Not so long ago, I was a statistic that worried institutional Jews: a Spiritual None, turned off by mainstream American Jewish practice as I had received it. Yet I always felt a spiritual longing for connection. I worked at Apple Computer, earned an MBA at Indiana University, and moved to the West Coast to work in the wine industry. Along the way, I found many folks with a shared zeitgeist: a desire for living in community and supporting each other physically and emotionally.

Through an unexpected turn of events (ask me about that sometime!), I found Jewish Renewal, a daring approach to Judaism as a spiritual practice, and realized not only that this Jewish thing was for me, but also that I needed to become a rabbi.

With my wife, Amberly, we made our home in Boston, where I began my rabbinic studies with Aleph, the Alliance for Jewish Renewal, while also working at Nehar Shalom Synagogue in Jamaica Plain and at Kesher Hebrew School in Cambridge/Somerville. We spent the 2014-15 school year in Jerusalem while I studied at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, and then moved to New York City for the next two years while I served as rabbinic intern at Romemu, arguably one of the most vibrant synagogues in the country right now.

In 2017, I earned ordination as a Mashpi’a Ruchani/Spiritual Director, a practice of spiritual companionship to help people investigate their relationship with Divinity/ Source/the Eternal. I received rabbinic smicha/ordination from Aleph in January 2018.