Daniel S. Nevins

Daniel S. "Danny" Nevins (born March 18, 1966) is an American rabbi affiliated with Conservative Judaism. He has been named Senior Rabbi of the New North London Synagogue in the United Kingdom, starting in July 2026. Rabbi Nevins recently served as Head of School at Golda Och Academy in West Orange, New Jersey. His book of responsa (rabbinic essays), Torah and Technology: Circuits, Cells, and the Sacred Path, was published by Izzun Books in 2024.

From 2007 to 2021, Rabbi Nevins was Dean of the Rabbinical School of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. Previously, he was the rabbi of Adat Shalom Synagogue in Farmington Hills, Michigan, where he served for 13 years in his first pulpit. He is an authority on halakha and co-authored a 2006 responsum approved by the Conservative Movement's Committee on Jewish Law and Standards which permitted gay marriage and the ordination of queer rabbis within the movement.

Biography Nevins grew up in River Vale, New Jersey. He attended the Frisch School in Paramus, New Jersey and Yeshivat HaMivtar when it was in Jerusalem (1984–85). In 1989, he graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College with a bachelor's degree in history. He earned a master's degree in Jewish studies from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in 1991 and was ordained as a rabbi in 1994.

In a responsum on Torah reading by blind individuals, Nevins concluded that while Torah reading for the congregation requires a sighted reader using a kosher Torah scroll, individuals who are blind may lead other aspects of the service, such as serving as a prayer leader (shaliach tzibbur), chanting the haftarah, or receiving aliyot. He also allowed for the possibility of chanting from a braille text and suggested that future technologies enabling direct reading from the scroll by blind individuals could meet halakhic requirements.

His responsum on brain death argued that Jewish law traditionally relies on respiratory criteria to determine death. Nevins contended that contemporary brain death protocols, particularly the apnea test, align with these criteria. He maintained that patients declared brain dead can be removed from artificial support, and organ donation with family consent is permissible to save lives.

The responsum on homosexuality, co-authored with Rabbis Dorff and Reisner, highlighted the harm caused by requiring queer Jews to be celibate to comply with rabbinic norms. The responsum argued that rabbinic prohibitions could be waived in cases where human dignity is compromised, while the biblical prohibition on male anal sex remains in force. The decision, passed by a 13–12 vote, permitted the ordination of LGBTQ rabbis and cantors and allowed same-sex commitment ceremonies, though not equating them with traditional Jewish marriage (kiddushin). The Rabbinical Assembly continues to define guidelines for such ceremonies under this legal decision.

In May 2005, Nevins led a group of Christian leaders on an interfaith trip that included Pope Benedict XVI's first public audience, Holocaust Memorial Day at Titus's Arch in Rome, and a week-long visit to the State of Israel.