Brant Rosen (born February 22, 1963) is an American rabbi and blogger, known for his pro-Palestinian activism.
Brant Rosen (born February 22, 1963) is an American rabbi and blogger, known for his pro-Palestinian activism.
Rosen is a native of Los Angeles, California. [1] He is a graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles [1] and the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. [2]
Rosen is the rabbi of Tzedek Chicago, an anti-Zionist synagogue he founded in August 2015. [3] Rosen previously served as the rabbi of the Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation in Evanston, Illinois from 1998 [4] to 2014, [5] when he resigned, citing increasing tension over his Palestine solidarity activism. [6] After leaving JRC, Rosen became the Midwest Regional Director of the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker organization. In 2019, he left AFSC to serve Tzedek Chicago as its full time rabbi. [7]
Rosen is a former president of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association and is the co-founder and co-chairperson of the Jewish Voice for Peace Rabbinical Council. [8] In 2009, he co-founded the Jewish Fast for Gaza, or Ta'anit Tzedek with Rabbi Brian Walt. [9] Under his leadership, the Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation built their new building with an environmentally sustainable design in 2008, becoming the first house of worship to ever receive a Platinum rating by the U.S. Green Building Council. [10] He was the recipient of Chicago Magazine's Green Award for his environmental leadership in 2009. [11]
Rosen's blog Shalom Rav explores "the intersection between Judaism and social justice, with a particular emphasis on Israel/Palestine." In 2012, Just World Books published his book, "Wrestling in the Daylight: A Rabbi's Path to Palestinian Solidarity," [12] [13] which featured his posts and numerous reader comments from Shalom Rav. Rosen is also the author of the blog Yedid Nefesh, where he posts his poetry and thoughts on Judaism and spirituality. In 2018, Tzedek Chicago published his chapbook of original prayers, "Songs After the Revolution: New Jewish Liturgy." He has contributed op-eds to The Huffington Post , [14] Chicago Tribune , [15] The Forward , [16] Truthout , [17] The Jewish Telegraphic Agency , [18] and other media outlets. [19]
In 2008, Rosen was named one of the Top 25 Pulpit Rabbis in America by Newsweek magazine. [20] In 2009 he was awarded the "Partner in Justice" Award by Avodah: The Jewish Service Corps [21] and he received the "Inspiration for Hope Award" by the American Friends Service Committee in 2010 for his social justice activism in the Middle East. [22]
Reconstructionist Judaism is a Jewish movement based on the concepts developed by Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan (1881–1983) that views Judaism as a progressively evolving civilization rather than just a religion. The movement originated as a semi-organized stream within Conservative Judaism, developed between the late 1920s and the 1940s before seceding in 1955, and established a rabbinical college in 1967. Reconstructionist Judaism is recognized by many scholars as one of the five major streams of Judaism in America alongside Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, and Humanistic.
A rabbi is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi—known as semikha—following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of the rabbi developed in the Pharisaic and Talmudic eras, when learned teachers assembled to codify Judaism's written and oral laws. The title "rabbi" was first used in the first century CE. In more recent centuries, the duties of a rabbi became increasingly influenced by the duties of the Protestant Christian minister, hence the title "pulpit rabbis", and in 19th-century Germany and the United States rabbinic activities including sermons, pastoral counseling, and representing the community to the outside, all increased in importance.
The Reconstructionist Rabbinical College (RRC) is a Jewish seminary in Wyncote, Pennsylvania. It is the only seminary affiliated with Reconstructionist Judaism. It is accredited by the Commission on Higher Education of the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools. RRC has an enrollment of approximately 80 students in rabbinic and other graduate programs.
The World Union for Progressive Judaism (WUPJ) is the international umbrella organization for the various branches of Reform, Liberal and Progressive Judaism, as well as the separate Reconstructionist Judaism. The WUPJ is based in 40 countries with 1,275 affiliated synagogues, of which 1,170 are Reform, Progressive, or Liberal and 105 Reconstructionist. It claims to represent a total of some 1.8 million people, both registered constituents and non-member identifiers. The WUPJ states that it aims to create common ground between its constituents and to promote Progressive Judaism in places where individuals and groups are seeking authentic, yet modern ways of expressing themselves as Jews. It seeks to preserve Jewish integrity wherever Jews live, to encourage integration without assimilation, to deal with modernity while preserving the Jewish experience, and to strive for equal rights and social justice.
Toba Spitzer is an American rabbi, writer, and activist. She is the first openly lesbian or gay rabbi to head a rabbinical organization in the United States.
Mordechai Eliyahu Liebling is a rabbi, educator, and activist who has led Jewish and interfaith organizations dedicated to social justice missions. He founded the Social Justice Organizing Program at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College (RRC) to provide student rabbis training for engaging in the work of tikkun olam, Hebrew for "repair of the world".
The Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association (RRA) founded in 1974, is the professional association of rabbis affiliated with Reconstructionist Judaism. It has approximately 300 members, most of whom are graduates of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College (RRC) in Wyncote, Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia. The RRA is a member of a number of national coalitions including the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. Its first director was Rabbi Richard Hirsh who was hired in 1984 to work five hours/week when he was dean of admissions at RRC.
In Jewish law, a posek is a legal scholar who determines the application of halakha, the Jewish religious laws derived from the written and Oral Torah, in cases of Jewish law where previous authorities are inconclusive, or in those situations where no clear halakhic precedent exists.
The first openly lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender clergy in Judaism were ordained as rabbis and/or cantors in the second half of the 20th century.
Sandy Eisenberg Sasso is the first woman to have been ordained a rabbi in Reconstructionist Judaism. She was ordained by the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Philadelphia, on May 19, 1974. She is also the author of many children's books on religious topics.
Marc H. Ellis was an American author, liberation theologian, and a retired university professor of Jewish Studies, professor of history and director of the Center for Jewish Studies at Baylor University. He was a visiting professor of several international universities, including the University of Innsbruck, Austria and the United Nations University for Peace, Costa Rica.
Tina Grimberg is a Reconstructionist Rabbi living in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Since 2008, she has been a leader in the inter-religious dialogue with Muslims and Christians in Ontario. She has been active in the movement against poverty in Canada.
This is a timeline of women rabbis:
Yaakov Hai Zion Ades, also spelled Adas or Adess, was a Sephardi Hakham, Rosh Yeshiva, and Rabbinical High Court judge. As rosh yeshiva of Porat Yosef Yeshiva in Jerusalem, he raised thousands of students, including Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel; Rabbi Ben Zion Abba Shaul, rosh yeshiva of Porat Yosef; and Rabbi Yehuda Hakohen Rabin, Chief Rabbi of Bukharan Jewry in Israel.
Stuart Weinblatt is an ordained rabbi and the President of the Rabbinic Cabinet of the Jewish Federations of North America. He is the senior rabbi of Congregation B’nai Tzedek in Potomac, Maryland. He and his wife founded the Conservative synagogue in 1988 with only a handful of families. The congregation's membership is now over 650 families. Rabbi Weinblatt also served as Director of Israel Policy and Advocacy for the Rabbinical Assembly starting in 2009 and was tapped by the Jewish National Fund to head up and organize their "Rabbis for Israel" affinity group.
This is a timeline of LGBT Jewish history, which consists of events at the intersection of Judaism and queer people.
Tzedek Chicago is a Progressive Jewish congregation and synagogue, located in Chicago, Illinois, in the United States. It is one of the first synagogues in the United States to officially declare itself anti-Zionist.
The relationship between Reconstructionist Judaism and Zionism dates to the founding of the Reconstructionist movement by Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan. Kaplan was a strong supporter of the Zionist movement and subsequently the Reconstructionist movement has historically supported Zionism. In recent years, due to the political liberalism of the Reconstructionist movement, some people affiliated or formerly affiliated with the movement have begun to be more critical of Zionism. Unlike Orthodox and Reform Judaism, the Reconstructionist movement has never historically had a significant anti-Zionist faction. According to Reconstructionist Rabbi David Teutsch, the movement has displayed a "striking uniformity" of loyalty to Zionist principles throughout its history.
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