Levite 2017-2019
Rafi Ellenson is a translator, poet, and the Rabbi of Congregation Shir Hadash in Los Gatos, CA. He was ordained in 2025 by the Rabbinical School of Hebrew College, where he also received a certificate in Interreligious Leadership from the Boston Theological Interreligious Consortium and in Facilitation from Resetting the Table. He is a graduate of the Individualized Bachelor of Arts program at Goddard College.
An experienced prayer leader and musician, Rafi has been a part of the davening team for communities such as Nava Tehila in Jerusalem, Beit Tefilah Israeli in Tel Aviv, Temple Beth Zion in Brookline, MA, and a songleader in various Reform movement contexts. In addition, Rafi - alongside his roommates - hosted over fifty people for regular Kabbalat Shabbat services and a potluck dinner in his home informally called The Goat Cheese Minyan. An alumnus of the Dorot Fellowship in Israel, Rafi also worked in the Israeli NGO sector at the Hotline for Refugees and Migrants and 0202: Points of View from Jerusalem.
Rafi is the Hebrew translator of the little book of e by E. Ethelbert Miller (City Point Press, 2024) - a bilingual collection of haiku -- and has an essay forthcoming in an anthology called Returning Higher: Hasidic and Neo-Hasidic Inspirations for the High Holy Day Journey (Panui Press, 2026).
One thing I learned from Nava Tehila:
That prayer can be transcendent.
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