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:
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
