Rabbi Sholomo Ben Levy

Rabbi Sholomo Ben Levy was born in Queens, New York, in 1964. He is the eldest son of the late Chief Rabbi Levi Ben Levy and Deborah Levy. As a rabbi and as a scholar, he proudly continues the traditions of a long and distinguished line of black rabbis that extends back to the early part of the twentieth century. Rabbi Sholomo Levy entered the Israelite Rabbinical Academy in 1981. He continued his rabbinic studies while pursuing a Bachelor of Arts degree at Middlebury College in Vermont. Part of his rabbinic and secular studies were completed at Tel Aviv University in Israel. In 1985, he graduated from the Academy and was ordained a rabbi. The following year he received his B.A. and then immediately entered a Master’s Degree program in African-American Studies at Yale University. After graduating from Yale in 1988, Rabbi Sholomo Levy returned to New York where he was installed as the Spiritual Leader of Beth Elohim  Hebrew Congregation in Saint Albans, New York.  In 2005, Rabbi Levy received an M.Phil  degree from Columbia University in American History.

Following in his father’s footsteps, he became president of the International Israelite Board of Rabbis. He served as the editor and a frequent contributor to the  Hakol newsletter and editor of the website www.blackjews.org. Throughout the 1990s, Rabbi Levy taught college courses on various aspects of American and African American History at LaGuardia Community College, at the Brooklyn campus of Long Island University, Medgar Evers College, and Middlebury College. In 1999 he married his lovely wife and soulmate Rayah. They have a son, Levi. From 2002 to 2005, Rabbi Levy worked at Harvard University in the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute of the Department of Afro-American Studies as an Associate Editor of African American Lives (2004) and the African American National Biography, a ten-volume reference work. He published over thirty biographical entries for these books including the entries for Rabbi W.A. Matthew, Rabbi Arnold J. Ford,  Father Divine, Maya Angelou, Louis Farrakhan, Tiger Woods, Amy E.J. Garvey, etc.  Rabbi Levy has appeared on various television programs (PBS 39), and he has been a guest on such radio programs as WBLS, WLIB, and WXXI.  Rabbi Levy frequently lectures to diverse audiences around the country. He has participated on academic panels at Chapel Hill University, Harvard Divinity School, DuDable Museum of African American History, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and the annual conference of the American Academy of Religion. He has appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, The Root, and Jewish Forward. Reference to him and pictures of him appear in numerous books and in collections at the Jewish Museum of New York and the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Smithsonian. Many of his sermons and lectures can be found on Youtube. He has traveled widely through Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.

Rabbi Levy is currently a tenured Professor of History at Northampton Community College and lives with his wife and son in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. He regularly commutes to be with his congregation in New York and continues to teach Biblical Hebrew, Kabbalah, Judaic History in the Israelite Academy. Over the years, Rabbi Levy has received many awards and citations. Most significantly, he has received proclamations from the New York City Council (2002) and the New York State Senate (2019) honoring him for his humanitarian work, commitment to social justice, and for promoting peace and brotherhood among all people.

Rabbi Sholomo B. Levy Biography/ Curriculum Vitae