Rabbi Rob Toren served as the Samis Foundation’s first Chief Grants Officer when he moved to Seattle in 1997 and then as Executive Director since 2010. The Samis Foundation was begun by Sam Israel to continue his philanthropic legacy and concentrates its philanthropy in the areas of Jewish education in Washington State and various program areas in Israel (archaeology, immigrant absorption, widows and orphans, and wildlife preservation). Toren is a Harvard graduate, where he majored in Near Eastern Languages and Literature, a certified cantor from the Jewish Theological Seminary, and an ordained rabbi from the Academy of Jewish Religion (NYC). He continued post-ordination studies in traditional yeshivot in Monsey, NY, and Jerusalem, including Brovender’s. He is a graduate of the Jerusalem Fellows postgraduate program in Jewish Educational Leadership, during which he studied twice a week with Nechama Leibowitz for two years. He moved to Seattle from Cleveland, OH, with his wife and four children, where he served as Director of Judaica for the Jewish Community Centers of Cleveland and then as Director of Educational Planning for the Jewish Education Center of Cleveland. He has sung opera professionally, including with Seattle Opera.