Serial Schemer, Teacher of Torah, Fitness Freak
Rabbi Dr. Daniel Smokler directs the Office of Innovation (OOI), an innovation laboratory with expertise in rabbinic and spiritual leadership, Jewish learning, and community building.
Dan served as the inaugural Chief Innovation Officer for Hillel International. Funded by a major grant from the Jim Joseph Foundation, he founded the Senior Jewish Educator Initiative in 2008. In 2011, the Jewish Week named Dan one of the 36 under 36 changemakers in Jewish life. Dan grew up in Ann Arbor Michigan and graduated Cum Laude from Yale University with a BA in the History of Art. Following college, Dan worked as a labor union organizer for the Service Employees Union and the Hotel and Restaurant Workers Union in Connecticut and Los Angeles. Later, Dan would go on to found Organizational Solutions, a labor consulting firm that helped reorganize the Writer’s Guild of America. Dan went to Israel for his rabbinical education and was ordained in 2005 by Rabbi Zalman Nechemia Goldberg, of Jerusalem’s highest rabbinic court. He also completed a PhD in Education and Jewish Studies at NYU. Dan has worked for Hillel at Occidental College, UCLA, and NYU. He is also a Wexner Graduate Fellow. Dan lives in New York with his wife Dr. Erin Leib Smokler, the director of Spiritual Development at Yeshivat Maharat, and their children, Shalev, Nadiv, and Tair.