Christianity began as a movement within Second Temple Judaism,but the two religions gradually diverged over the first few centuries of the Christian Era. Today,differences of opinion vary between denominations in both religions,but the most important distinction is Christian acceptance and Jewish non-acceptance of Jesus as the Messiah prophesied in the Hebrew Bible and Jewish tradition. Early Christianity distinguished itself by determining that observance of halakha was not necessary for non-Jewish converts to Christianity. Another major difference is the two religions' conceptions of God. The Christian God consists of three persons of one essence,with the doctrine of the incarnation of the Son in Jesus being of special importance. Judaism emphasizes the Oneness of God and rejects the Christian concept of God in human form. While Christianity recognizes the Hebrew Bible as part of its scriptural canon,Judaism does not recognize the Christian New Testament.
Modern Orthodox Judaism is a movement within Orthodox Judaism that attempts to synthesize Jewish values and the observance of Jewish law with the modern world.
Joseph Ber Soloveitchik was a major American Orthodox rabbi,Talmudist,and modern Jewish philosopher. He was a scion of the Lithuanian Jewish Soloveitchik rabbinic dynasty.
Religious pluralism is a set of religious world views that hold that one's religion is not the sole and exclusive source of truth,and thus recognizes that some level of truth and value exists in other religions. As such,religious pluralism goes beyond religious tolerance,which is the condition of peaceful existence between adherents of different religions or religious denominations.
Most adherents of Judaism believe that Jesus of Nazareth was not the Messiah nor "the Son of God". In the Jewish perspective,most will argue that the way Christians see Jesus goes against monotheism,a belief in the absolute unity and singularity of God,which is central to Judaism;the worship of a person is seen by them as a form of idolatry. Therefore,considering Jesus a deity is forbidden according to Judaism. Judaism's rejection of Jesus as the Messiah is based on Jewish eschatology,which holds that the coming of the true Messiah will be associated with events that have not yet occurred,such as the rebuilding of The Temple,a Messianic Age of peace,and the ingathering of Jews to their homeland.
Norman Lamm was an American Modern Orthodox rabbi,scholar,academic administrator,author,and Jewish community leader. He was the Chancellor of Yeshiva University until he announced his retirement on July 1,2013.
David Novak,is a Jewish theologian,ethicist,and scholar of Jewish philosophy and law (Halakha). He is an ordained Conservative rabbi and holds the J. Richard and Dorothy Shiff Chair of Jewish Studies as Professor of the Study of Religion and Professor of Philosophy at the University of Toronto since 1997. His areas of interest are Jewish theology,Jewish ethics and biomedical ethics,political theory,and Jewish-Christian relations.
Steven Greenberg is an American rabbi with a rabbinic ordination from the Orthodox rabbinical seminary of Yeshiva University (RIETS). He is described as the first openly gay Orthodox-ordained Jewish rabbi,since he publicly disclosed he is gay in an article in the Israeli newspaper Maariv in 1999 and participated in a 2001 documentary film about gay men and women raised in the Orthodox Jewish world.
Blu Greenberg is an American writer specializing in modern Judaism and women's issues. Her most noted books are On Women and Judaism:A View from Tradition (1981),and Black Bread:Poems,After the Holocaust (1994).
Open Orthodox Judaism is a Jewish religious movement with increased emphasis on intellectual openness and a more expansive role for women. The term was coined in 1997 by Avi Weiss,who views halakha as permitting more flexibility than the normal practices of Orthodox Judaism.
Yeshivat Har Etzion,commonly known in English as "Gush" and in Hebrew as "Yeshivat HaGush",is a hesder yeshiva located in Alon Shvut,an Israeli settlement in Gush Etzion. It is considered one of the leading institutions of advanced Torah study in the world and with a student body of roughly 480,it is one of the largest hesder yeshivot in the West Bank.
Adam S. Ferziger is an intellectual and social historian whose research focuses on Jewish religious movements and religious responses to secularization and assimilation in modern and contemporary North America,Europe and Israel. Ferziger holds the Samson Raphael Hirsch Chair for Research of the Torah with Derekh Erez Movement in the Department of Jewish History and Contemporary Jewry at Bar-Ilan University,Ramat Gan,Israel. He is a senior associate at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies and is co-convener of the annual Oxford Summer Institute for Modern and Contemporary Judaism. He has served as a visiting professor/fellow in College of Charleston (2017),Wolfson College,University of Oxford,UK (2013),University of Sydney,New South Wales,Australia (2012),and University of Shandong,Jinan,China (2005). In 2011,he received Bar-Ilan's "Outstanding Lecturer" award. Ferziger has published articles in leading academic journals of religion,history,and Jewish studies and is the author or editor of seven books including:Exclusion and Hierarchy:Orthodoxy,Nonobservance and the Emergence of Modern Jewish Identity;Orthodox Judaism –New Perspectives,edited with Aviezer Ravitzky and Yoseph Salmon;and most recently Beyond Sectarianism:The Realignment of American Orthodox Judaism,which was the winner of a 2015 National Jewish Book Award.
Marc H. Tanenbaum (1925–1992) was a human rights and social justice activist and rabbi. He was known for building bridges with other faith communities to advance mutual understanding and co-operation and to eliminate entrenched stereotypes,particularly ones rooted in religious teachings.
Rabbi Doctor Eugene B. Korn is a lecturer,scholar and educator. He lives in Jerusalem and was formerly Academic Director of the Center for Jewish-Christian Understanding and Cooperation (CJCUC) in Jerusalem. He was also co-director of its Institute for Theological Inquiry. Korn was the founding editor of Meorot:A Forum for Modern Orthodox Discourse,based at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah in New York City.
Shai Held is President,Dean,and Chair in Jewish Thought at the Hadar institute,which he founded in 2006 with Rabbis Elie Kaunfer and Ethan Tucker.
Hadar is an educational institution on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The institute offers various programs to support the development of traditional egalitarian Judaism. A major component of the institute is Yeshivat Hadar,which offers both summer and year-long fellowships for students to learn full-time in the yeshiva setting. Prominent rabbis associated with the Yeshiva include co-founders Rabbi Shai Held,Rabbi Elie Kaunfer,and Rabbi Ethan Tucker.
Yeshivat Maharat is a Jewish educational institution in The Bronx,New York,which was the first Orthodox yeshiva in North America to ordain women. The word Maharat is a Hebrew acronym for phrase manhiga hilkhatit rukhanit Toranit,denoting a female "leader of Jewish law spirituality and Torah". Semikha is awarded to graduates after a 3- or 4-year-long program composed of intensive studies of Jewish law,Talmud,Torah,Jewish thought,leadership training,and pastoral counseling. The ordination functions as a credentialed pathway for women in the Jewish community to serve as clergy members.
The International Rabbinic Fellowship (IRF) is a Modern Orthodox rabbinical organization founded by Rabbis Avi Weiss and Marc D. Angel in 2007 and soon elected Rabbi Barry Gelman as its president. The group is open to graduates of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah. The group's current president is Rabbi Nathaniel Helfgot. The group is noted for being the only Orthodox rabbinical association to admit women rabbis as members.
To Do the Will of Our Father in Heaven:Toward a Partnership between Jews and Christians is the Orthodox Rabbinic Statement on Christianity published by the Center for Jewish–Christian Understanding and Cooperation (CJCUC) in 2015. It was initially signed by over 25 prominent Orthodox rabbis in Israel,United States,and Europe,and now has over 60 signatories.
