Rabbi Gabriel Kretzmer Seed

Rabbi Kretzmer Seed serves as a Jewish chaplain in the New York City Department of Correction where he provides religious services and spiritual support primarily for Jewish inmates. He also teaches and tutors for children and adults in the community, and provides research support for a number of Jewish Studies scholars.  Rabbi Kretzmer Seed is a graduate of the Tanenbaum Community Hebrew Academy of Toronto and Columbia University in the City of New York, where he majored in United States History. He also received BA and MA degrees from The Jewish Theological Seminary – JTS where he focused on Talmud and Midrash. As a student, he served as the Religious Life Coordinator on the student executive board of Columbia/Barnard Hillel. He has interned at The Abraham Joshua Heschel School in New York and Bais Abraham Congregation in St. Louis, MO, and has also served as a High Holiday ba’al tefilah and ba’al keriyah at shuls in Teaneck, NJ, and Austin, TX. He is the co-founder of the Zemirot Database, an editable online database for zemirot, liturgy, and other Jewish songs. In the summer of 2016, Rabbi Kretzmer Seed completed his first unit of Clinical Pastoral Education (chaplaincy) at New York-Presbyterian/The Allen Hospital. Following semikha, Rabbi Kretzmer Seed completed a CPE residency at Mount Sinai Beth Israel Hospital in Manhattan, where he worked in the hospital’s palliative care, oncology and psychiatric units. Rabbi Kretzmer Seed and his wife Nina live in Riverdale, NY.