Dr. Mark S. Kinzer is Rabbi Emeritus of Congregation Zera Avraham in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Born in Detroit in 1952, Mark was raised in a Conservative Jewish home and became an adherent of Messiah Yeshua in 1971. He attended the University of Michigan (B.A., M.A., Ph.D.), and remains forever a loyal Wolverine, receiving his PhD in Near Eastern Studies in 1995. Kinzer received his rabbinical ordination from the Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations in 2001.

​The pre-eminent Messianic Jewish theologian, Mark is Senior Scholar and President Emeritus of Messianic Jewish Theological Institute, a graduate school preparing leaders for service in the Messianic Jewish movement.

 Richard Mouw former President of Fuller Theological Seminary, has called Dr. Kinzer “a breakthrough thinker who has taken Messianic Judaism to a new level of theological sophistication.” R. Kendall Soulen of Wesley Theological Seminary states that Dr. Kinzer is “widely regarded as the [Messianic Jewish] movement’s foremost theologian.”

 Dr. Kinzer lives with his wife, Roslyn, in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he also serves as Rabbi Emeritus of Congregation Zera Avraham, a Messianic Jewish synagogue which he founded in 1993.

Rabbi Dr. Richard C. Nichol served as Senior Rabbi of Congregation Ruach Israel, Needham, MA from  1981 – 2020. He now serves the congregation as Rabbi Emeritus. He is currently the President of the Messianic Jewish Theological Institute (MJTI) and formerly has served as president of both the Messianic Jewish Rabbinical Council (MJRC) and Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations (UMJC), as well as vice president of the International Messianic Jewish Alliance (IMJA).

Rabbi Nichol received a BA in music from Ithaca College, an M.Div. degree from Biblical Theological Seminary, a D. Min.degree in Homiletics from Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary and a Master of Jewish Studies degree from Hebrew College in Newton, Massachusetts. He received smicha (ordination) from the Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations in 1986 and from the Messianic Jewish Rabbinical Council (MJRC) in 2016. Rabbi Rich, as he is commonly known, and his wife Susan live in Needham, MA nearby their four grown children and a growing gaggle of grand children.

Publications by Rabbi Rich include:  “The Unique Place of Gentiles in Messianic Jewish Congregational Life” in The Borough Park Papers, Symposium III: How Jewish Should the Messianic Jewish Community Be?,2012 and  “The Case for Conversion: Welcoming Non-Jews into Messianic Jewish Space” on the MJRC website

Rabbi Rich’s main goal for MJTI is to be a school where “warm hearts and cool heads” meet under the banner of the Risen Messiah of Israel, Yeshua. Only by combining academic excellence with passion for God, Torah, and Messiah can an institution of higher learning like MJTI meet the deepest needs of our students—and through these men and women, the needs of the developing Messianic Jewish community.

Elliot Klayman has been Chief Operations Officer since 2014, and oversees MJTI’s main office in San Diego. He is also a faculty member, teaches in the Panim el Panim program, and is the current interim editor of Kesher: A Journal of Messianic Judaism, a division of MJTI. Additionally, he has edited The Messianic Outreach from 1985-present.

Stan Meyer is the Academic Dean of MJTI and Associate Professor of Contemporary Jewish Studies. Dr. Meyer has a PhD in Intercultural Education from Biola University and an MA in Intercultural Studies from Fuller Theological Seminary. His field of study is Jewish Social Scientific research, Jewish identity, and Contemporary Jewish history. He also teaches doctoral studies at The King’s University in Dallas and teaches Intercultural Studies at Grand Canyon University College of Theology in Phoenix. Dr. Meyer was a contributing author to Barna Research’s Jewish Millennials: The Beliefs and Behaviors Shaping Young Jews in America (2017) and Revitalizing Messianic Jewish Congregations: What Attracts and Engages Young Adults and Teens? (2022). He authored Emerging Jewish Young Adults and their Communities (2020), “The Divine Messiah in Early Judaism” (in press), and “The Un’taneh Tokef and the Dies Irae, A Liturgical Conversation between the Church and the Synagogue” (in press). Dr. Meyer and his wife Jacqui live in Phoenix, where they are elders at Baruch Hashem Messianic Synagogue.

As Dean of Students at MJTI, Rabbi Saal has a set of values he wishes to pass down by example.

He has been with MJTI for two decades since its inception because he believes in digging in, putting down roots, and building with others.

He is the founding rabbi of Shuvah Yisrael because he believes in religious community. He does not view himself as an employee of the congregation, but rather as one of the many integral parts of the body.

He lives a Torah observant life because he believes in the uniqueness of Israel and its irrevocable call. He is hopeful for the future because God remembers us, all of us.

Rabbi Saal became a rabbi out of the conviction that we need to remember God in all of life’s activities, “at home and out in public, even when we sleep and when we wake” (Deuteronomy 6:7).

Michael Hillel has been MJTI’s registrar since 2019. He is a 2019 graduate of MJTI’s Rabbinic Studies program. He holds a B.A. in Bible and Theology from the International Correspondence Institute (now Global University), a Master of Jewish Studies from MJTI, a Master of Rabbinic Studies from MJTI and received rabbinic ordination from the Messianic Jewish Rabbinical Council in June of 2019. 

Joyce came to MJTI after retiring from her position as corporate librarian in Ohio. She began volunteering for MJTI in 2012, assisting in donor management. In 2013 she was hired as the Office Manager with expanded responsibilities in all financial record keeping, overseeing Kesher subscriptions, and various other office duties.

Joyce has been an active participant in the Messianic Jewish movement for many years, and has spoken at conferences and other Messianic events.