Amichai Lau-Lavie
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
I’ve known Amichai for 10 years, and he continues to grow as a brilliant and empathetic leader, first of StorahTelling and then of Lab/Shul. He truly cares about each individual in his flock and seems to have limitless love and attention for everyone. He uses his own feelings, perceptions and life experiences to understand what others need. And he’s not afraid to let his feelings show — that makes him stronger, not weaker. He does not bluster, he communicates with all he has. Here’s an example of his creative use of his own experience to serve the community. After the death of his father, he initiated a virtual Kaddish weekly conference call-in. Realizing that others in our spread-out community in our large city needed to come together to talk about our lost loved ones and to say Kaddish with friendly voices, he or a staff person is on the phone every Thursday at noon to support our community of mourners.
— Roxanne Greenstein
+ 38 other nominations
Watch Rabbi Lau-Lavie explain the relationship between US and American Jews:
Why I became the Forward’s Editor-in-Chief
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