In Memory of Rabbi Emeritus Steve Sager (z”l)

May His Memory be a Blessing

Rabbi Steve Sager
June 29, 1951 – May 15, 2022

We invite the community to participate in the mitzvah of tzedakah by making donations designated for the Sager Visiting Scholar Fund at Beth El. Proceeds will be used to support learning with teachers and students who made a difference in Rabbi Sager‘s life and those whose lives he affected. These people will help us carry forward Rabbi Sager‘s Torah. Click here to make a donation (select Sager Visiting Scholar Fund in the fund dropdown).

Rabbi Sager served as Beth El’s rabbi for 32 years.  He is a graduate of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College (RRC) and earned a Ph.D. in Rabbinic Literature at Duke University. Rabbi Sager has been a teacher, rabbinic advisor and mentor for students and graduates of the RRC, Hebrew Union College, Jewish Theological Seminary and the Rabbinical School of the Boston Hebrew College.  Rabbi Sager was an adjunct faculty member of Duke Divinity School and had taught at the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and in the Department of Social Medicine at the UNC Medical School.  Rabbi Sager was a Senior Rabbinic Fellow of the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, where he was also a leader of the Rabbinic Programs Advisory Committee and of the Rabbinic Havurah program.  Rabbi Sager served as President of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association and of the Greater Carolinas Association of Rabbis (GCAR); co-director of the GCAR Interfaith Institute, Scholar in Residence on numerous occasions for the GCAR, as well as serving in this capacity in congregations throughout the United States.  Rabbi Sager published articles in The Reconstructionist, The Journal of Religious Education, and The Southern Medical Journal. Rabbi Sager served as the Director of Sicha, a project to stimulate conversations between classical Jewish culture and contemporary Jewish needs. Rabbi Sager passed away on May 15, 2022.

Funeral services for Rabbi Steven Sager took place on Tuesday, May 17.

Click here to view a recording

Obituaries

obituary of Rabbi Sager’s life

obituary published on JTA.org

On May 31, the Shalom Hartman Institute hosted Torah and Stories in honor of Rabbi Sager.

Watch THE RECORDING

• “Holiday Seasons: Judaism While Standing On One Foot–At A Time” August 16, 2021
  (Click here to view texts.)

• “My Father Was God and Didn’t Know It” June 29, 2020 
  (Click here to view texts.)
• “All Were Present at Sinai Except For One” July 13, 2020 
  (Click here to view texts.)
• “The Threatening Mountain and Loving Shelter” July 27, 2020
  (Click here to view texts.)
• “Moses Only Once Saw God’s Face and Forgot” August 10, 2020
  (Click here to view texts.)
• “Moses Received Torah from Sinai and It Became Three Things” August 24, 2020
  (Click here to view texts.)
• “A Mystical Master and a Modern Poet Receive Torah for a New Age!” September 14, 2020
  (Click here to view texts.)