Teachers

The teaching of Yore Deah for Semicha is reinforced by the active participation
of Eretz Hemdah, Institute of Advanced Jewish Studies, Jerusalem, under the
personal direction of Rabbi Yosef Carmel and currently being delivered by
Rabbi Ofer Livnat. Eretz Hemdah also delivers the Montefiore Dayanut Course.

Rabbi Asaf Mittelman

Rabbi Asaf Mittelman is the principal lecturer in Yoreh
Deah. After spending six years in yeshiva in Israel,
Asi served as a paratrooper in the IDF before coming
to England. He graduated with distinction from the
Montefiore Semicha Course in 2012 and subsequently
helped the late Dayan Amor z”l to teach the Course.

Rabbi Mittelman has an LL.B degree and graduated with distinction from the Montefiore Semicha Course in 2012: he subsequently helped the late Dayan Amor z”l to teach the Course and is now its principal lecturer in Yoreh Deah. He lives in London and is married with children.

 

 

Dayan Ofer Livnat

Dayan Ofer Livnat from Eretz Hemdah delivers a lesson pack and an interactive shiur by video-link every week to the Montefiore Semicha Programme to supplement the teaching of the Montefiore College’s rabbis; and he also delivers a similar programme to the Montefiore Dayanut Course. Rabbi Livnat spends three consecutive days a month at the Montefiore College in London for more intensive teaching to both courses.

Rabbi Ofer Livnat is a graduate of the Eretz Hemdah Institute for Advanced Jewish Studies in Jerusalem and received his Yadin Yadin ordination from the Chief Rabbinate of Israel.

He is currently a staff member of Eretz Hemdah, where he teaches a number of programs for training rabbis and dayanim, including the Semicha and Dayanut Programs at Montefiore College in London, a Dayanut program for community rabbis in Eastern Europe and North America, and the Manhigut Toranit program. Rabbi Livnat is also in charge of Eretz Hemdah’s responsa projects of ‘Ask the Rabbi’ and ‘Shut Bemareh Habazak’, fielding questions on all aspects of Jewish Law from rabbis and laymen all over the world; and he serves as a Dayan on the Eretz Hemdah – Gazit Beit Din for monetary cases. He also lectures on Tanach at the Jerusalem College

Now a member of London’s Sephardi Bet Din, the rabbi previously studied and taught at the Hesder Yeshiva Birkat Moshe in Maale Adumim. He served in an artillery unit of the IDF; and attained a B.Ed degree. Dayan Livnat is currently studying for the degree of PhD at University College London.

Watch a video of a Semicha course lesson with the late Dayan Amor zt”l

Rabbi Joseph Dweck

Rabbi Dweck is American born, of Syrian-Sephardi origin, and has lived in Los Angeles, California and Brooklyn, New York. He studied in Jerusalem at Hazon Ovadia Yeshiva under the tutelage of former Rishon LeZiyon, Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel Ovadia Yosef and his son, Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, the current Rishon LeZiyon.

Rabbi Rabbi Dweck received his semikha (rabbinic ordination) from Rav Ovadia

 Yosef under the auspices of the Sephardic Rabbinical College of Brooklyn, New York.

He studied psychology and philosophy at Santa Monica College in Los Angeles and received a Bachelor of Science degree in Liberal Arts from Excelsior College in Albany, New York. He later received a Master of Arts Degree in Jewish Education from Middlesex University in collaboration with the London School of Jewish Studies.

Rabbi Joseph Dweck is the senior rabbi of the S&P Sephardi Community of the United Kingdom.

 

Rabbi Dr. Harvey Belovski

Rabbi Belovski read mathematics at University College, Oxford and subsequently studied in Gateshead, first at the Gateshead Yeshivah, where he gained Semichah, and then at the Beis HaTalmud Kollel. He later completed a PhD at the University of London, where he researched Chassidic hermeneutics at Birkbeck.

In addition to his rabbinical duties at Golders Green Synagogue, Rabbi Belovski is a research and teaching fellow at LSJS, the rabbinic mentor for University Jewish Chaplaincy, a founding governor of Rimon Jewish Primary School, the rabbi of Kisharon, the rabbi of PaL, and a member of the RCUS committee. His special interests include midrash, contemporary halachah, pre-marriage counselling, 19th-century European Jewish thought, innovative educational programming and developing independent-minded students.

Rabbi Belovski is married to Vicki, a freelance journalist, author and the community news editor. They have seven children.

Rabbi Daniel Roselaar

Rabbi Daniel Roselaar, having served as the Rabbi of the Belmont and Watford communities is now the Rabbi of Alei Tzion. Rabbi Roselaar, has a strong background in learning, with a London University MA in Jewish Education. He spent eight years studying in Yeshivat Har Etzion and is a talmid of both Rav Yehudah Amital z”l and Rav Aharon Lichtenstein. He received the prestigious semicha of the Israeli Chief Rabbinate as well as the semicha of Rav Z N Goldberg.

He is a frequent contributor to the United Synagogue’s Daf Hashavua and serves as the Rav of the United Synagogue Burial Society and Chevra Kaddisha. He is also the Rosh Kollel of the Kinloss Community Kollel where he gives a wide range of shiurim.

Rabbi Roselaar is married to Na’amah, an Occupational Therapist with degrees from Columbia University and Yeshiva University. They have four children.

Rabbi Sam Millunchick

 

Rabbi Sam Millunchick is the Rabbi of Belmont United Synagogue in Stanmore and

is married with children. He holds a BA in Philosophy from the Open University, an MA in Science and Halacha from Bar Ilan University, and semicha from the Montefiore Endowment and from the Chief Rabbinate of Israel.

 

 

Glen Bezalel

Rabbi Glenn Bezalel is a graduate of the Montefiore Semicha Course and is married with five children. In September 2023 he will become Deputy Head (Academic) at the City of London School for Boys where he will teach Religion and Philosophy. A graduate of both Yeshivot Kerem B’Yavneh and Har Etzion (Gush), he holds a Master’s degrees in International Relations from LSE and in Religious Education from UCL, and is currently completing his Ph.D in Education at Cambridge University. Prior to teaching, Glenn was an Equity Research Analyst at JP Morgan.
 

 

Occasional Lecturers of Particular Distinction

 

Rabbi Yosef Carmel

 

Rabbi Yosef Carmel was born in Jerusalem and is the Rabbinical Dean of the Eretz Hemdah, Institute for advanced Jewish studies in Jerusalem, as well as the Av Beit Din of the Beit Din, “Eretz Hemdah – Gazit”.

Rav Yosef Carmel is a graduate of the Nir Kiryat Arba Hesder Yeshiva where he was Rosh Metivta for over ten years. He was a combat soldier in the IDF during the Yom Kippur war as well as the first Lebanon war.

Rav Carmel is a senior lecturer for Tanach at Jerusalem College and heads the ‘Ask the Rabbi’ program which provides Halachic answers in English to questioners from around the world. To date, more than 20,000 replies have been sent out. He is the author of many articles on Tanach and Halacha, the book Tsofenat Eliyahu – a commentary on the Vilna Gaon’s commentary on the laws of financial damages in Shulchan Aruch Hoshen Mishpat, the book Tzofnat Yeshayahu – from Uziya to Ahaz – a commentary on the prophecies of Yehsayahu during one of the stormiest times in Jewish history, and eight volumes of “Reponsa B’mareh Habazak”.

 

Other occasional lecturers include Dayan Ezra Basri (Ab Beth Din, Jerusalem); Rabbi Israel Elia B.A; Rabbi Jeff Berger

 

During the Course, students are also exposed to a variety of visiting lecturers for short periods, both rabbinic and academic, as well as to rabbis and lay leaders currently holding prominent positions in the community.

Watch a video of a Semicha course lesson with the late Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks

 

 

 

 

Other Course Teachers

Adrienne Baker; Lucien Gubbay M.A.(Oxon.); Marilyn Lehrer M.A.(Oxon.) LLAM; Professor Stefan Reif;  Rick Sopher MA (Cantab.) FCA

Eretz Hemdah Institute for Advanced Jewish Studies, Jerusalem

was founded in 1987 by Rav Moshe Ehrenreich and Rav Yosef Carmel under the presidency of HaGaon Maran Harav Shaul Israeli zt”l to fulfil a perceived need.  See www.eretzhemdah.org for details..