“As a Jewish educator, my roles are varied, but my goal is always the same: to discover and cultivate creative ways to help each individual student, class, and teacher find a personally meaningful and lasting relationship with Judaism. That is the journey and the covenant. That is the goal, the promised land of a deeply personal and lifelong relationship with our tradition.”

One day, when Stuart Seltzer was 16 years old, the rabbi of his local synagogue stopped him in the hallway of the school. The 5th grade teacher was ill, Rabbi Berkun told him. “Would you please go and teach his class? They’re waiting for you.” Stuart has been teaching ever since.

Stuart attended Columbia University and the Jewish Theological Seminary as an undergraduate and was ordained at JTS in 1988. Upon ordination, he accepted an invitation from Rabbi Joel H. Zaiman to become the Director of the Religious School at Chizuk Amuno Congregation in Baltimore. He would remain there for 19 years, teaching in all of the congregation’s five schools, from early childhood through adult programming. His unique teaching style and his passion for Jewish education helped him pioneer new approaches to family programming, the arts in Jewish education, family services, and teen educational experiences. His award-winning programs have served as models for communities throughout North America.

Rabbi Seltzer’s home is an extended classroom, always open for Shabbat and holiday meals and informal study sessions. He has a particular interest in theatrical arts and has completed five summer sessions with the Lincoln Center Institute for Aesthetic Education. As a result of his dedication and creativity, Rabbi Seltzer has secured many grants for distinctive projects at the institutions where he has taught. For the past eight years, he has also created and taught curriculum at the New Directors Institute of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism.

In 2007, Stuart accepted the post of Dean of Judaic Studies at the Shoshana S. Cardin High School, Baltimore’s only pluralistic Day School. As supervisor and teacher of Judaic Studies, school rabbi, and supervisor of the Hebrew language program, Stuart continues to introduce creative new approaches to prayer and learning.

“I am a storyteller,” Stuart writes. “That was my job at Chizuk Amuno Congregation, and it is my job now at the Shoshana S. Cardin School. It is my job to help create, through imaginative and rigorous Jewish education, a powerful positive story about what Jewish education can be, about where we might go and what it will take to get there. This is what the future holds for me, to imagine and dream this ongoing story and put it into practice every day.”