Synagogue Congregation K.I.N.S. Began 2013 Name Leonard Matanky | Birth name Leonard Matanky Role Rabbi Nationality United States Positions Rabbi | |
Alma mater | ||
Rabbi dr leonard matanky giving it time
Leonard A. Matanky (born October 26, 1958) is a prolific Modern Orthodox rabbi and Jewish leader in the United States. Based in Chicago, Illinois, Matanky is currently the immediate past president of the Rabbinical Council of America, pulpit rabbi of Congregation K.I.N.S. and Dean of Ida Crown Jewish Academy. He has written extensively on curriculum issues.
Contents
Biography
Matanky was born in Chicago in 1958. In 1981, He received rabbinical ordination and a master's degree in Religious Education from Hebrew Theological College. That year, he began teaching Judaic studies at Ida Crown Jewish Academy, a coeducational Modern Orthodox high school in Skokie, a suburb of Chicago, IL. Matanky subsequently earned a Masters in Educational Administration from Loyola University in 1982, and a Ph.D. from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences New York University in 1989. In 1994 he assumed the pulpit of Congregation K.I.N.S. in Chicago's West Rogers Park neighborhood. He was appointed Interim Dean of ICJA in 1996; he would later drop the "interim" title and become the Dean. In 2013, he succeeded Rabbi Shmuel Goldin as President of the Rabbinical Council of America. He had previously served as Vice-President of the RCA under Goldin.
Rabbi Matanky has served as President of the Chicago Rabbinical Council, and (as of 2014) is on the boards of the Religious Zionists of Chicago and Camp Moshava. He is also co-Chairman of the Rabbinic Action Committee of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago and serves on the rabbinic advisory committees of the YU Torah MiTzion Kollel of Chicago, and World Bnei Akiva.
Family
Matanky is married to Margaret Novick, with whom he has three sons and four daughters. His eldest child, Yaakov, died in a car accident in 2002 at Camp Moshava Wild Rose. The outdoor synagogue at the camp "Beit Yaakov Levi" was named in his memory. Matanky has fifteen grandchildren (as of December 2016).