About Rabbi Eliezer Havivi

Rabbi Eliezer Havivi has been the spiritual leader of Beth David Synagogue in Greensboro, since 1991. After being ordained by the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, he served as the director of Camp Ramah in the Poconos, a Jewish educational children's summer camp affiliated with the Conservative movement.

Rabbi Havivi moved to Israel as a founding member of Kibbutz Hanaton, a communal farm in the Galilee, near Nazareth. He lived and worked on the kibbutz from 1984 -1989, then moved to Tivon, a small town in the north of Israel, where he worked as a faculty member at Oranim, the kibbutz movement school of education, and moved to Greensboro in 1991.

An Israeli citizen, Rabbi Havivi has returned to Israel many times since relocating to North Carolina. He has accompanied groups of Jewish pilgrims, interfaith groups - both clergy and lay, youth groups (including March of the Living). For one month each summer, Rabbi Havivi serves as the senior rabbinic staff at Camp Ramah Darom where he teaches young adults from throughout the Southeast US.

On October 8, 2011, Beth David honored Rabbi Havivi on "Clergy Appreciation Day" in the News & Record.

Rabbi Havivi is involved in the Conservative movement on a nationwide basis. He has served on several committees of the Rabbinical Assembly, and currently is a member of the RA's executive committee as well as its Keruv Committee which explores ways of involving interfaith families. He also serves on the Keruv subcommittee of the Leadership Council of Conservative Judaism and is a member of the UJC Rabbinic Cabinet. Rabbi Havivi has served as a mentor to rabbinic students and recent graduate rabbis of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. He also served on the editorial committee of the chumash, Etz Hayim.

Locally, Rabbi Havivi has taught at Shephard's Center and Greensboro College. Along with other Greensboro rabbis, he teaches classes for the Florence Melton Mini-School, the largest pluralistic adult Jewish education network in the world. In 2005, Rabbi Havivi was awarded an honorary Doctor of Divinity by the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York.

Rabbi Havivi is the father of four: Daniel, Nadav, Tal and Noa. He enjoys cooking, baking, reading novels, and following ACC basketball.