About CJF

Rabbi Kenneth Brander, the David Mitzner dean of Yeshiva University Center for the Jewish Future

Rabbi Kenneth Brander is the inaugural Dean of Yeshiva University Center for the Jewish Future (CJF). CJF serves as Yeshiva University's catalyst to: Infuse the student body with a spirit of leadership and sense of commitment to the Jewish people and society; Builds, cultivates, and supports communities, and their lay and rabbinic leaders; and creates a global movement that promotes the values of Yeshiva University.

Rabbi Brander is also the Rabbi Emeritus of the Boca Raton Synagogue, founding dean of the Boca Raton Community Kollel, and founder of the Weinbaum Yeshiva High School of Broward and Palm Beach Counties. During his 14 years of service to that community, he oversaw its explosive growth from 60 families to some 600 families. Under his leadership, the Hahn Judaic Campus was built to include the Boca Raton Community Mikvah, a sanctuary, library, social hall, a youth and senior center, and a Yeshiva high school. He is a 1984 alumnus of Yeshiva College and received his ordination from the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary in 1986. During that time he served as the student assistant to the esteemed Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik. He received special ordination from Machon Puah, a center of medical ethics in Israel, in 1999 and from the Chief Rabbi, Mordechai Eliyahu, in the field of medical ethics—infertility, gynecology, and halakhah. He is currently a PhD candidate in general philosophy at Florida Atlantic University (FAU).

He has received numerous awards for his community service, including: South Palm Beach County Federation Award for Rabbinic Leadership, Hurowitz UJA Federation Award for Rabbinic Leadership, and the Key to the City of Boca Raton for enhancing the quality of life in the community. He was the first recipient of the Yeshiva University Wexner Rabbinic Leadership Award in 1999 and was honored with the State of Israel Medal of Honor presented by the Mayor of Gush Etzion for rabbinic leadership in supporting Gush Etzion. Recently, Rabbi Brander was given the Bernard Revel Memorial Award by the Yeshiva College Alumni Association.

Rabbi Brander has authored many articles in various scholarly journals and also co-edited The Yeshiva University Haggadah. He is married to Rachel Tambor Brander. They are blessed with five children.

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Rabbi Dr. Jacob J. Schacter is University Professor of Jewish History and Jewish Thought and Senior Scholar at the Center for the Jewish Future at Yeshiva University.  From 2000-2005 he served as Dean of the Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik Institute in Boston.  He was the first Rabbi of the Young Israel of Sharon, MA, from 1977-1981, creating a new, vibrant and committed community.  From 1981-2000, he served as the Rabbi of The Jewish Center in New York City, moving the congregation from 180 to over 600 members over the course of his tenure, and also served as Rabbi of the Maimonides Minyan in Brookline, MA from 2000-2005.  

Dr. Schacter holds a Ph.D. in Near Eastern Languages from Harvard University and received rabbinic ordination from Mesivta Torah Vodaath.  He graduated from Brooklyn College in 1973, Summa Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa with the Abraham S. Goodhartz Award for Excellence in Judaic Studies. Dr. Schacter was a Teaching Fellow at Harvard from 1978-1980, Director of Yeshiva University’s Torah u-Madda Project from 1986-1997, and an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Stern College for Women at Yeshiva University from 1993-1999.  In 1995, he was awarded the prestigious Daniel Jeremy Silver Fellowship from the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University.  He also presently serves as a member of the faculty of The Wexner Foundation and The Wexner Heritage Foundation. 

Dr. Schacter is co-author of the award winning A Modern Heretic and a Traditional Community: Mordecai M. Kaplan, Orthodoxy, and American Judaism published by Columbia University Press in 1996, author of The Lord is Righteous in All His Ways: Reflections on the Tish‘ah be-Av Kinot by Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik (2006) and  over sixty articles and reviews in Hebrew and English. He is also the editor of Reverence, Righteousness and Rahamanut: Essays in Memory of Rabbi Dr. Leo Jung (1992), Jewish Tradition and The Nontraditional Jew (1992), and the award winning Judaism's Encounter with other Cultures: Rejection or Integration? (1997), and co-editor of The Complete Service for the Period of Bereavement (1995).  He is the Founding Editor of The Torah u-Madda Journal, a prestigious academic publication which has gained international acclaim.  

Rabbi Schacter holds a number of prominent Jewish communal positions.  He served as Founding President of the Council of Orthodox Jewish Organizations (COJO) of the Upper West Side from 1994-2000, is a member of the Board of Governors of the Orthodox Union and is on the Editorial Boards of Tradition, Jewish Action, BDD (Bechal Derachecha Da’ehu) and Jewish Educational Leadership.  He was awarded several fellowships and grants to further his scholarly research.  In November, 2007, Rabbi Schacter was the Scholar-in-Residence at the General Assembly of the United Jewish Communities in Nashville, TN. 

Dr. Schacter is presently completing a new Hebrew edition of the autobiography of Rabbi Jacob Emden, an eighteenth century Jewish figure.

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Rabbi Schwarzberg came to Highland Park in July,1986 from the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale where he served as Associate Rabbi. He brought with him a passionate commitment to the principles of 'Ahavat Yisrael', political activism, and bridge building. Shortly after his arrival, Rabbi Schwarzberg was instrumental in relocating Congregation Ahavas Achim from New Brunswick to Highland Park. Rabbi Schwarzberg has served as co-chair of the Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Greater Middlesex County and he was elected in December 2002 as associate chair of the National Rabbinic Cabinet of the United Jewish Communities. Rabbi Schwarzberg served as Chair of the Rabbinic Cabinet of the United Jewish Communities from 2005-2007. Under his leadership the shul developed Ahavas Achim University, an innovative and far reaching educational endeavor that has enlisted top tier scholars and religious leaders to teach at the synagogue and has attracted attendees from across the state. In the summer of 2005 rabbi Schwarzberg assumed the position of Director of Jewish Career Development and Placement at The Center for the Jewish Future ay Yeshiva University. Rabbi Schwarzberg is married to "Morah Judy," a preschool teacher at the Rabbi Pesach Raymon Yeshiva. Together they have four children, Ari married to Naomi Weiss, Elana, Aviva, and Shayna.

Rabbi Menachem Penner, a 1991 graduate of Yeshiva College and a 1995 graduate of RIETS, is the Director of Professional Rabbinic Education  for the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary and works closely with the Center for the Jewish Future. He has served as Rav of the Young Israel of Holliswood in Queens for the past 14 years. Rabbi Penner is the Founding Dean of Ateret, an on-campus Judaic studies program at Queens College and several other campuses across the tri-state area. He lives in Holliswood with his wife Adeena and five children.

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Rabbi Ari Rockoff is a native of Boston, Massachusetts. After high school he studied at Yeshivat Or Yerushalayim. He received his BS from Yeshiva University’s Sy Syms School of Business in 1997, received ordination from the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary in 2000. He is also a graduate of the Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education and Administration and in 2007 received his MBA from the Zicklin School of Business at Baruch College.

Rabbi Rockoff lives in West Hempstead, New York with his wife, Deborah, and three children, Shoshana, Eli and Sheera. He has worked at YU since 2000 and serves as Director of Community Partnership at the Center for the Jewish Future.