Dr. Jonathan Seidel (Yehonatan Aryeh ben Nahum v’Esther) was born in Newark New Jersey during the week of Parshat VaYetze in 5715 on September 2, 1955. He is descended from a rabbinic lineage of mitnagdim in the Ukraine who learned and practiced kabbalah. He received his PhD at the University of California, Berkeley in Near Eastern Studies (1996) and studied at Oberlin College, JTS, and was a Fullbright-Hayes scholar at Cambridge University.
He has taught Judaic Studies and Religion at Stanford, Berkeley, Davis, Santa Cruz, U of Arizona, and the U. of Oregon.
Jonathan has served as a spiritual leader for a number of Jewish communities in California and Arizona, and has an extensive background in Interfaith, Jewish music (he has served as Hazzan for over twenty years) Jewish education and environmental activism.
His Jewish spiritual journey was radically altered by meeting Rabbis Shlomo Carlebach z"l and Rabbi Zalman Schachter Shalomi in the 1970's and it was Reb Zalman who helped bring Jonathan to the ALEPH semikah program in the 90's. Jewish Renewal has been part of his life since the mid nineteen - seventies and counts among his rabbinic mentors Renewal, Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist and many “transdenominational” leaders. These include most recently Rabbis Shaya Eisenberg, Miles Krassen Andrea Cohen-Kiener, Yitzhak Husbands-Hankin, Marcia Prager, Leah Novick, Ayla Grafstein and David Wolf Blank (z”l) (among many Renewal teachers) and in the more recent past: Neil Gillman, Yohanan Muffs, Shaya Cohen, Martin Balinoff, Ismar Schorsch, Herschel Matt, Jacob Milgrom, David Winston, and Albert Plotkin.
Jonathan was raised at Temple Emmanuel in Westfield, New Jersey where his rabbinic teachers were Rabbis Charles Kroloff and Leonard Thal.
He has edited a volume entitled Divination and Magic in the Ancient World (Brill 2002) and has published articles on Midrash, Jewish folklore, magic, history, rabbinics, modern Jewish thought and politics.
Rabbi Seidel has served as a scholar and singer in residence since receiving his doctorate as well as frequent guest on local TV and radio in Oregon. He is currently writing a history of Jewish healing and magic and his Semikha project is devoted to the halakhic response to holistic remedies (segulot).
In addition to teaching at the University of Oregon he is developing a new multifaith Institute devoted to spirituality and the arts.
Jonathan is also serving as the Rabbi to the nascent Light of the Garden Jewish community in Eugene, Oregon. He is married to Linda Rifkin and together they are raising Maya (14) and Elah (10) .
