Leon Morris
Ordained from Hebrew Union College in1997 where he was a Wexner Graduate Fellow, he has worked extensively as an educator with the Jewish community of India, beginning in 1990 when he served as a Jewish Service Corps volunteer for the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, and has returned many times for shorter volunteer work.
For three years Leon served as Director of New York Kollel: A Center for Adult Jewish Study at HUC-JIR. He was among the founders of Lishmash, a one-day festival of Jewish life and learning. In addition to teaching at Skirball, he has taught at Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform synagogues, as well as the Drisha Institute. He has contributed essays to The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Baltimore Sun, The Jewish Weekand Beliefnet and has appeared on NPR’s “Morning Edition” and PBS’s “Religion and Ethics Newsweekly.”
Leon is a contributor the the recently published book, Jewish Theology in Our Time: A New Generation Explores the Foundations and Future of Jewish Belief (edited by Elliot Cosgrove, Jewish Lights, 2010) and has also contributed a chapter to Platforms and Prayer Books: Theological and Liturgical Perspectives on Reform Judaism. Leon is a member of the Shalom Hartman Institute’s North American Scholars’ Circle. He was recently selected as one of four editors of the forthcoming Reform High Holiday prayer book to be published in 2015.
At the beginning of May 2010, Leon became the first resident rabbi of Temple Adas Israel, a historic synagogue in Sag Harbor, New York that he had served during the summers for the past ten years. He now lives in Sag Harbor, with his wife, Dasee Berkowitz, a Jewish educator, their son, Tamir and daughter, Yael.