Rabbi Elie Kaunfer

Rabbi Elie Kaunfer is the President and CEO of the Hadar Institute. There, he leads efforts to advance the organization's mission of empowering Jews to create and sustain vibrant, practicing, egalitarian communities of Torah, Avodah, and Hesed. Elie is inspired by the tens of thousands of people who learn with Hadar faculty every year and gratified to know how Hadar has helped so many Jews connect to others in their community. As a rabbi, he is passionate about looking for new ways to help people enhance and connect with their Jewish heritage, understand the most fundamental purposes of Judaism in a new light, and find deeper meaning behind the words of daily prayer.

Elie helped found Hadar in 2007 to provide an environment that reconciled rigorous Jewish learning with intellectual honesty, reaching a broad audience. Since then, Hadar has impacted tens of thousands of people in hundreds of communities, including those in the Community Groups network supported by the Harold Grinspoon Foundation. He lives in Yonkers, NY with his wife and three kids, and, true to his Providence, RI roots, remains a diehard Red Sox fan despite living so close to Yankee Stadium.