Harvard appoints Rabbi Getzel Davis as inaugural director of interfaith engagement

Rabbi Getzel Davis.

Niles Singer/Harvard Staff Photographer

Jacob Sweet

Harvard Staff Writer

July 30, 2025 7 min read

Presidential initiative will promote religious literacy and dialogue across faith and non-faith traditions

Among Harvard’s chaplaincy, Rabbi Getzel Davis has long been known as a bridge builder. From his internship at Harvard Hillel in 2012 to his service as a member of the executive committee of Harvard chaplains, Davis has created lasting relationships across religious, spiritual, and ethical organizations on campus.

Davis will now join the University staff as inaugural director of interfaith engagement, where he will lead programs to foster respect for diverse identities, build relationships among communities, and encourage cooperation for the common good. He sees the post as a natural continuation of his tenure at Harvard.

“I spent 12 years as a Harvard chaplain, and I learned a lot about all these other communities,” Davis said. “Not only did I build deeper relationships with them and run programming together, but I learned a lot about what they were struggling with and was often surprised that, in fact, we had a lot in common.”

In the new role, part of a presidential initiative on interfaith engagement, Davis will oversee projects that promote religious literacy and meaningful dialogue across diverse faith and non-faith traditions, and collaborate with University offices to advocate for the needs of religious and spiritual communities.

“Creating a community in which every person at Harvard can thrive means expanding opportunities for individuals to know, understand, and appreciate one another,” said President Alan M. Garber. “Rabbi Davis is a good listener and a great collaborator. His capacities for curiosity and compassion will shape our efforts to ensure that Harvard is a place where people can be themselves, express their views, and pursue their dreams both individually and collectively.”

Imam Khalil Abdur-Rashid (left), Harvard’s Muslim chaplain, called the appointment of Davis to his new role “a win for Harvard, a win for the chaplains, and a win for our students.”

File photo by Veasey Conway/Harvard Staff Photographer

Davis brings with him deep relationships with many of Harvard’s chaplains, including Imam Khalil Abdur-Rashid, Harvard’s Muslim chaplain, who expressed excitement about Davis’ appointment and the new role. “To have someone in the Office of the President that is devoted to fostering interfaith programming is innovative, strategic, and forward-looking,” he said. “I think his presence as director of interfaith engagement is a win for Harvard, a win for the chaplains, and a win for our students.”

The work has already begun. In the coming semester, Davis will launch the First-Year Religious Ethical and Spiritual Life Fellowship, a paid 10-session program that helps students develop the skills to navigate complex differences and combat religious prejudice, antisemitism, and Islamophobia. At the end of the program, students will have the opportunity to apply for grants to foster their own interfaith initiatives on campus.

Davis is also collaborating with the office of the College dean of students to provide programming for pre-orientation and orientation to help promote pluralism and mutual understanding.

These new projects will run alongside existing programming, including Interfaith PhotoVoice — an exhibit of photos and stories that reflect student perspectives on religion, ethics, and spirituality — and Pluralism Passports, a series of interfaith events and programs that help Harvard community members learn about religious, ethical, and spiritual communities outside their own. Additional programs, administered by Davis and multifaith engagement fellow Abby McElroy, will begin throughout the academic year.

Other chaplains joined Abdur-Rashid in praising Davis as the right leader for the role.

“Getzel is a leader of deep humanity who has already spent years working hard to build closer, more mutually respectful relationships at Harvard, between religious groups that would undoubtedly have been more at odds with one another if not for his presence,” said Harvard Humanist Chaplain Greg Epstein. “In my particular case, I can say he has also been a wonderful champion of friendship and understanding between religious and nonreligious communities.”

Tammy McLeod, president of the Harvard Chaplains and a staff member of the interdenominational Christian organization Cru, also spoke to Davis’s ability to lead across difference. “Within the Harvard Chaplains, he has been a dedicated advocate for cultivating genuine relationships across diverse belief systems,” said McLeod. “Warm, personable, and deeply committed to life’s enduring questions, Getzel brings a unique presence to Harvard’s spiritual and ethical landscape. Students will find great value in engaging with him. His new position is not only timely — it is vital.”

Rabbi Jason Rubenstein, executive director of Harvard Hillel, echoed that sentiment.

“Of the many people I have worked with and observed in higher education, none is a better exemplar of assiduously cultivating relationships with colleagues across difference. … I cannot imagine a better fit, or more urgent work, than his new role of stitching together the different strands of Harvard’s communal tapestry into a more unified, humane, and interconnected whole.”

Davis lives with his wife, Leah Rosenberg, a physician at Massachusetts General Hospital and an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, and three children in Cambridge. At Brandeis University, he majored in Near Eastern and Judaic studies, with a minor in comparative religion, before attending Hebrew College, a pluralistic rabbinical school in Newton. He first joined Harvard Hillel as an intern, advising the reform and conservative minyans on campus. In 2015, he became Harvard Hillel’s director of graduate programming and chair of University Programs for Harvard Chaplains.

In the latter role, he aimed to strengthen relationships among more than 40 chaplains from more than 30 religious and ethical traditions. Davis recalls meeting in a different chaplaincy every month, giving different groups opportunities to share their triumphs and struggles.

Aside from formal programming, Davis and other chaplains hosted meals open to students to discuss essential questions of faith, meaning, and collaboration on campus. He also changed the format of chaplain meetings to build time for one-on-one conversations and in-person gatherings.

“I find a lot of the way I encounter the sacred is to be in relationship with other people,” said Davis, who became campus rabbi in 2023. “And some of that has been by developing deep and trusting relationships with the other chaplains.”

The deep bonds with other religious leaders, including Abdur-Rashid, led to joint events between Harvard Hillel and other groups like the Harvard Islamic Society. Davis cited the “Sukkat Salaam” dinner as one of many successful collaborations — an event that celebrated the start of the Jewish holiday Sukkot and the close of Ramadan, the Islamic month of fasting.

The relationship between Davis and Abdur-Rashid proved valuable following the events of Oct. 7, 2023, as Jewish and Muslim students navigated complex emotional and community responses to the attack on Israel and the Gaza war.

In December 2023, the two held their first of three vigils, praying together for peace for all those affected by the conflict. “They felt very important, symbolically, to be done on campus,” Davis said. “It felt like a very big deal.”

This experience of bringing communities together during a particularly challenging time reinforced Davis’ belief in a more structured approach to interfaith work on campus. After leaving Hillel in March 2025 to regroup and spend time with his family, Davis continued thinking about the connections he had formed with other chaplains, imagining a new role that would allow him to establish programming for an even wider and more diverse community.

“That time of reflection gave me the clarity to see that the bridge-building work we did at Hillel was precisely what the entire campus needed,” Davis said. “I used that period to meet with chaplains, administrators, and students to develop a concrete vision for how Harvard could foster true pluralism. This collective vision is what the University has now entrusted me to advance.”

After more than a decade at the University, Davis is thrilled to be stepping into the inaugural role and an initiative that he expects to grow in years to come. “This new role feels like the culmination of my entire career here,” he said. “I am honored and energized to answer this call to serve the whole Harvard community.”