USA OFFICE
Rabbi Eric M. Lankin, DMin - Executive Director
Rabbi Eric M. Lankin, DMin is the new Executive Director (U.S.) of ELEM: Youth in Distress. He has had a distinguished career as a professional Jewish community leader for the past 30 years.
Born in Philadelphia, he is a graduate (1978) of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in Marketing. While at Penn, he was President of Hillel and the Philadelphia Union of Jewish Students. He continued his studies at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America and received his Masters in Judaica and Ordination (1985) as a Rabbi. Following ordination, for fourteen years, he served Conservative congregations as their rabbi in Elkins Park, PA; West Hempstead, NY; Miami Beach, FL; and Harrisburg, PA.
Since 1999, Rabbi Lankin has served as the NJ Regional Director of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism; Senior rabbinic professional of the North American Federation system as UJC Director of Religious and Educational Activities and Director of the UJC (now JFNA) Rabbinic Cabinet; Chief, Institutional Advancement and Education for the Jewish National Fund (U.S.); Development Director of Emunah of America; and CEO of the American Society for Yad Vashem.
In 1984, while still a student at JTS, Rabbi Lankin joined the United States Navy as a Reserve Chaplain. For six years, he served commands for the NAVY (USS Independence and Naval Base, Norfolk); Marines (Parris Island Recruit Depot and Camp Pendleton) and Coast Guard (Governors Island). While in the Navy, he received extensive training in working with military personnel and their families on the issues of addictions and domestic violence.
Returning from Navy training, he began addressing the issues of alcoholism, drug abuse, pathological gambling and domestic violence in his congregation and the Jewish community. While a rabbi on Long Island, he co-founded the Nassau-Suffolk Jewish Recovery Group that met weekly in his synagogue; and the Interfaith Nutrition Network that ran a homeless shelter and daily food program in inner-city Hempstead, LI. At this time, Rabbi Lankin also continued his clinical training at the Blanton-Peale Graduate Institute where he was the only rabbi at the time in this pastoral care training with clergy from all faiths. He continued his clinical studies at the Postgraduate Center for Mental Health and the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion and received his Doctorate in Pastoral Counseling in 1999. His doctoral clinical project/thesis was the first doctoral-level research on the issues of Jews in recovery from pathological gambling. In 1994, the NY Board of Rabbis asked Rabbi Lankin to serve as the Jewish Chaplain for six hours per week at the Nassau County (NY) Correctional Center to work with 50 Jews incarcerated there out of 1600 inmates. Most of the Jews were in jail due to their addictions.
As one of a small number of rabbis with expertise in working with Jews who are addicts and in recovery, he has written articles and has spoken widely around the country about these issues. ELEM: Youth in Distress is most fortunate to have Rabbi Lankin leading its efforts in the United States to promote ELEM’s critical work on the ground in Israel.
Rabbi Lankin is married to Jeanne, a clinical social worker, and they are the parents of four children and grandparents of two and live in New Jersey.