Rabbi Kanefsky was ordained in 1989 at Yeshiva University, where he also received a master’s degree in Jewish History. He began his rabbinic career in 1990 as the associate rabbi at the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale in New York, where he worked under the tutelage of Rabbi Avi Weiss.
He became the rabbi of B’nai David-Judea Congregation in the summer of 1996. In the years since he has helped to build B’nai David-Judea into a leading center of Modern Orthodox thought and practice, guided by the principle that Jewish tradition can and must inform every area of modern ethical living. He is a past president of the Board of Rabbis of Southern California, and of the International Rabbinic Fellowship, which he helped found.