Rabbi Gedalia Kauffman was born in the “Mile-High City” of Denver, Colorado where he learned to snow ski as soon as he learned to walk. He attended university in Boston, earning a degree in Middle Eastern History. Rabbi Kauffman then spent three years travelling Southeast Asia, and ended up in Jerusalem, where he spent nine years learning at yeshivas including Aish HaTorah. In 2005, the Kauffmans were lured to Aish Johannesburg with promises of a maid and a swimming pool.