Rabbi David Gedzelman

MANAGING DIRECTOR​

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Rabbi David Gedzelman is the Managing Director of the Areivim Philanthropic Group, which is a learning community of private foundations and independent funders deeply interested in exploring the challenges and opportunities facing the American Jewish community with a focus on Jewish Peoplehood and Zionism. In Areivim, principals and foundation professionals learn together as one community and explore strategies, philanthropic solutions, and idea possibilities for meeting the Jewish future. 

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He is also President and Senior Philanthropic Advisor of the Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life, whose activities and terminal grantmaking he oversees as the Foundation winds down through 2028. 

 

Rabbi Gedzelman was the Founding Director of Makor, which was a cultural and learning center for Jewish New Yorkers in their 20s and 30s. In his Foundation work, he has helped to launch and oversee a range of initiatives including Hebrew Language Charter Schools, OneTable, Kayitz Kef/Hebrew at Camp, and JECEI, the Jewish Early Childhood Education Initiative. He recently led a feasibility study exploring interventions in American Higher Education. He holds degrees from Hamilton College, Duke University, and the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. In Israel, he studied at the Pardes Institute for Jewish Studies and the Hebrew University.  He lives in Harlem in New York City with his wife, Judith Turner, and his three children, Nomi, Anina and Ziv.