Jeff Seidel
| Jeff Seidel | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Jeffrey Seidel 1957 (age 59–60) Chicago, Illinois |
| Occupation | Orthodox Judaism outreach |
| Years active | 1982–present |
| Organization | Jewish Student Information Center |
| Notable work | The Jewish Traveler's Resource Guide |
| Website | jeffseidel |
Jeffrey Seidel (born 1957) is a kiruv (Orthodox Jewish outreach) personality in Jerusalem, Israel. Since 1982, he has introduced thousands of Jewish college students to their first Shabbat experience and offered free tours and classes through his Jewish Student Information Centers in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Beersheba, and Herzliya. He also compiled The Jewish Traveler's Resource Guide, which lists Shabbat placement programs around the world.
Jeff Seidel grew up in Chicago and graduated from the Ida Crown Jewish Academy in 1975. He decided to leave school in the middle of studying for his doctorate in psychology to move to Israel in 1981. He married Penina Greene, daughter of scientist, academic, and Chabad baal teshuva Professor Velvel Greene. She is an oncology nurse at the Hadassah Medical Center on Mount Scopus. They live in the French Hill neighborhood of Jerusalem.
In December 2014 Seidel's car was attacked by more than one dozen Arab youths as he drove two friends to the Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives. His car sustained 4,000 shekels ($1,000) worth of damage, but he was uninjured. One of his passengers was treated for a scratched cornea caused by splintered glass.
Concurrent with the rise of the baal teshuva movement in Israel in the 1970s, a small number of Orthodox outreach workers began frequenting the Western Wall and inviting English-speaking, college-age students and travelers to experience a Shabbat meal with a host family or to join a free tour of Jewish sites in the Old City. These outreach workers included Rabbi Meir Schuster, Baruch Levine, and, beginning in 1982, Jeff Seidel. By the mid-1990s, Seidel was placing about 250 young people for Shabbat meals with host families in Jerusalem each week during the summer. He also led walking tours of the Jewish Quarter of the Old City and escorted interested students to baal teshuva yeshivas so they could see traditional Jewish learning in action.
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