Rabbi Rafi Andrusier

Rabbi Raphael (Rafi) Andrusier, the youngest from a family of five, was born and raised in New York. After his Bar-Mitzvah he left New York to study in Pittsburgh and Paris and returned to New York City where he concluded his Rabbinic Ordination from the Central Chabad Rabbinical Court of Israel. Rafi spent two years in Chicago, IL and Toronto, Canada as a student mentor assisting the local high-school and community.

As a Rabbinic intern, Rafi spent his summers visiting and assisting Jewish communities in Sydney, Australia, Kobe, Japan, Venice, FL, Dubrovnik, Croatia and Peru. He has conducted Seders for scattered communities in Taganrog, Russia and Crete, Greece. Rafi has led Released Time groups in schools in New York, inspiring Jewish children who attend public schools and don’t receive a Jewish education. He has reached out to Jewish prisoners in upstate New York arranging for holiday programming and ensuring that their spiritual needs are met. Rabbi Rafi has a Master’s degree in Talmudic Law and has been teaching adult education classes on the subject since 2012. He is also a certified instructor of the Rohr Jewish Learning Institute.

Currently, Rabbi Rafi is the Director of Chabad of East County, an area of San Diego where he lives with his wife Chaya and 6 children.