Rabbi Judah Kerbel

Mara D'asra

Rabbi Judah Kerbel joined the Queens Jewish Center family in July 2019. He has displayed warmth and kindness in reaching out to everyone who comes to our Shul – members and not yet members. Rabbi Kerbel is attentive to everyone’s needs – in good times and in difficult times. Despite the challenges we’ve all had with the pandemic. Rabbi Kerbel has been instrumental in helping us plan well popular and meaningful social and religious programs for members of all ages and the larger Forest Hills area. He and his wife, Eliana, have earned our deep affection for their sincerity, scholarship and total devotion to our shul.

Rabbi Kerbel was born in Bowie, Maryland, and he grew up in Cleveland, Milwaukee, and Atlanta. Rabbi Kerbel graduated cum laude from the University of Maryland, where he earned a B.A. in psychology and Jewish Studies. He wrote an honors thesis in modern Jewish history entitled “Herz Homberg, Tradition, and Enlightenment: How Education Intersected with Judaism and the Haskalah.” These two concentrations prompted him to seriously consider a career in the rabbinate, fusing Torah knowledge and a passion for helping others, and his involvement in Hillel inspired his commitment to Jewish leadership. He also learned in Yeshivat Har Etzion. 

Rabbi Kerbel an alumnus of Yeshiva University, where earned semicha from the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary and an M.A. in medieval Jewish history from the Bernard Revel Graduate School. While studying for semicha, Rabbi Kerbel participated in the RIETS/Ferkauf mental health counseling program designed for rabbis, in which he took courses that are designed to help rabbis counsel their congregants with greater sensitivity and awareness of psychology. He was a fellow at the Center for Modern Torah Leadership’s Summer Beit Midrash, and he participated in fellowships through UJA-Federation, AIPAC, and Fellowships at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics, all geared towards aspiring clergy. Rabbi Kerbel served as a rabbinic intern at The Roslyn Synagogue and Young Israel of Plainview, and he was a beit midrash fellow at SAR High School.

Rabbi Kerbel is a member of the Vaad Harabonim of Queens and the executive committee of the Rabbinical Council of America. Some of his published writing can be found at The Lehrahus, The Jewish Press, and Times of Israel blogs.

Rabbi Kerbel is married to Eliana (Shields), a native of Baltimore, MD. She is a middle school teacher at Yeshiva Har Torah and completed a dual masters in childhood general education and teaching literacy at Bank Street College of Education. 

Rabbi Kerbel can be reached at RabbiK@MyQJC.org .

Past weekday shiurim by Rabbi Kerbel can be accessed here (including source materials).

Check out Rabbi  Kerbel's blog here.