Peter Levi

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Rabbi Peter Levi took a rather circuitous route to the rabbinate. As a native of Los Angeles, he grew up in a secular Jewish family. He received his B.A. from Yale College in Mathematics and Philosophy in 1986, taught high school for a couple years, and then pursued a Ph.D. in Analytic Philosophy from the University of California at Santa Barbara when he began his Jewish journey.

After learning, eating, singing, and dancing with the Jewish community, the decision was easy to become a rabbi and teach his people. Rabbi Levi was ordained from New York campus of the Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion in 1998. Rabbi received an award in Modern Jewish Thought, and has published two papers: “Resolving the Conflict Between the Ethical Values of Confidentiality and Saving a Life: A Jewish View” (with Arthur Gross Shaeffer in Loyola Law Review, vol. 29, number 4, June 1996) and “Kedushah-Holiness, Separation, Dedication” (with Dan Judson in Theological Terms in the Talmud, ed. By Eugene Borowitz, Samek Institute, 1998).

Rabbi Levi served as a congregational rabbi at the Wilshire Boulevard Temple in Los Angeles and Temple Chai in Phoenix, Arizona, before joining the Temple Beth El team in 2006. He is married to artist Ruth Levi and is the proud father of Elijah, Zeke, Raphaela, and Eden.