Micha Odenheimer is a journalist, rabbi, social entrepreneur and activist. He was born in Berkeley, California, graduated from Yale University with a BA in Religious Studies, and was ordained as an Orthodox Rabbi.

Since moving to Israel in the 1988, Micha has founded two non-profit organizations. The first, the Israel Association for Ethiopian Jews (now the Association of Ethiopian Jews), founded in 1993, is an advocacy organization working for the full integration and absorption of Ethiopian Jews into Israeli society. The second, Tevel b’Tzedek, founded in 2007, aids subsistence villages in the Global South (Latin America, Asia, Africa and Oceania) and introduces young Israelis and Diaspora Jews to the challenge of global poverty through service-learning programs.

As a journalist, Micha has written for Haaretz, the Washington Post, the Jerusalem Post, and other publications from Ethiopia, Somalia, Iraq, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Haiti during times of crisis and transition. Micha has also written extensively on the Jewish world and on Judaism and social justice.

Micha was awarded the Boris Smolar Award for Journalism in 1998 and the Flegg Jewish Peoplehood Prize by Hebrew University in 2005.

Micha lives in Jerusalem with his wife, Sossie Vanek, and he has 3 children, Natan, Tamar and Ayal.

Micha made Aliyah from California in 1988.