Our Rabbi & Rebbetzin

Rabbi Yochanan Ivry studied at the Rabbinical College of Canada and later at the Rabbinical College of Australia and New Zealand. He received his rabbinic ordination from the Central Yeshiva in Crown Heights Brooklyn and was an associate rabbi at the Jewish Center in Manhattan Beach Southern California.

Rebbetzen Sterna Ivry, a graduate of Teachers Seminary in Yerres France, began her teaching career at the Lubavitch Day School in  Dijon France. She was a director of Judaic Studies of the newly formed school. She later taught at the Beth Hannah School, the largest Jewish day school in Europe, as a high school teacher.

​On a trip to Paris for a cousin’s wedding, Rabbi Ivry met his wife in the summer of 1999. They were married in Paris and lived there for a year before moving to NY and eventually to Staten Island. Rabbi Yochanan and Rebbetzen Sterna Ivry have been leading Congregation Toras Emes of Staten Island since 2001. They have been instrumental in bolstering the Jewish Community of the South and East shores of Staten Island with ongoing classes, children’s Hebrew school, daycare and day camp, holiday programs and life cycle events. Their greatest treasure and accomplishment is, of course,  their adorable children of two girls and five boys k”ah.