The Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies has appointed Rabbi Mike Uram Chief Vision and Education Officer of Pardes North America.

In this senior leadership role, Rabbi Uram will lead Pardes’s expanding work in North America, leveraging the power of thousands of Pardes alumni, their friends, families and communities to transform Jewish life throughout North America.

In January 2020 Pardes announced that it secured $3 million to be invested entirely in North American programming. Pardes has already significantly broadened its online content for North American audiences and has convened multiple conferences for Jewish educators and professionals. Under Rabbi Uram’s leadership, Pardes will be developing numerous new programs and forms of engagement that will offer North Americans more learning opportunities characterized by Pardes’s depth and diversity as well as new ways for alumni to connect, and exciting professional development experiences.

Rabbi Uram has served as the Executive Director and Campus Rabbi at the University of Pennsylvania Hillel for over 16 years. He is the author of the best-selling book entitled, Next Generation Judaism: How College Students and Hillel Can Help Reinvent Jewish Organizations, which won a National Jewish Book Award in 2016. He is a sought-after speaker and consultant on the changing nature of the American Jewish community, Jewish innovation, cutting-edge engagement and how legacy organizations can reinvent themselves in the age of millennials. He is part of a small working group that is developing a new educational framework for Birthright Israel.

Rabbi Uram is a Pardes alumnus. He holds a BA in History and Religious Studies from Washington University and Rabbinic Ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary. He lives outside Philadelphia with his wife Leora and their three children.