About Lev #7

About Lev

Lev's Credentials

  • Over 20 years of demonstrated experience in Shlichus, including serving as pulpit Rabbi, youth and adult education, camp and Hebrew school director,  fundraising, outreach, youth and community programs.
  • In addition to years of counseling and coaching congregants, Jewish inmates, fellow Shluchim and bachurim, Lev is accredited by the International Coaching Federation for completing the Victor Frankl Life Coaching Program and the Marriage, Dating and Intimacy Program
  • Lev is a strategic leader with excellent management, networking and relationship-building skills and has worked with other Shluchim, congregants and other individuals in a variety of fields including marital matters, parenting questions, dating advice, and shlichus related matters.
  • As a quintessential positive thinker, Lev firmly believes that you are (with rare exception) placed in a tailor-made position to make a positive difference in the lives of the people you care about most. Lev works with you to achieve positive and measurable results in both the short and long haul. Rather than simply dispensing wisdom or advice, he listens attentively and then brainstorms with you to find a solution to your situation, empowering you in the process.

Rabbi Lev Cotlar is a native of Houston, Texas, who completed his Semicha (Rabbinic ordination) in Venice, Italy. He served as Rabbi in the Shul in the Park in Glasgow, Scotland, and subsequently taught children, university students and adults in Johannesburg, South Africa, Toronto, and Brooklyn, including 6 years in Yeshiva Darchei Menachem and 3 years as Director of Education for the Chabad Student Center of Columbia University.

In 2010, he moved with his wife Dassy on Shlichus to Raleigh, NC. He first served as Director of Education at Congregation Sha’arei Israel, before transitioning to Executive Director of the shul. During his 12 years there, he counseled congregants, directed the Chabad Hebrew School, Camp Gan Israel, Jewish Learning Institute,  taught at the Florence Melton School of Adult education, and served as the contract Rabbi at the federal prison in Butner, NC, while working tirelessly to grow the shul and Jewish community.

After moving to south Florida to give their children a higher quality Jewish education, Lev now serves as director of community outreach and engagement at Chabad of Palm Aire while also teaching at the Rohr Bais Chaya Academy. Whether working with youth, adults or couples, Lev aims to impart the timeless beauty and depth of Torah values in a clear and relevant manner.