Shlomo Einhorn
Yavneh Hebrew Academy | Los Angeles, Calif.
The Orthodox Union’s synagogue guru
Shlomo Einhorn is a rock star rabbi. And it’s not just because he has his own album. It’s because the 35-year-old is one of the most successful synagogue rabbis in America and the Orthodox Union’s go-to person for revitalizing religious life around the country.
When Einhorn arrived at New York’s West Side Institutional Synagogue in 2005, the place was practically deserted. Shabbat morning services boasted an attendance of 12. But seven years later, Einhorn was drawing over 400 people each week and had increased synagogue membership by 70 percent. He did it with out-of-the-box events with flashy titles, like an annual “Rock ‘n’ Roll Shabbaton” featuring actual performing artists—including Roger Daltrey, the frontman of The Who. In addition, Einhorn designed educational programs that integrated elements of popular psychology and delivered sermons that were almost as likely to cite Led Zeppelin or Bob Dylan as they were to quote the Talmud or Hasidic masters.
Einhorn’s work was so successful that in 2010 the Orthodox Union gave him his own think tank to craft programming for other synagogues across America. Want to grow your membership? Run a successful Hanukkah event? Spice up your shul’s Shabbat? Einhorn has a program for that.
In 2012, Einhorn moved back to his hometown of Los Angeles to serve as dean of Yavneh Hebrew Academy, an elite Modern Orthodox prep school, and as the rabbi of its congregation. Since then, he’s embarked on a popular Los Angeles lecture tour covering the history of Orthodox Judaism and launched a sermon series on repentance that continues through the High Holidays.
FROM THE RABBI’S FACEBOOK PAGE:
Okay, so my list does start with Chumash and Gemara. They occupy most of my reading time and stay with me at all times. But here we go with 18 that doesn’t include the Jewish Pillars. Sorry about the 18 and not 10, I was on a roll.
1. Awaken the Giant Within – Tony Robbins
2. The 4 Hour Workweek – Timothy Ferriss
3. Listening to G-d – Rabbi Shlomo Riskin
4. Moonwalking with Einstein – Joshua Foer
5. Anger – Thich Hanh
6. 1Q84 – Haruki Murakami
7. Things Fall Apart – Chinua Achebe
8. The Alchemist – Paul Coelho
9. Pillars of the Earth – Ken Follet
10. Mega Memory – Kevin Trudeau
11. Open Minded Torah – William Kolbrener
12. A New Earth – Eckhart Tolle
13. Baseball – Ken Burns
14. Rav Elyashiv – Artscroll
15. Sailing Home – Norman Fischer
16. The Art of Strategy – Avinash Dixit
17. Nurture Shock – Po Bronson
18. The Book of Secrets – Deepak Chopra
