Rabbi Shlomo Porter is the executive director of the Etz Chaim Center for Jewish Learning. He is a past president o
AJOP (Association for Jewish Outreach Professionals)
and also has served as an AJOP trustee since its founding in 1985. Rabbi Porter currently resides with his wife Shoshana (Ungar) Porter in

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

Biography

Rabbi Porter is originally from

Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee is ...

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

, where he was raised by his parents who began their life anew in America after spending

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

in the Jewish-Russian partisan movement. Rabbi Porter's parents, together with his mentors, Rabbi Michel and Rebbetzin Feige Twerski, had a profound influence on his life and encouraged him to attend Beis Medrash L'Torah, a yeshiva high school in

Skokie, Illinois Skokie (; formerly Niles Center) is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States, neighboring the City of Chicago's northern border. Its population, according to the 2020 census, was 67,824. Skokie lies approximately north of Chicago's do ...

. Afterwards, Rabbi Porter spent thirteen years at the

Ner Israel Rabbinical College Ner Israel Rabbinical College (ישיבת נר ישראל), also known as NIRC and Ner Yisroel, is a Haredi yeshiva (Jewish educational institution) in Pikesville (Baltimore County), Maryland. It was founded in 1933 by Rabbi Yaakov Yitzchok Rud ...

in Baltimore, and then going on to Loyola College to receive his master's degree in counseling. From 1974 to 1977, Rabbi Porter organized SEED (Summer Educational and Enrichment Development) programs in Milwaukee. The Porter family moved to

Santa Clara, California Santa Clara (; Spanish for " Saint Clare") is a city in Santa Clara County, California. The city's population was 127,647 at the 2020 census, making it the eighth-most populous city in the Bay Area. Located in the southern Bay Area, the cit ...

, so that Rabbi Porter could teach and administer Yeshiva and Medrasha Kerem (a high school for young men and women that combined outreach and Torah learning). In 1981, Rabbi Porter moved back to Baltimore to expand and direct the Etz Chaim Center of Jewish Studies, a multi-level program of outreach and adult learning which has reached over 10,000 Jews of every affiliation. Over the year
The Etz Chaim Center of Jewish Learning
has grown and presently has a Russian division, a college outreach program, advanced women's program, two centers in Baltimore, and two branches in

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

and

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

External links

Website

Etz Chaim Center for Jewish Learning

Articles

Etz Chaim Hits 30
- Baltimore Jewish Times (10/27/2006)
Reinventing Etz Chaim
- Baltimore Jewish Times (10/15/2005)
Rabbi Nix Mixed Children's Choir Show
- Baltimore Jewish Times (12/14/2001)

Auto tapes by Rabbi Shlomo Porter

Kiruv TrainingKiruv Training 2: How To Do KiruvLaws of Passover IIPreparing the Home for Passover
Living people American Haredi rabbis Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American Jews {{US-rabbi-stub