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Ephraim Buchwald is an influential Orthodox Judaism rabbi based in New York City. He was ordained at Yeshiva University, where he was a student of Rabbi Dr. Joseph Soloveitchik.

Brief Biography

Rabbi Buchwald served for 15 years (beginning 1973) as the Director of Education at Lincoln Square Synagogue in New York, and established Lincoln Square's acclaimed Jewish outreach program.

In July, 1987, Rabbi Buchwald founded the National Jewish Outreach Program ("NJOP"), an organization which organizes classes at thousands of locations that teaches basic Judaism and Hebrew language, and encourages observance of Jewish holidays throughout North America. In its first six years, NJOP worked with more than 165,000 Jews in 45 American states and four Canadian provinces. NJOP programs have also been introduced in more than 24 countries worldwide.

Rabbi Buchwald is the founding and Honorary President of the Association of Jewish Outreach Programs ("AJOP") (previously known as the Association for Jewish Outreach Professionals), which was established in 1988. Both NJOP and AJOP were founded by multi-million dollar grants from the Avichai Foundation a Jewish philanthropy run by Sanford Bernstein a well-known successful investor who had himself become a newly Modern Orthodox Judaism Baal teshuva (a returnee to Orthodox observance) who wanted to further the cause of outreach to alienated and assimilated Jews world-wide.

Rabbi Buchwald also lectures across the United States, and overseas.