Eric Yoffie

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Rabbi Eric H. Yoffie is the President of the Union for Reform Judaism, the congregational arm of the Reform Jewish Movement in North America. Yoffie has remained the unchallenged head of American Judaism’s largest denomination since 1996 due to his popular advocacy of political liberalism and religious traditionalism.^[1] Raised in Worcester, Massachusetts, he is a graduate of Brandeis University and received his Rabbinical ordination from Hebrew Union College. He is married to Amy Jacobson Yoffie and they have two children.

In 1999 the Jewish-American newspaper The Forward named Rabbi Yoffie the number one Jewish leader in America. Some of the many issues that he has been involved with are gun control, gay rights, the death penalty, and assistance on various Israel related issues.

In April 2006, evangelical pastor Jerry Falwell invited Yoffie to address the students at his very conservative Liberty University. Yoffie first spoke shared values of family and morality before defending church-state separation and gay marriage, which elicted boos from the students.^[1]

In June of 2006, Rabbi Yoffie declined to meet with Israeli President Moshe Katsav after the President refused to address Yoffie by the title "Rabbi." Katsav explained that he was not the one who decides "on matters of ordination and titles in Israel.^[2] The Chief Rabbinate of Israel does not recognize rabbinic ordinations from non-Orthodox institutions.