In June 1963, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel replied to a JFK white house invitation preparing for MLK’s March on Washington.  Heschel, who also happens to be Yitzhak Miller’s cousin, famously telegrammed: “I propose that you, Mr. President, declare state of moral emergency. The hour calls for Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity.”

Raised by two university-professor parents in a Silicon Valley family directly descended from the Baal Shem Tov, “little Yitzi” learned Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity from Heschel’s kinsman, Yitz’s grandfather. Only later would Yitz learn that his grandfather’s mantra was a hereditary mandate, also manifest by Yitzi’s “little sister Rebecca”—conductor of the London Philharmonic’s “Magna Carta 800” performance for Queen Elizabeth, and his brother-in-law, Danny—multi-Gramophone Award-nominated concert pianist.

A “Proudly Unorthodox Rabbi,” Yitzhak Miller has—among other audacious endeavors—founded Stanford’s Hybrid Automobile Research Project, launched “CyberJudaism” 10 years before COVID made “Shulcasting^©” a ubiquitous reality, single-fathered Jacob—currently flourishing at Brandeis, forced the Supreme Court to answer a question they had ducked since 1932 (“Is political gerrymandering illegal?”), served as State Public Policy Director for the North Carolina NAACP, and even earned CBS’s monicker “The Vacation Home Creator” as real estate hobby became unintended profession in the wake of 2018 Hurricanes Florence & Michael.

Young Yitzhak—already a tenacious advocate for humanity’s welfare—returned from a Technology Management semester abroad in Japan to lead the Stanford Hybrid Automobile Research Project. After serving as the Program’s Founding Director, Yitz raised $5M as Development Director as he “passed the torch.” Post-undergrad Yitz continued his environmentally-protecting automobile endeavors as GM/Delco’s Asia Pacific Hybrid Vehicle Liaison to manufacturers in Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, and Taiwan.

Trading an MBA for the loftier aspirations of Seminary, Rabbi Yitzhak earned a U.S.  House of Representatives Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition “For Outstanding and Invaluable Service to the Silicon Valley Community,” reflecting his development leading to the South Valley’s first “Brick-and-Mortar Jewish Institution,” three consecutive Belin National Outreach Awards, co-founding South Silicon Valley’s first Interfaith Clergy Council, and multiple community Jewish architectural study tours to Eastern Europe, Ukraine, Egypt, Jordan and Israel.  Rabbi Yitzi’s “Rockin’ Shabbos” services earned him the nickname “The Rabbi of Sax,” inspiring the work of a local Jewish sculptor. 

Welcoming Jacob into the world and expanding from the congregational rabbinate, Rabbi Yitzi founded NY Times-featured “CyberJudaism” a decade before COVID would make “ShulCasting^©” a ubiquitous reality. His counseling skills, honed at UCLA and Stanford Medical centers, precipitated Yitz’s “Masterfully Discern a Man’s Integrity” programs.

As organizational Judaism assimilated online learning, Yitz turned his moral grandeur to the intersection of Jewish Values, Civil Rights, and American Democracy, earning a Constitutional Law Degree, cum laude, mentored by Justices Jim Exum Jr.—longest-serving Chief Justice and “Earl Warren” of the North Carolina Supreme Court, and Robert N. Hunter, Jr.—responsible for numerous foundational US Supreme Court decisions restraining racial gerrymandering to this day.

Rabbi Miller’s North Carolina law school thesis “Ten Recurring Redistricting Law Questions the Supreme Court has Debated for Over a Century Without Actually Answering” uncovered a piece of testimony in the 2011 North Carolina legislative record which would force a 2019 Supreme Court “Answer” to the legality of political gerrymandering.

In the meantime, now-Attorney Rabbi Yitzhak Miller’s work with the ACLU inspired the Reverend T. Anthony Spearman, newly-elected State President of the NAACP, to create a Public Policy Director position and request that “YJ” accept the appointment.  Met with the query: “You want a straight white male rabbi as NAACP director?” Spearman replied “No, I want to you marching with me like your Uncle Heschel marched with King.  And, I not only want a policy director, I also want a speech-writer who can write with moral grandeur and spiritual audacity. Besides, you’re the only other person I know who enjoys being called ‘perspicacious.’”

In the first of 3 “hurricanes” in Rabbi Miller’s pre-COVID life, internal NAACP financial upheaval, state power struggles, and national leadership animus horrifically led to Rev. Spearman’s self-inflicted death.  Meanwhile, the Supreme Court in Common Cause v. Rucho dismayingly ruled that Political Gerrymandering was not illegal, rendering Yitz’s intended federal legal career path and Harvard Master’s in Government moot in the process. 

Simultaneously, Yitz—a lifelong real estate hobbyist—undertook creating 4 exceptional vacation rental homes.  Yitz accomplished the endeavor with such success that CBS featured his “Flagship Vacation Properties” work on its “Staycation” television series, but not until he rebuilt 3 of the 4 from Hurricanes Florence and Michael which hit within a month of closing.  A lifelong friend commented that reconstructing his entire life savings with his own two hands in the midst of the COVID pandemic was “audacious,” even if not moral or spiritual, and perhaps the best evidence yet of Yitz’s indomitable ability to “Make Lemonade.”

As Yitz accompanied Jacob to Boston for a post-hurricanes, post-COVID “gap year,” Jacob crafted his AI-inspired application essay: “The Question is NOT ‘WHAT is Intelligence,’ the True Question is ‘WHY is Intelligence?’”  Jacob concluded: “the whole endeavor is academic…we miss the connection between understanding and possibility, unless we catalyze our intelligence through the prism of kindness.”  Jacob partially attributed these insights to a Heschel quote, “When I was young, I admired clever people, now that I am wiser, I admire kind people,” which had lived for a decade in the signature line of Yitz’s email. 

Reading Jacob’s words, Yitz concluded he needn’t worry whether Jacob had inherited the hereditary moral grandeur and spiritual audacity.  Yitz also launched ThePrismOfKindness.com—advocating for human awareness in the AI era, and WickedAwesomeDad.org—advocating for single fathers and integrity in fatherhood.

Rabbi Miller is a member of the Washington DC Bar, working as a civil rights attorney and running Flagship Vacation Properties.  Yitz resides alongside Boston Commons, enjoys daily walks on The Freedom Trail through the saplings of American Revolution with his apartment-sized dog “Bingo,” while finding ever-more ways to live the Talmudic Rabbis’ mandate: “It is not upon you to finish the work, but neither are you free to desist from it.”[1] 

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[1] Mishna, Pirke Avot (The Ethics of the Ancestors), 2:16