About

Ezra Leventhal (he/they) is a rising fifth year Rabbinical student originally from San Jose, CA. He was born into an interfaith family and found a deep connection to Judaism in his teen years, which he began to pursue whole-heartedly in college. He graduated UC Davis in 2015 with a double major in Religious Studies and Political Science, completing an honors thesis in the Religious Studies department. After college, he got his start in the professional Jewish world as a Jeremiah Fellow with Bend the Arc Bay Area. From there, he began working for multiple synagogues in education, administration, and justice work.

Ezra began his journey with HUC in 2019, which means he is a proud member of the Year in Israel cohort sent home by the pandemic. He moved to Jersey City in Fall 2021 and began working at Anshe Emeth Memorial Temple in New Brunswick, NJ under the mentorship of Rabbi Philip Bazeley. Ezra is known for his work in creative education, including the creation of his own DND inspired Torah Study, in which students play through the Exodus as a fantasy adventure, help Moses build the tabernacle, solve murder mysteries in Shtetl times, and many other wacky quests. He currently splits his time between Woodstock, staying in New Jersey with family to attend school, and Durham, NC, where his partner has settled after finishing her graduate degree. In his spare time, he loves spending time with his partner Maureen and their cats, reading and listening to media analysis, and watching enough scary movies to write his thesis on them (so far, he’s still sleeping okay).