I am a Baltimore native and spent many years in California and Rhode Island, as a teacher, of Chumash, Talmud and Jewish History, on the high school level.  I left my position at the New England Academy of Torah in Providence in 1994 when I became the director of public affairs and spokesman for Agudath Israel of America.  The legendary Rabbi Moshe Sherer, z”l, who recruited me to the Agudah, countered my reluctance to leave Jewish education by insisting that I would still be a teacher, just not in a classroom.  While there is no substitute for personal interaction with young people, I try to remind (convince?) myself of Rabbi Sherer’s words daily.

For more than a decade I wrote a weekly column syndicated to Jewish and general newspapers and websites, and subsequently for Hamodia.  Currently, I write a weekly column for Ami Magazine, and occasional opinion pieces for media like Religious News Service, Forward and Haaretz. I have also been published in Tablet, Fox News, Moment, the New York Sun, the New York Daily News, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, the Wall St. Journal, The Washington Post and The New York Times.

I am guilty of having written five books, including “Migrant Soul: The Story of an American Ger” (Targum/Feldheim), a collection of essays entitled “It’s All in the Angle” (Torah Temimah Publications/ Judaica Press) and, with my dear father, z”l, a memoir of his life, “Fire, Ice, Air.”

I received my rabbinic ordination from Rabbi Yaakov Yitzchok Ruderman, zt”l, of Ner Israel Rabbinical College in Baltimore, and was privileged to be an awe-struck student of Rabbi Yaakov Weinberg, zt”l for many years before his passing.

My wife Gita and I live in Staten Island, New York, with children in Staten Island as well as in Milwaukee, Detroit, Rockland County, Silver Spring, Lakewood and Baltimore.

Contact: rabbiavishafran42@gmail.com