Rabbi Elimelech Goldberg (lovingly known by thousands of children as Rabbi G.), is the founder and director of Kids Kicking Cancer, a nonprofit organization that teaches martial arts to children battling cancer as well as to those facing other serious challenges in their lives. The therapy techniques he has developed, using meditation and breathing exercises, have been very successful in decreasing the pain of pediatric patients. Rabbi Goldberg began the program in 1999, nearly eighteen years after losing his first child to leukemia. He holds a First Degree Black Belt in the Korean art of Choi Kwang Do as well as a clinical assistant professorship in pediatrics at the Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit.

Va, Rabbi G. was awarded the 2004 Robert Wood Johnson Community Health Leaders Award, the nation’s most prestigious honor in community public health, and in the same year he was the recipient of the Humanitarian of the Year Award from the McCarty Cancer Foundation. In 2012 he was featured in People magazine’s “Heroes Among Us” page, and in 2014 he was named a “Top Ten CNN Hero.” The Rabbi was also honored by Ford Motor Company with their “Best Picture of Hope” award and recently by the Mass General Cancer Center at their annual gala. The Rabbi has been featured on “Good Morning America”, “The Today Show”, “The Early Show”, The Associated Press and hundreds of news stories.

Rabbi Goldberg received his rabbinical ordination from Yeshiva Uiversity, where he also graduated summa cum laude. He served for twenty years as a pulpit rabbi and police chaplain in Southfield, Michigan. He now lectures around the world on the subjects of pediatric pain and end of life care as well as issues of spirituality and health, and has expanded Kids Kicking Cancer to Canada, Italy, South Africa and Israel. Presently, the program sees over 7,000 students a year in 90 hospitals and facilities.

In addition to helping children deal with serious health challenges in their lives, Rabbi G. also conducts stress seminars at Fortune 500 companies, where 97% of adult participants have described the presentations as having had “a profound influence” on their lives.

Rabbi G. and his wife, Ruthie, have two married children and ten grandchildren.