Rabbi Raif Melhado

Rabbi Raif Melhado teaches Judaic studies at de Toledo High School, with a focus on advanced rabbinic literature.  He comes to the faculty from Kahal Joseph Congregation, America’s only Indo-Iraqi synagogue, where he served as Senior Rabbi from 2015-2019.

While studying at YCT for his semikha, he earned a master’s in Modern Jewish History at Yeshiva University.  His special interests include Aggadic Midrash, Jewish encounters with modernity, and promoting Sephardi consciousness.  He is the author of an Iraqi haggadah with a fresh English translation, and two websites devoted to Sephardic life: ketershemtob.com and anacao.org.