Rabbi Avi Katz Orlow is the new campus rabbi and assistant director of programs at the St. Louis Hillel at Washington University.
Orlow replaces Rabbi Hyim Shafner, the Hillel’s rabbi for the past eight years, who accepted a position at Bais Abraham in University City.
Orlow did his undergraduate work at Columbia University, after which he worked with a Jewish community in Minsk, Belarus, and spent two years in Israel studying in a yeshiva, a traditional Jewish house of study.
He then attended Yeshivat Chovevei Torah rabbinical school in Manhattan, where he was a member of the charter class. He was ordained this past June.
Orlow has several goals for the Hillel.
“I hope to empower our Jewish students to have their personal expressions of Judaism evolve into lasting communities,” he said. “Forging the bond between the wisdom of our past and the potential of an unknown future, I believe that we will be able to do our part in making the world a better place.
“There is a lot of work to be done, and I am confident that Judaism has much to contribute.”
Orlow lives in St. Louis with his wife, Cantor Adina Frydman, and their son, Yadid.