Rabbi Dr. Oren Z. Steinitz serves as the spiritual leader of Congregation Kol Ami in Elmira, NY. He was ordained in 2014 at the Mesifta Adas Wolkowisk Rabbinical Academy, and is a member of OHALAH Association of Rabbis for Jewish Renewal.

​

In 2020, after years of rigorous studying the laws of conversion to Judaism and Jewish divorce, Rabbi Oren became the sixth Jewish Renewal rabbi to receive advanced rabbinic ordination as Dayan - Mediator and Adjudicator of Jewish Law - from Rabbi Daniel Siegel and ALEPH Canada's Integral Halacha Institute. He is one of a handful of non-Orthodox rabbis trained as a mesader gittin, an administrator of Jewish divorce.

 

In 2014 Rabbi Oren completed his doctorate at the University of Calgary‘s Interdisciplinary Graduate Program (Religious Studies, Communications and Israel Studies), researching the attitude towards the “Other” in Jewish and Islamic legal websites. In addition, he holds BA and MA degrees from the Ben Gurion University of the Negev (Israel). His fields of expertise include the history of Jewish-Muslim relations; modern Jewish fundamentalism; Jewish and Islamic Law; and the religious online world.

 

For more information about Rabbi Oren's academic work, including links to his publication, please visit his Academia.edu page.

​

To check out Rabbi Oren's Jewish publications, please visit HaMotzi Press .

​

To contact Rabbi Oren please email him at oren@orensteinitz.com 
or visit his Facebook page.