Rabbi Elhanan Miller is the founding editor of People of the Book, an online initiative geared at teaching Jewish faith, culture and history to Muslim audiences through viral videos shared on social media. An Arabic specialist, Miller previously served as the Arab Affairs Reporter for The Times of Israel and as rabbi of the Jewish community in the Australian capital, Canberra.
Born and raised in Jerusalem, Miller began studying Arabic at age 13, serving as a linguist in the IDF’s Intelligence Unit 8200. He completed his BA (cum laude) and MA degrees in Middle East History and Islamic Studies at Hebrew University. While studying for Orthodox rabbinic ordination at Beit Midrash Harel, he founded People of the Book in July 2017. The initiative’s YouTube and Facebook pages now boast 150,000 subscribers, with millions of annual video views across the Arab world.
As a student, Miller was an avid debater, winning the title of Second-Best Speaker at the World University Debating Championships in Vancouver, Canada. He participated in multiple dialogue groups with Palestinians and worked in the office of Knesset Member Colette Avital (Labour) as a Legacy Heritage Fellow. Miller completed research on the Palestinian refugee issue as an Atkin Fellow at Kings College, London, and was the Richard Beeston scholar at the foreign desk of the London Times.
Miller regularly comments on Israeli politics in Arabic news channels including Al-Jazeera, BBC Arabic, Sky News Arabia and Israel’s public broadcaster Kan. His opinion articles have appeared in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. He is fluent in English, Hebrew, Arabic, French and Yiddish.