Social activist and storyteller, writer and teacher, Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie (he/him) is the Co-Founding Spiritual Leader of the Lab/Shul community in NYC, the creator of the ritual theater company Storahtelling, Inc, and the 2026 Inaugural Recipient of Lippman Kanfer Foundation for Living Torah Fellowship.
Israeli born, he’s been living in New York since 1997 and travels often between both homes. In 2016 he received his rabbinical ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in 2016, becoming the 39th generation of rabbis in his family — the first one to be openly queer.
Rabbi Amichai is the Co-Chair of the Executive Board of Rabbis for Human Rights, is a co-founding member of the Jewish Emergent Network, a founding faculty member of the Reboot Network, and serves on the Advisory Board of the Sulha Peace Project for Israeli and Palestinian peacemakers, the Leadership Council of the New York Jewish Agenda.
Rabbi Amichai is the subject of Sabbath Queen, Sandi DuBowski’s award-winning documentary film, 21 years in the making, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in June 2024 and touring the world. Watch there trailer here >
He’s been named “an iconoclastic mystic” by Time Out New York, “a calm voice for peace’ by NPR, a “rock star” by the New York Times, a “Judaic Pied Piper” by the Denver Westword, a “maverick spiritual leader” by The Times of Israel and “one of the most interesting thinkers in the Jewish world” by the Jewish Week. In 2017 he was named one of America’s Top 50 rabbis by The Forward.
Lau-Lavie is the author of The JOY Proposal, published in 2017 as a creative response to the reality of Intermarriage, ShaBook, published by AYIN Press in 2024, and the ongoing Below the Bible Belt blog.
Amichai is Abba to Alice, Ezra and Cai-Hallel.
For the latest updates, follow Amichai on instagram @amichailaulavie.
