Our Rabbi

Our Rabbi

Rabbi Natan Levy

When Rabbi Natan Levy was born in Berkeley, California, his parents-ardent communists-very nearly named him Ho Chi Minh, after the Viet Cong leader.  And though Rabbi Ho Chi Minh Levy would have made him a standout on any Google search, his parents decided in the end that their might be trouble with passport control.

Though Rabbi Natan was not raised in a religious home, he was taught from his mother’s back on the farmworker’s  picket lines in California, that each of us are charged with the imperative to change the world.  After attending university in Los Angeles, Rabbi Natan tried to do just that, working in the AmeriCorps program in California, which is an offshoot of the PeaceCorps, but focused on the urban poor in America.  Rabbi Natan spent a year at a horse ranch in Oakland, teaching at-risk youth how to ride and care for the horses.  Yet, as Rabbi Israel Salanter once said:  When I was young I tried to change the world, and the world resisted, when I got older, I tried to change my town, and it too refused to change, than I realized that first I must change myself.   Rabbi Natan felt that something was missing from his own personal ethical stance and traveled to Jerusalem and into the 3,000 year old enigma of Judaism to take a deeper look.  Enthralled with an ancient tradition that could grapple with the burning issues of modernity, Rabbi Natan spent seven years in a number of Yeshivas, and earned his rabbinical ordination from Rabbis Brovender and Riskin at Yeshivat HaMivtar in 2005.

In September of that year, Rabbi Natan and his family moved to the UK to take up the position of Jewish University Chaplain for the Southwest of England and Wales.  Since 2008, Rabbi Natan has served as the Rabbi of Shenley, and is the Rabbinical Expert for the London School of Jewish Studies’ Responsibility Unit.  Despite missing out on a revolutionary name, he is still passionately concerned with issues of environmental justice, and global morality.  He lives with his wife, Ariella and their two small children in the beautiful village of Shenley.     

Ariella Levy

Ariella was born in Pennsylvania, to a lawyer father and a mother, who at the time, owned a specialty toy store.  She grew up, with her older brother Noah, living in a farm house in the country, surrounded by land, geese, an owl and a donkey-to name a few.

A high-holiday shul go’er, her family did not have much more affiliation than Chanukah candles and Passover Seder--and yet, attending a parochial, liberal arts Quaker school left her feeling somehow different.  After majoring in music and arts, Ariella went on to study in Montreal at McGill University.  During the first year she made her first trip to Israel, to visit her newlywed brother.  Always having contemplated what it means to “be Jewish,” Ariella rapidly perceived that it was worth investigating—first and foremost.

Upon discovering her roots were over 3,300 years deep, it became clear that this was a way of life, that needs to be watered, nurtured, and continually celebrated in order to pass it on.  She lived in Israel for 8 years, studying cooking, dressmaking, and mastering the Hebrew language. Ariella lives with her husband and Rabbi, Natan, and two dear children in Shenley.  Her hobbies include playing the harp, sign language, child psychology, and doing yoga.  She continues to study Judaism, enjoys working with children, and is always happy to chat, learn privately, or in groups with all ages!