Rabbi Jonathan Seidel (Yehonatan Aryeh ben Nahum vas Esther) was born in Newark, New Jersey, during the week of Parshat VaYetze in 5715 on September 2, 1955. He was ordained in 2004 by ALEPH, the Alliance for Jewish Renewal, after many years of serving the Jewish community in the West. He is descended from a rabbinic lineage of mitnagdim in the Ukraine who learned and practiced kabbalah. His maternal grandfather, Jacob Dubinsky, initiated him into the study of Tanakh, Rabbinics, and mysticism at an early age. Rabbi Seidel was raised in the Reform movement in New Jersey.

Rabbi Seidel grew up as a cultural New Yorker and actively observant Zionist within a Jewishly engaged family. He received his PhD at the University of California, Berkeley, in Near Eastern Studies (1996) and studied at Oberlin College, the Jewish Theological Seminary (MA 1981), and was a Fulbright-Hayes scholar at Cambridge University. He has taught Judaic Studies and Religion at Stanford, Berkeley, Davis, Santa Cruz, U. of Arizona, Portland State University, Northwest Christian College, and the U. of Oregon.

Rabbi Seidel has served as a spiritual leader and Cantor for a number of Jewish communities in California and Arizona. He has an extensive background in deep ecumenism, Jewish music (he has served as Chazzan for over twenty years), and Jewish education and environmental activism. Jewish Renewal has been part of his life since the mid nineteen seventies.

Among his rabbinic mentors are Renewal, Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist and many other transdenominational leaders. These include most recently Rabbis Shaya Eisenberg, Andrea Cohen-Kiener, Yitzhak Husbands-Hankin, Marcia Prager, Leah Novick, Ayla Grafstein and David Wolf Blank. Among other Rabbinic teachers are Neil Gillman, Yohanan Muffs, Shaya Cohen, Martin Balinoff, Ismar Schorsch, Herschel Matt, Hanan Sills, Jacob Milgrom, David Winston, and Albert Plotkin.

Rabbi Seidel was raised at Temple Emmanuel in Westfield, New Jersey, where his rabbinic teachers were Rabbis Charles Kroloff and Leonard Thal. His spiritual journey was radically altered after meeting Rabbis Shlomo Carlebach and Zalman Schachter-Shalomi. It was Reb Zalman who first encouraged his entry into the ALEPH ordination program.

Rabbi Seidel has edited a volume entitled Divination and Magic in the Ancient World (Brill 2002) and has published articles on Midrash, Jewish folklore, magic, history, rabbinics, modern Jewish thought and politics. He has served as a scholar and singer in residence since receiving his doctorate, as well as a frequent guest on local TV and radio in Oregon. He has also served locally on the Board of Hillel, Two Rivers Interfaith, and several other local organizations, including the Oregon Board of Rabbis. He is currently writing a history of Jewish healing and is publishing largely in this field. Rabbi Seidel is also serving as the Rabbi to Or haGan, Light of the Garden Jewish Community in Eugene, Oregon. Rabbi Seidel has two daughters Maya (17) and Elah (13) who also live in Eugene.