Rabbi Daniel Landes was raised in Chicago and is the product of a distinguished Jerusalem rabbinic lineage. Landes studied from an early age with his grandfather, HaRav Menachem Ben Tziyon Sacks (author of Menachem Tziyon, Al HaTorah VeMoadim). HaRav Sacks was a close student of both his father-in-law, HaRav Tzvi Pesach Frank (Rav of Jerusalem and author of Responsa Har Tzvi) and HaRav Avraham Yitzchak Kook. Landes studied at Yeshivat Mercaz HaRav with HaRav Tzvi Yehudah Kook, HaRav Avraham Shapira (former Chief Rabbi of Israel), and Rabbi Aryeh Levine (the Tzadik of Jerusalem and uncle of Rav Landes).
He continued his studies at Yeshiva University and the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, where he was ordained by his teacher, Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik.
Rabbi Landes was a founding faculty member of Yeshiva University of Los Angeles (YULA) and was a dayan on the Beit Din of Los Angeles presided over by mentor and famed Halakhic authority HaRav Shmuel Katz. He served as the National Education Director at the Simon Wiesenthal Center (YULA’s sister institution) was editor of Genocide – Critical Issues of the Holocuast, and Confronting Omnicide – Jewish Reflections on Weapons of Mass Destruction. He was the first Adjunct Professor of Jewish Law at Loyola Law and was on the faculty of the Brandeis Bardin Institute.
Rabbi Landes and his wife Sheryl Robbin, a writer and social worker, were the founding rabbinic couple of the Upstairs Minyan and later led B’nai David-Judea Congregation – a center for Jewish learning and social activism. He also created the first women’s beit midrash for Talmudic studies west of New York City, was the Jewish Law Commentator for the multi-denominational My People’s Prayer Book and served as a long-term faculty member of the Wexner Heritage Foundation.
Rabbi Landes served as the head of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem for twenty-one years, also teaching the senior-level Talmud shiur. Rabbi Landes transformed Pardes into a multi-year institution, developing an advanced program for educators, a kollel, executive learning seminars, and summer sessions, raising Pardes’ global profile.
Rabbi Landes is known for his involvement in the arenas of human rights, interdenominational Jewish dialogue and debate and interfaith efforts. His commitment to expanding access to learning and conferring titled leadership to students in historically marginalized groups in the Jewish community led to him being recognized in 2016 among the “Forward 50,” for “pushing the envelope of Orthodoxy” and “proposing new forms of gender equality within observant Jewish settings.”
With momentum from the much celebrated 2016 Semikhah Tekes with Rabbi Landes ordaining 21 students in Jerusalem and demand from prospective students, Rabbi Landes founded Yashrut in 2018. His continued teaching of students toward Semikhah and subsequent Tekesim in Jerusalem and Berlin in 2019 led to development of further programs at Yashrut including the Classic Talmud Program. Rabbi Landes continues to teach in the Semikhah Initiative and has developed and facilitates a Talmudic Theology Seminar for advanced students. In addition to his teaching, he mentors Yashrut faculty, and presents a series on contemporary topics to the Yashrut student body. He has developed a significant following to his published articles on Torah, contemporary Issues and, often, the intersection of the two.
