Shmuly Yanklowitz

Educational and professional background

Yanklowitz was ordained as a rabbi at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah and he received a second rabbinic ordination from Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, the chief rabbi of Efrat, and a third rabbinic ordination from Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo of Jerusalem. He earned a master's degree at Harvard University in Leadership and Psychology, and a second master's degree in Jewish Philosophy at Yeshiva University. Yanklowitz earned his Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) from the Department of Human Development at Teachers College, Columbia University and has taught at UCLA Law School and Barnard College.

Yanklowitz worked in corporate and non-profit consulting and was the Director of Panim JAM in Washington D.C. training others in leadership and advocacy. While in rabbinical school, Yanklowitz served at four different Orthodox congregations. Following his ordination, Yanklowitz served as Senior Jewish Educator and Director of Jewish Life at UCLA Hillel from 2010 to 2012. Yanklowitz served as a delegate to the World Economic Forum. From August 2012 to May 2013, Yanklowitz served as the Senior Rabbi of Kehilath Israel Synagogue in Overland Park, Kansas. In July 2013, Yanklowitz became Executive Director (later President & Dean) of Valley Beit Midrash.

Activism

Yanklowitz founded Uri L'Tzedek, an Orthodox social justice movement, and the Shamayim V'Aretz Institute, an animal welfare spiritual activist center. The Shamyaim V'Aretz Institute launched the Synagogue Vegan Challenge in Summer 2017.

In 2012, Yanklowitz co-founded “Jews for Human Rights in Syria". He supports a more welcoming attitude towards Syrian refugees in the United States. In November 2015, he helped organize a rally in support of Syrian refugees after Arizona governor Doug Ducey released a statement ordering the halt of refugees into the state". In 2016, Yanklowitz urged politicians to pass legislation supporting an end to attacks on Syrian civilians. Yanklowitz critiqued a United States Holocaust Memorial Museum study justifying the U.S. government’s inaction in the Syrian Civil War which was later pulled by the museum.  Yanklowitz founded and leads the Jewish social justice group Arizona Jews for Justice.

Yanklowitz advocates for cadaveric organ donation as well as for living kidney donation and in the summer of 2015 underwent organ transplant surgery to donate his kidney.

He is also an advocate for transparency in adoption and founded YATOM: The Jewish Adoption & Fostering Network, an organization that supports families looking to adopt or foster. He is a foster parent.

After the inauguration of Donald J. Trump, Yanklowitz offered an alternative Jewish prayer for the welfare of the government that is recited every Sabbath so as to avoid praying for the success of the President's policies while still praying for the U.S. government. Yanklowitz called on Trump to "repent" in the weeks after the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, VA.

Documentary

A film crew followed Yanklowitz for over a year to produce a PBS documentary named The Calling, a documentary series that follows seven Muslims, Catholics, Evangelical Christians, and Jews as they train to become professional clergy and aired in the United States in December 2010.

Books and writings

Yanklowitz's The Soul of Jewish Social Justice was published by URIM Publishing in 2014. Peter L. Rothholz, writing for Jewish Book Council, said that "In language that is at once passionate and direct, the author tackles a number of delicate subjects head on and makes practical suggestions for dealing with them".

Yanklowitz has published nine other books, with his latest released in 2016.

Personal life

Yanklowitz is married and lives in Phoenix, AZ where he serves as the president and dean of the Valley Beit Midrash. Yanklowitz himself underwent Orthodox conversion to Judaism as he is the son of a Jewish father and a Christian mother. He is an advocate for more inclusion of Jewish converts.