Leonard Matanky

Leonard A. Matanky (born October 26, 1958) is a prolific Modern Orthodox rabbi and Jewish leader in the United States. Based in Chicago, Illinois, Matanky is the co-president of the Religious Zionists of America, pulpit rabbi of Congregation K.I.N.S of West Rogers Park. and Dean of Ida Crown Jewish Academy and past president of the Rabbinical Council of America. He has written extensively on curriculum issues.

Biography
Matanky was born in Chicago in 1958. In 1978 he wrote Shabbat Games - Games for Youth Groups, published as a joint venture between American Zionist Youth Foundation Inc. and Bnei Akiva. In 1981, he received rabbinical ordination and a master's degree in Religious Education from Hebrew Theological College. That year, he began teaching Judaic studies at Ida Crown Jewish Academy, a coeducational Modern Orthodox high school in Skokie, a suburb of Chicago, IL. Matanky subsequently earned a master's degree in Educational Administration from Loyola University in 1982, and a Ph.D. from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences New York University in 1989. In 1994 he assumed the pulpit of Congregation K.I.N.S. in Chicago's West Rogers Park neighborhood. He was appointed Interim Dean of ICJA in 1996; he would later drop the "interim" title and become the Dean. From 2013 and until 2015 he served as President of the Rabbinical Council of America. He had previously served as Vice-President of the RCA under Rabbi Shmuel Goldin.

Since 2017 Rabbi Matanky has served as co-President of Religious Zionists of America/Mizrachi. Prior to that he served two terms as president of the Chicago Rabbinical Council. Rabbi Matanky is on the boards of World Mizrachi, the Expanded Executive of the World Zionist Organization, the Religious Zionists of Chicago and Camp Moshava. He was the co-Chairman of the Rabbinic Action Committee of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago for more than a decade (until 2023) and serves on the rabbinic advisory committee of the YU Torah MiTzion Kollel of Chicago.

Family
Matanky is married to Margaret Novick, with whom he has three sons and four daughters. His eldest child, Yaakov, died in a car accident in 2002 near Camp Moshava Wild Rose. The outdoor synagogue at the camp "Beit Yaakov Levi" was named in his memory.

Recent Publications
Author, "Missions": The First 100 Days of the Gaza War" (2024)

Co-Editor, HaMadrikh: The RCA Lifecycle Guide (2023)

Contributor, Praying for the Defenders of Our Destiny: The Mi Sheberach for IDF Soldiers (2023) by Aviad Hacohen (Author), Menachem Butler (Editor)

Co-Author, “Ida Crown Jewish Academy’s 21st Century Campus” in Jewish Educational Leadership, Winter 2020

Editor, Koren Shiva House Siddur (2019)

Associate Editor, “Siddur Avodat HaLev” – the prayer book of the Rabbinical Council of America (2018)

Author, “To Represent and to Inspire: The Role of a Sheliaĥ Tzibbur,” in Ennoble and Enable: Essays in Honor of Richard M. Joel (2018)