Rabbi Devin Maimon Villarreal has worked in Jewish education for 13 years as a classroom teacher and administrator in both Orthodox and community day schools. He received semikha (rabbinic ordination) from Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, as well as from Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo. A graduate of UCLA in the study of religion, he also holds a master’s degree in teaching from the American Jewish University and is a recipient of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship and the Covenant Foundation’s Pomegranate Prize for emerging Jewish educators. He has served in numerous Sephardic congregations including Beth Aharon in Riverdale, N.Y., and Kahal Levy in West Hills, Calif. The Sephardic roots of his family come from the Spanish and Portuguese communities of Italy and the Caribbean, as well as the Judeo-Spanish (Ladino-speaking) communities of Turkey and the Balkans. Rabbi Villarreal has sought to amplify the voice of classical Sephardic Judaism characterized by tradition and intellectual vibrancy, spirituality and moral action, tolerance and joy. He and his wife, Pamela, have been blessed with five children, (Oliver Dov 16, Elinor Binah 14, Sawyer Yishai 11, Everett Amos 8, Graham Hayim 5.)

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