Zev Leff

Zev Leff is an American-born Orthodox Jewish rabbi.

Born in the Bronx, New York to non-observant Jewish parents, Rabbi Leff attended a local Hebrew school. When his family moved to the Greater Miami area, he decided to increase his religious observance and enrolled at the Hebrew Academy of Greater Miami. Since his learning skills were not up to par with other boys his age (fifth grade), he was placed in a third-grade class. Within two years he had caught up to his grade, and also made the decision to become Shomer Shabbat.

For high school, Rabbi Leff attended the Mesivta of Greater Miami, where he was regularly assigned to the yeshiva's most advanced shiurim. Afterwards he studied at the Telshe yeshiva in Cleveland, Ohio, where he received his semicha and became a close talmid (student) of Rabbi Mordechai Gifter

In late 1968, he married Rivkah Minkoff of Ellenville, New York. The couple settled in Cleveland, where Rabbi Leff learned in kollel and supervised the Telshe dormitory.

During a Passover visit to Miami in 1974, Rabbi Leff delivered holiday sermons at the Young Israel of Greater Miami in North Miami Beach. His sermons were so well received that after the holiday, he was invited to apply for the position of rabbi. With the encouragement of Rabbi Gifter, he accepted a one-year contract.

Rabbi Leff served as the Rav of the 300 families of Young Israel of Greater Miami for nine years. He worked with the NCSY chapter in his synagogue and also taught at the mesivta (high school) he attended as a teenager. His ability to understand both religious and secular Jews made him a popular leader and advisor.

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