Rabbi Yehuda Sarna is the Chief Rabbi of the Jewish Council of the Emirates, a position to which he was appointed in 2019. In this role, he leads the community in religious and spiritual matters, and represents them to government and organizational officials.
Rabbi Sarna serves as the University Chaplain and Executive Director at the Bronfman Center for Jewish Student Life at New York University (NYU). He is a senior fellow at the Of Many Institute for Multifaith Leadership at NYU, where he designs educational experiences and curricula to train the next generation in interfaith action.
Rabbi Sarna was one of the principal subjects of Chelsea Clinton's 2014 documentary, Of Many, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and aired nationally on ABC in 2017. The documentary is utilized as a teaching tool for universities and high schools around the country seeking to establish norms of religious and spiritual diversity within their institutions. The Of Many Institute designed an award-winning training module, Faith Zone, to train university students, staff, and administrators in religious literacy.
Rabbi Sarna was appointed to the Muslim-Jewish Advisory Council, a project of the American Jewish Committee and the Islamic Society of North America, to lobby for more vigilant legislation of hate crimes. Rabbi Sarna has been recognized for his outward-looking and innovative approach. He was awarded the Richard M. Joel Exemplar of Excellence from Hillel International in 2008 and was the honoree at the Orthodox Union/Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus Awards Dinner. In 2009, he was listed as one of the 36 Under 36 changemakers by The New York Jewish Week.
Rabbi Sarna is married to Dr. Michelle Waldman Sarna, a psychologist, and they have six children.