Rabbi Yakov Nagen is the head of Ohr Torah Stone’s Blickle Institute for Interfaith Dialogue and Beit Midrash for Judaism and Humanity, as well as the Executive Director of the Ohr Torah Interfaith Center. He holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree from Yeshiva University, rabbinic ordination from RIETS, and a PhD in Jewish Philosophy from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

For 25 years, Rabbi Nagen served as a senior educator at Yeshivat Otniel. A prominent advocate of religion as a means for promoting peace, he has been a leading figure in interfaith dialogue, particularly between Judaism and Islam, for two decades.

Rabbi Nagen is the author of ten books and numerous articles on Jewish spirituality, Talmud, interfaith relations, and other topics. He was also featured in Tablet magazine as one of the ten “Israeli Rabbis You Should Know.”