About Rabbi Reuben Modek

Rabbi Modek is the founder and director of the Hebrew Learning Circles ™. His four decades of Jewish community activism, extensive work in the field of Jewish education, personal creative and spiritual explorations, and formal Rabbinic studies led to his 2003 ordination by the Academy for Jewish Religion and the Aleph S'mikhah Program. A native Israeli, Rabbi Modek launched his career as educator with the Zionist youth movements Dror and HaShomer HaTza'ir. He first served as young group counselor and subsequently as youth center director in the towns of Haifa and Rehovot. After earning a degree in Social Work from Haifa University, Rabbi Modek moved to the USA where his passion for Jewish education and leadership were refocused. He since has served as classroom educator, Hebrew school principal, and rabbinic leader for Conservative, Reform, and Havurah communities.

Rabbi Modek draws upon an interdisciplinary palette of scholarship and creative accomplishment. As a certified instructor of Otiyot Hayyot , Living Letters, a movement art inspired by the forms and wisdom of the Hebrew letters, Rabbi Modek has taught workshops relating kinetics to Hebrew instruction and worship for students and educators at retreats, synagogues, and Hebrew schools in the USA, England and Israel.

During the past two decades, Rabbi Modek's educational work has concentrated upon teaching, directing and developing programs in a variety of settings. He has served in the Solomon Schechter Day School system, directed and taught classes in a number of synagogue Hebrew schools, and led creative youth programs at informal educational venues, such as the Aleph Kallah and the National Havurah Committee Summer Institutes. Rabbi Modek's current innovative approach was conceived, tested, and refined during this period.

Invaluable time spent in mentorship and partnership with master educators, such as Rabbi Marcia Prager, Dr. Livia Strauss, Rabbi Michele Sullum, and Rabbi Zalman Schachter Shalomi have influenced and shaped Rabbi Modek's accessible approach to Jewish life and education. Rabbi Modek currently lives in Nyack, New York from where he offers Jewish educational services, holiday celebrations, and life-cycle ceremonies embracing the lifestyle realities of the twenty-first century Jewish family. His approach offers students and their families an opportunity to engage in the Jewish quest with a high degree of spiritual connectedness, contemporary relevance, and personal meaning.