Zev Leff

Zev Leff is an American-born Haredi rabbi, educator, author, and speaker. After serving as rabbi of the Young Israel of Greater Miami, Florida, for nine years, he and his family moved to Moshav Matityahu, an Israeli settlement in the West Bank, in 1983, where he is the mara d'asra (rabbinic communal leader). His parents and grandparents were all American-born. and became a close talmid (student) of Rabbi Mordechai Gifter.

In 1983, Leff and his family decided to make aliyah to Israel, where he became the Rav and mora d'asra (rabbinic communal leader) of Moshav Matityahu, a small settlement now adjacent to Modi'in Illit (Kiryat Sefer). At the time, the moshav was home to 11 families. which was geared to American-born students. and the Jewish Learning Exchange of London. He also teaches at Seminar Yerushalayim, Neve Yerushalayim's Midreshet Tehillah, Michlala Women's College, and Bnot Torah; he formerly taught at the EYAHT College for Jewish Women. He teaches "practical rabbinics" for the Ohr Lagolah Institute (based in Ohr Somayach, Jerusalem). and the Association for Jewish Outreach Programs.

He is a rabbinic consultant for the Refuah Institute and Baruch Rofeh Cholim.

Soccer game coverage In November 2018, a Sky News video of Leff engrossed in a sefer at a Scotland–Israel UEFA Nations League soccer game, oblivious to the excitement in the stadium after Israel scored its first goal, went viral. Leff and his wife had been visiting their daughter and son-in-law, the latter a UK Rabbanut chaplain for all the universities in Glasgow, and accompanied the entire community to dinner and the game.

Opinions In The Jewish Press "Is It Proper" series on the topic of the loudness of music played at religious weddings, Leff remarked, "Music (even music with lyrics that are based on verses from Tanach or tefillah) whose beat, tempo, or volume creates a mood of wild abandon (hefkerus), or could accompany primitive natives dancing around a cauldron cooking a human being, is not kosher irrespective of who composed it or is playing it – be they non-Jews or religious Jews".