Rabbi Sidney Schwarz is the founder and president of PANIM: The Institute for Jewish Leadership and Values, a non-profit educational organization dedicated to the renewal of American Jewish life through the integration of Jewish learning, values and social responsibility. He previously served as executive director of the Jewish Community Council of Greater Washington, D.C. and was the founding rabbi of Adat Shalom Reconstructionist Congregation in Rockville, MD, where he is now rabbi emeritus.

Dr. Schwarz is a graduate of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College (RRC) and holds a Ph.D. in Jewish history. He has served on the faculties of the University of Maryland, Temple University and the RRC as well as the Wexner Summer Institute and the Whizin Family Education Institute. Schwarz’s first book, Finding a Spiritual Home: How a New Generation of Jews can Transform the American Synagogue (Jewish Lights) was not only widely read and quoted, but has been used by hundreds of synagogues and rabbis across the country. In it, he offered a new paradigm to help reclaim the American synagogue for a younger generation of American Jews. Judaism and Justice: The Jewish Passion to Repair the World (Jewish Lights, 2006) uses a similar blend of history and sociology to offer a new vision for a Jewish community built around a commitment to social justice.

Schwarz is the co-author of Jewish Civics: A Tikkun Olam/World Repair Manual (1994) and Jews, Judaism, and Civic Responsibility (1998). He has written more than 100 articles for various journals, including Judaism, Moment, Sh'ma and Reconstructionist, and is a frequent lecturer on contemporary Jewish affairs. In 2002, Rabbi Schwarz was awarded a Covenant Award for Exceptional Jewish Educators by the Covenant Foundation.