Eliezer Ben-Yehuda was born in Jerusalem, Israel, on September 25, 1938. His great grandfather, Yehuda Lieb Perlman, was a Hasidic Rav in Lithuania; his grandfather, Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, a pre-Zionist visionary and pioneer of Jewish national renaissance and resettlement in the ancient homeland of the Jewish people, Israel, was a writer, lexicographer, newspaper publisher, editor and statesman. He founded the Academy of the Hebrew Language. He is the author of the "Ben-Yehuda Dictionary and Thesaurus of the Hebrew Language, Ancient and Modern" (Ben-Yehuda Publishing House, Jerusalem; International Edition, Thomas Yoseloff, New York & London), a sixteen volume tome that is the most complete Hebrew language research tool. Eliezer's father, Ehud, was an agronomist, journalist, soldier, lecturer and lexicographer. He is the author of the "Ben-Yehuda Pocket Dictionary" (Washington Press, Pocket Books, Inc.).
Ben-Yehuda is a life-long student. He began his religious education in the home of his maternal grandparents, and at the young age of four was already reading and studying Torah with grandfather. At age five attended Heder at Yeshivat Eits Ha'yim. He attended Lemel and Kol-Yisrael-Haverim (Alliance) schools in Jerusalem. He studied Torah and Talmud with Professor Joseph Klausner and Fievel Meltser, Midrash and Agadda with Nobel laureate S. Y. Agnon and Dr. David Broyer. In June of 2004 he earned a doctorate in literature with a thesis on the text of the Jewish Scriptures as re-viewed from the Hebrew.
Ben-Yehuda was accepted in 1958 to the study of Medicine at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, and also took classes at Sir George Williams (later Concordia) University and the University of Montreal; after the birth of his first child, Itamar, he moved to Massachusetts, where he attended Boston University. He studied teaching methods and psychology at Brown University and the University of Rhode-Island, and clinical psychology and child growth and development at University of Connecticut.
Since arriving in the U.S. in 1958, Ben-Yehuda has served in the following capacities: Rabbi of the pulpit; Jewish chaplain for the V.A.; campus Rabbi at Indiana University of PA.; visiting college lecturer & high school teacher; Hebrew school and Sunday school principal; Hebrew, Jewish history, Jewish Ethics and Values teacher; Guidance counselor for youth movements; counselor in summer camp; Drama and Judaism specialist . He held pulpit in Indiana, PA. 1966-1970; Butler, PA. 1970-1984; Benton Harbor, MI. 1984 -1986; Lakeland, Fla. 1986 - 1999. In August of 1999 he came to Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, to serve as spiritual leader to Beth El, the Beaches Synagogue - a congregation that was just forming in Ponte Vedra and the Jacksonville Beaches. Rabbi Ben-Yehuda led this congregation through the building of its synagogue building as the first campus for Jewish people at the beaches. As of July 2008 he is retired from the pulpit.
Rabbi Ben-Yehuda is married to Leah (nee Feldman) of Union, New Jersey. He is the parent of three sons and two daughters, and has six grandchildren. Over the years, Rabbi Ben-Yehuda was a member of a number of organizations and served in many capacities on different committees. He published articles in a number of magazines and newspapers in Hebrew, English, and French; also published a number of pamphlets on the subjects of Judaism, the Holocaust, Zionism and the rebirth of Israel. He was the editor of the Rosetta Stone Hebrew Language computer program, Levels I & II. He has written two books which are yet to be published. He is the creator and webmaster of his own site (www.benyehuda.us) and created web pages for his two last synagogues.
