Biography

A fourth-year rabbinical student, Aaron Leven has spent most of his life deeply involved in Jewish community and education. He is pursuing the rabbinate in order to dedicate his life to creating dynamic Jewish experiences as rich as those with which he grew up.

Aaron has spent 16 summers at the Wilshire Boulevard Temple camps serving as a counselor, ropes course director,  and most recently as a unit head and educator. A graduate of Emory University with a Bachelor’s degree in Middle Eastern studies, he spent his time outside of the classroom involved in Hillel, dancing, and rock climbing. Aaron’s love for Judaism, Israel, and social justice are all deeply connected. As a result, Aaron has participated in the Avodah Jewish service corps, AJWS’s volunteer summer in Uganda, Nativ, Yeshivat Hadar’s yearlong fellowship, T’ruah’s Israel fellowship, and the New Israel Fund’s Froman Fellowship.

Before rabbinical school, Aaron worked for OneTable as the New York hub manager, where he worked with the 20s and 30s community of the greater New York area in hosting their own Shabbat dinners and creating individualized sacred practices. He spent this past year as their rabbinic intern. Aaron is currently completing a unit of clinical pastoral education at New York Presbyterian after completing his first unit of CPE last summer as a chaplain intern at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles.

Aaron is in the current cohort of UJA graduate fellows, works as the admissions intern for the JTS rabbinical school, and is thrilled to be part of the team at BJ, where he is able to continue to learn and grow in his pursuit of creating meaningful, spiritual, and joyous Jewish community.