Timothy Cravens

The son of an evangelical minister and nephew of eight other ministers, Tim grew up both deeply religious and also a spiritual seeker. He visited his first synagogue in Chattanooga, TN in 1981 as a freshman in high school and majored in Judaic studies with a minor in Hebrew at Emory. He went on to Harvard Divinity School where, while studying for Christian ministry, 11 of his 27 courses were in Jewish studies.

Tim has worked in the nonprofit world, working for a Jewish nonprofit for six and a half years before moving to Philadelphia in 2005. Although pastoring a small church for sixteen years, he kept finding himself drawn to Judaism, attending synagogue for many years. Studying Mussar with the Center for Contemporary Mussar (CCM) gave him the theology he needed to convert to Judaism in 2023. Tim once again works for a Jewish nonprofit and has rabbinic ordination from Lemaan Yilmedu, a Chasidic institute in Crown Heights. He is excited to learn with other Mussar students as a madrich.