Rabbi Hanan Sills

A Life of Service

Rabbi Hanan Sills served as a U.S. Navy chaplain with the Marine Corps, a congregational rabbi to a community of 5,000 people, and a campus rabbi for 18 years. For a decade, he worked as a circuit‑riding rabbi and outreach worker across rural Mendocino County in Northern California — traveling from village to village and home to home, in the tradition of the old European itinerant rabbis.

He went on to teach Judaic Studies, Psychology of Religion, and Comparative Religion for a total of 25 years, at the Universities of Texas and Colorado, the Naropa Institute, the College of the Redwoods in Mendocino, and the University of Oregon in Eugene — work that eventually led him to create Ad Olam, Synagogue Without Walls, to carry his outreach and inreach mission forward.

Scholar & Healer

Alongside his work as a rabbi, cantor, and father — a role he considered every bit as important as any professional title — Hanan held a lifelong love of music and storytelling. He earned a Ph.D. in Humanistic and Transpersonal Psychology and Religious Thought, and studied and practiced extensively in Pastoral Psychology, Client‑Centered Therapy, Gestalt work, Process‑Oriented Psychotherapy, Jungian work, and other modalities, drawing on more than 42 years of experience as a counselor.

Activist & Bridge-Builder

Hanan was long involved in civil and human rights movements, both in the United States and in the former Soviet Union, as well as in environmental and antinuclear activism. He was an activist feminist within the men’s movement, and gave much of his energy to peace movements — particularly peace efforts in the Middle East.

A Grandfather of Jewish Renewal

Hanan was active in the Jewish Renewal movement for more than 36 years. In 1977, he co‑founded the Joys of Jewishing, a summer family retreat program, and held a longtime interest in alternative, land‑based Jewish and other cooperative communities.

One Human Race

While Hanan held a deep love for his Jewish heritage and tradition, he also believed that all human beings need to be conscious that this is one planet, and that we are all one human race — and that if our separate traditions and faiths do not help us recognize the oneness of humanity, they are dated and dangerous relics of the past.

The Seeds of Ad Olam

The seeds of Ad Olam were planted in the woods of Mendocino County, California, back in the 1960s, as part of an outreach program for unaffiliated Jews and others who wanted to connect with Jewish culture, religion, and tradition. The work was funded in part by the Jewish Federation of San Francisco and several small grants, and sponsored by the Northern California regional office of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (Reform). Over more than nine years of dedicated service, Rabbi Hanan helped plant the seeds for two Jewish centers in Mendocino County that would eventually come into being.

His Titles, His Work

A grandfather of the Movement of Jewish Renewal, founder of Ad Olam and the Joys of Jewishing, co‑creator of the Jewish Artists, Musicians and Writers Network of the Bay Area (which later evolved into J.A.C.O.B.), former Hillel director, Navy and Marine chaplain, university professor, congregational rabbi, and circuit‑riding rabbi in the Redwoods of California — with his rabbi’s bag in hand, Hanan continued to serve and bring the spirit of Jewish wellness into the community. His outreach work spanned major public and community life‑cycle events, holiday services, and public lectures; his inreach work filled homes — his own and others’ — with Shabbat and holy day celebrations, baby namings, home dedications, classes, Jewish films, counseling, and mentoring.

His Mission

“Nothing less than the mitzvah of reviving the home as the center of Jewish life, which it was for millennia.” Rabbi Hanan Sills z”l

Alongside this mission sat its complement: to reach out to Jews and others who wanted to connect with, and learn about, Jewish spirit and tradition — the same mission Ad Olam carries forward today.