married to Liz Bennett and they have two boys who are 11- and 12-years old.
Advisory Team
Founding members:
Rabbi Peter Berg, The Temple, Atlanta
Aziza Hasan, New Ground, Los Angeles
Joseph McKeller, PICO California
Our Partners
PICO California is the largest faith-based community organizing network in the state. Their mission is to catalyze faith-based and spiritually-centered people power in California to create systemic change for the most vulnerable so that all Californians thrive. Their vision is a Moral Economy for California — which includes structural campaigns that result in significant material improvements for the most vulnerable Californians. These include housing, incarceration reform, job opportunity, school funding and inclusion of all immigrants and refugees.
The Action Lab is a strategy center for social movements that sparks political and personal liberation. They provide rigorous and joyful spaces for organizers, leaders and artists to learn, to create, and to strengthen our capacity to win. They strive to build a powerful culture that lifts others out of the immediate and enables them to envision and realize their way to a just future.
Convergence is transforming how faith communities engage with the world. As congregational consultants, they guide organizations through strategic planning, fostering renewal that reflects forward-thinking faith and social justice values. Their vision is rooted in inclusivity, collaboration, and innovation—helping congregations shift from "organized" to "organizing" spiritual communities.
Congregational Partners
Coming soon