Alan Mittleman

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Alan Mittleman (born 1953) is a professor of Jewish philosophy at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America.

Contents

Education

Mittleman received his BA from Brandeis University and his MA and PhD from Temple University.

Career

From 1984 to 1988, Mittleman served on the staff of the American Jewish Committee. He helped to draft a resolution by the United Church of Christ which made it the first Protestant denomination in the United States to declare that Christianity did not supersede Judaism. [1]

Mittleman went on to serve as a professor of religion at Muhlenberg College from 1988 to 2004. He was the head of the Muhlenberg College Religion Department from 1997 to 2003. [2]

From 2000 until 2004, he was also the director of a major research project on "Jews and the American Public Square" initiated by the Pew Charitable Trusts. [3]

In 2004, Mittleman became Professor of Jewish Philosophy at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America (JTS). In 2007, he served as visiting professor of religion at Princeton University, and in that same year he became Chair of the Department of Jewish Thought at JTS.

Upon joining the Jewish Theological Seminary faculty, he also became director of the JTS's Louis Finkelstein Institute for Religious and Social Studies, a position he held until 2010. [4]

In 2010, he became director of the Tikvah Institute for Jewish Thought at the Jewish Theological Seminary. [5]

Philosophical views

Mittleman has described himself as being a "rationalist" in his religious beliefs. [6] He may be placed within the Jewish rationalist tradition of Jewish philosophy.

He thinks that "pure secularism may be incoherent" but that "robust religious hope needs the secularist critique." [7]

Personal

Professor Mittleman was married to the late Patti Mittleman, the retired Director of Muhlenberg College Hillel.

Publications

Mittleman's books include:

He is the editor of:

His writings have appeared in journals including Harvard Theological Review, Modern Judaism, the Jewish Political Studies Review, the Journal of Religion, and First Things .

Awards

2018: National Jewish Book Award in the Modern Jewish Thought and Experiment for Does Judaism Condone Violence?: Holiness and Ethics [9]

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References

  1. ↑ "Christianity didn't rescind Judaism, church says", Lawrence Journal-World, Jul 1, 1987
  2. ↑ http://www.isreligion.org/wp-content/uploads/mittleman_vitae2.pdf Archived 2011-07-26 at the Wayback Machine Accessed 11-10-2010
  3. ↑ http://www.jtsa.edu/x1331.xml?ID_NUM=108287 Archived 2010-08-23 at the Wayback Machine , accessed 12-15-2010
  4. ↑ "The Jewish Theological Seminary - JTS Appoints New Director of the Louis Finkelstein Institute". Archived from the original on 2014-02-04. Retrieved 2014-02-02. - AUGUST 17, 2010
  5. ↑ "The Jewish Theological Seminary -". Archived from the original on 2010-11-24. Retrieved 2010-10-25.
  6. ↑ "The Jewish Theological Seminary -". Archived from the original on 2013-03-13. Retrieved 2012-10-22., accessed 12-15-2010
  7. ↑ "The Jewish Theological Seminary -". Archived from the original on 2013-03-13. Retrieved 2012-10-22., accessed 12-15-2010
  8. ↑ SMITH, ROBERT O.. 2004. Journal of Church and State 46 (1). Oxford University Press: 168–68. https://www.jstor.org/stable/23920681.
  9. ↑ "Past Winners". Jewish Book Council. Retrieved 2020-01-24.
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