Jeff Seidel

Last updated
Jeff Seidel
Born
Jeffrey Seidel

1957 (age 66–67)
Chicago, Illinois
Occupation Jewish outreach
Years active1982–present
OrganizationJewish Student Information Center
Notable workThe Jewish Traveler's Resource Guide
Website jeffseidel.com

Jeffrey "Jeff" Seidel (born 1957) [1] is a kiruv (Orthodox Jewish outreach) personality in Jerusalem. Since 1982, he has introduced thousands of Jewish college students to their first Shabbat experience and offered free tours and classes through his Jewish Student Information Centers in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Beersheba, and Herzliya. He also compiled The Jewish Traveler's Resource Guide, which lists Shabbat placement programs around the world.

Contents

Early life and education

Jeffrey Seidel was born in Chicago, Illinois. He attended public school and then graduated from the Ida Crown Jewish Academy in 1975. [1] [2] He decided to leave university in the middle of studying for his doctorate in psychology to move to Israel in 1981. [1] [2] [3]

Outreach career

Concurrent with the rise of the baal teshuva movement in Israel in the 1970s, a small number of Orthodox outreach workers began frequenting the Western Wall and inviting English-speaking, college-age students and travelers to experience a Shabbat meal with a host family or to join a free tour of Jewish sites in the Old City. These outreach workers included Rabbi Meir Schuster, Baruch Levine, and, beginning in 1982, Jeff Seidel. [1] [4] [5] In the beginning, Seidel placed around 15 young people for Shabbat meals each week; as he expanded his list of local families willing to host drop-in guests for Shabbat meals, these numbers grew to about 150 per week in the early 2000s and have since averaged 100 per week. [2] He also places visiting yeshiva students. [2] Seidel also led walking tours of the Jewish Quarter of the Old City and escorted interested students to baal teshuva yeshivas so they could see traditional Jewish learning in action. [1]

Seidel founded the Jewish Student Information Center in Jerusalem's Old City in 1986. [6] The Center offered free walking tours in the Jewish Quarter, archaeological tours, and religious and holiday classes. [1] [7] Seidel also compiled The Jewish Traveler's Resource Guide, which lists similar Shabbat placement programs around the world. [1] According to Kaplan, this guide became "one of the most effective ways of recruiting potential baalei teshuva". [8]

Seidel established a second Jewish Student Information Center near the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1992, providing Shabbat meal placement, laundry and email services, lectures, and a wide-screen television for students. He opened a center near Tel Aviv University in 1994, and subsequently opened centers at Ben Gurion University in Beersheba and the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya. [6]

The Jeff Seidel Jewish Student Information Center offers $400 scholarships toward airfare for former Birthright participants and Hillel alumni who wish to study in Israel. [9] He also runs an online Worldwide Passover Hospitality project which pairs up students and young tourists with host families around the world for the Passover Seder, [3] and arranges meals for 200 to 300 travelers in Israel and around the world between Rosh Hashana and Sukkot. [10]

As of 2017, Seidel publishes a weekly op-ed on the Israeli-based news website The Times of Israel . [11] His topics include Jewish continuity, Jewish outreach, current events, and anti-Semitism on college campuses.

Personal life

Seidel married Penina Greene, daughter of scientist, academic, and Chabad baal teshuva Professor Velvl Greene. [12] She is an oncology nurse at the Hadassah Medical Center on Mount Scopus. [4] They live in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City in Jerusalem.

In December 2014 Seidel's car was attacked by more than one dozen Arab youths as he drove two friends to the Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives. His car sustained 4,000 shekels' ($1,000) worth of damage, but he was uninjured. One of his passengers was treated for a scratched cornea caused by splintered glass. [13] [14]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Breslov</span> Hasidic dynasty

Breslov is a branch of Hasidic Judaism founded by Rebbe Nachman of Breslov (1772–1810), a great-grandson of the Baal Shem Tov, founder of Hasidism. Its adherents strive to develop an intense, joyous relationship with God, and receive guidance toward this goal from the teachings of Rebbe Nachman.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aish HaTorah</span> Orthodox Jewish educational organization

Aish HaTorah is an Orthodox Jewish educational organization and yeshiva.

Rabbi Ephraim Buchwald is one of the leaders in the movement of Orthodox Jewish outreach in America today.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shlomo Riskin</span> American-Israeli Orthodox Jewish rabbi

Shlomo Riskin is an Orthodox rabbi, and the founding rabbi of Lincoln Square Synagogue on the Upper West Side of New York City, which he led for 20 years; founding chief rabbi of the Israeli settlement of Efrat in the Israeli-occupied West Bank; former dean of Manhattan Day School in New York City; and founder and Chancellor of the Ohr Torah Stone Institutions, a network of high schools, colleges, and graduate Programs in the United States and Israel.

Ohr Somayach, Monsey was an accredited men's college of Judaic studies offering both full and part-time programs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mordechai Eliyahu</span> Israeli rabbi, posek, and spiritual leader (1929–2010)

Mordechai Tzemach Eliyahu, was an Israeli rabbi, posek, and spiritual leader.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ohr Somayach, Jerusalem</span> Yeshiva based in Jerusalem founded in 1970

Ohr Somayach is a yeshiva based in Jerusalem founded in 1970 catering mostly to young Jewish men, usually of college age, who are already interested in learning about Judaism. It is known as a "baal teshuva" yeshiva since it caters to Jews with little or no background in Judaism, but with an interest in studying the classic texts such as the Talmud and responsa. Students are recruited either locally or from other countries where the yeshiva has established branches, such as in the United States, Canada, South Africa, United Kingdom, Australia, Ukraine and Russia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Machon Yaakov</span>

Machon Yaakov is a baal teshuva yeshiva for men located in Har Nof, Jerusalem, Israel. Its faculty and student body are all English speaking. It is named for Yaakov Rosenberg, founder of Machon Shlomo, a similar baal teshuva yeshiva. Beryl Gershenfeld is the rosh yeshiva (dean) of both yeshivas

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shalom Arush</span> Israeli rabbi

Shalom Arush is an Israeli Breslov rabbi and founder of the Chut Shel Chessed Institutions. He spreads the teachings of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov among Sephardic and Ashkenazic baalei teshuva, as well as many non-Jews, around the world through his books and speaking appearances.

The Association for Jewish Outreach Programs,, also known by its abbreviation AJOP, is an Orthodox Jewish network which was established to unite and enhance the Jewish educational work of rabbis, rebbetzens, lay people, and volunteers who work in a variety of settings and seek to improve and promote Jewish Orthodox outreach work with ba'alei teshuvah guiding Jews to live according to Orthodox Jewish values. AJOP was the first major Jewish Orthodox organization of its kind that was not affiliated with the Chabad Hasidic movement.

Orthodox Jewish outreach, often referred to as Kiruv or Qiruv, is the collective work or movement of Orthodox Judaism that reaches out to non-observant Jews to encourage belief in God and life according to Jewish law. The process of a Jew becoming more observant of Orthodox Judaism is called teshuva making the "returnee" a baal teshuva. Orthodox Jewish outreach has worked to enhance the rise of the baal teshuva movement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Baal teshuva movement</span> Return of secular Jews to religious Judaism since the 1960s

The baal teshuva movement is a description of the return of secular Jews to religious Judaism. The term baal teshuva is from the Talmud, literally meaning "master of repentance". The term is used to refer to a worldwide phenomenon among the Jewish people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dov Schwartzman</span> Russian-born American Haredi rabbi, educator, and Talmudic scholar (1921-2011)

Dov Schwartzman, also called Berel Schwartzman, was a Russian-born American Haredi Jewish rabbi, educator, Talmudic scholar, and rosh yeshiva (dean) of Bais Hatalmud, which he founded in the Sanhedria Murhevet neighborhood of Jerusalem and led for over 40 years. He also founded and led the Talmudical Yeshiva of Philadelphia together with Rabbi Shmuel Kamenetzky, and co-founded the first yeshiva in Israel for baalei teshuva. He taught tens of thousands of students, many of whom received semicha from him.

The Heritage House is a non-profit youth hostel in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. It offers free or subsidized lodging to Jews from around the world. The hostel provides young Jewish adults with information on touring, studying, intern, and work opportunities in Israel, in addition to providing follow-up connections, especially with the Jewish communities back in their home towns around the world.

Shmuel Skaist, known professionally as Rav Shmuel, is an American Orthodox rabbi, speaker, and musician from Brooklyn, New York. Initially gaining recognition for his Jewish outreach programs aimed at Phish concertgoers, Skaist taught in yeshivot in New York and Israel for several years before deciding to pursue a music career. His debut studio album, Protocols, was released in 2006 by the Jewish Music Group label.

Reuven Elbaz is a Sephardi Haredi rabbi, rosh yeshiva, and a leader of the baal teshuva movement among Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews in Israel. He is the founder and head of the Ohr Hachaim network of institutions, which operates educational, humanitarian, prison, and drug rehabilitation programs in 350 branches across Israel. He is also the founder and dean of Yeshivat Ohr Hachaim in Jerusalem, which enrolls more than 500 students. He is a senior member of the Moetzet Chachmei HaTorah of the Shas political party.

Ari Benjamin Lesser is a Jewish American rapper, singer, songwriter, and spoken word artist. Known for his videos on Israel and Jewish Holidays, Lesser has released over a dozen albums, written hundreds of original songs on a wide range of subjects, composed raps about 200 different animals, and created accurate rhyming translations of Pirke Avot, Psalms, and other parts of the Siddur. He continues to perform and speak at events around the world.

Julia Anne Blum is an American Orthodox Jewish singer, songwriter, actress, and speaker. A baalat teshuva, Blum studied music and theater at Harvard and Yale and worked with vocal coach Seth Riggs before becoming Orthodox in the late 1980s. She has released two albums, Stand Tall (1990) and Songs of the Heart (1998), and has toured throughout the United States, Canada and overseas.

Yitzchok Shlomo Zilberman was an Israeli Haredi rabbi and educator, pioneer of the Zilberman Method of Torah study. He founded Yeshivat Aderet Eliyahu, part of a community that follows the path of the Vilna Gaon.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Winer, Todd (9 February 1996). "'Hunter' at Kotel Seeks Shabbat Dinner Guests". Chicago Jewish News. Retrieved 17 June 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Friedman, Chemi. "A Shabbos Meal for Every Jew". Hamodia Inyan magazine, September 11, 2019, pp. 36–39.
  3. 1 2 Unger, Leah (11 April 2014). "Everybody's b'Seder". The Jerusalem Post . Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 28 June 2015.
  4. 1 2 Pensak, Margie (27 December 2014). "BJL Exclusive: Jeff Seidel and Yohanan Danziger Miraculously Escape Jerusalem Arab Stoning Unharmed". Baltimore Jewish Life. Archived from the original on 17 June 2015. Retrieved 17 June 2015.
  5. ↑ Rossoff, Dovid (2001). Where Heaven Touches Earth: Jewish Life in Jerusalem from Medieval Times to the Present (Revised ed.). Feldheim Publishers. p. 537. ISBN   0873068793.
  6. 1 2 "About Us". Jeff Seidel's Jewish Student Centers. Retrieved 17 June 2015.
  7. ↑ Thomas, Amelia (2010). Israel and the Palestinian Territories . Lonely Planet. p.  94. ISBN   978-1742203515.
  8. ↑ Kaplan, Dana Evan (2013). Contemporary American Judaism: Transformation and Renewal. Columbia University Press. p. 321. ISBN   978-0231510417.
  9. ↑ "Other Israel Experience Scholarship Resources". Jewish United Fund. 2014. Retrieved 17 June 2015.
  10. ↑ Kresh, Miriam (24 September 2014). "On your own and hungry". The Jerusalem Post. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 28 June 2015.
  11. ↑ "The Blogs: Jeff Seidel". The Times of Israel . 2017.
  12. ↑ "Professor Velvel Greene, 83, OBM". COLLive. 21 November 2011. Retrieved 17 June 2015.
  13. ↑ Dvorin, Tova (24 December 2014). "'Police Didn't Help' After Cinder Block Attack in Jerusalem". Israel National News . Retrieved 7 May 2023.
  14. ↑ Eisenbud, Daniel K. (28 December 2014). "Jews en route to Mount of Olives funeral attacked by Arab youths". The Jerusalem Post . Retrieved 17 June 2015.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.