Jeffrey Saks
Jeffrey Saks is a Modern Orthodox rabbi, educator, writer and editor. Saks has published widely on Jewish thought, education, and literature. Born into a secular Jewish family and raised in suburban New Jersey, Saks became interested in religious observance in high school through the influence of a local rabbi and the NCSY youth movement.
Education
Upon graduating from public school he enrolled at Yeshiva University in New York, spending his sophomore year studying abroad at Yeshivat Hamivtar in Efrat, Israel. He completed a B.A. in political science and continued for an M.A. at Yeshiva's Bernard Revel Graduate School, studying medieval Jewish history under Prof. David Berger. While at Revel he was part of the student leadership instrumental in rescuing the graduate school from threatened closure in 1992. He completed his Rabbinic ordination at Yeshiva in 1994.Career
In the United States Saks spent two years on the faculty of the Yeshiva University High School for Girls, in Queens, NY, teaching A.P. Jewish history, Talmud, and Bible in 1992–94. He also occupied various leadership positions in the NCSY youth movement, serving as the director of its Israel Summer Kollel.In 1994 he left the United States and answered the call of Rabbi Chaim Brovender and Shlomo Riskin to serve as the administrator of Yeshivat Hamivtar in Efrat, Israel.
In 1997 he was awarded a two-year fellowship at the Mandel School for Educational Leadership in Jerusalem, where he pursued research in the philosophy of Jewish education, remaining as an adjunct faculty of the Mandel Foundation's Visions of Jewish Education Project. Saks has taught classes in Jewish thought and the works of Shai Agnon since around 2017 at the American Seminary for girls, Amudim. He is a consulting editor for digital platform The Lehrhaus and editorial board member of the Tel Aviv Review of Books. He was formerly on the teaching faculties of Yeshivat Ohr Yerushalayim, Machon Gold, and currently teaches at Midreshet Amudim. Jeffrey Saks lives in Efrat, Israel, with his wife Ilana Goldstein Saks and their four children.
ATID/WebYeshiva
In 1999, with Rabbi Chaim Brovender, Saks created ATID – The Academy for Torah Initiatives and Directions in Jewish Education, a center for training Modern Orthodox educators in Israel and the United States and research institute.In 2007 ATID launched WebYeshiva.org, the world's first fully interactive online yeshiva with students from the entire world.