Ismar Schorsch (born November 3, 1935, in Hanover, Germany) is the Chancellor emeritus of The Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) and the Rabbi Herman Abramovitz Professor of Jewish history. [1] [2]
Schorsch served as the sixth Chancellor at JTS for approximately 20 years, from March 1986 until his retirement in June 2006. [3] He was succeeded by Arnold Eisen.
He is the son of Hanover Rabbi Emil Schorsch. They both experienced the so-called "Reichskristallnacht" in Nazi Germany in a different manner. Schorsch escaped to England in 1938 and emigrated to the United States in 1940.
Schorsch graduated from Ursinus College in 1957 and was ordained by JTS in 1962, holds master's degrees from JTS and Columbia University. He was awarded a PhD in Jewish History from Columbia University in 1969. He and his wife, Sally, have three grown children (Jonathan Schorsch, Rebecca Schorsch, and Naomi Stein) and eleven grandchildren (Ada, Livi, and Nathaniel Moses, Emanuel, Michal, Gedalia, Nava, and Jacob Schorsch, and Eve, Emmett, and Ruthie Stein).
Abraham Joshua Heschel was a Polish-American rabbi and one of the leading Jewish theologians and Jewish philosophers of the 20th century. Heschel, a professor of Jewish mysticism at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, authored a number of widely read books on Jewish philosophy and was a leader in the civil rights movement.
Conservative Judaism, also known as Masorti Judaism, is a Jewish religious movement that regards the authority of Jewish law and tradition as emanating primarily from the assent of the people through the generations, more than from divine revelation. It therefore views Jewish law, or Halakha, as both binding and subject to historical development. The conservative rabbinate employs modern historical-critical research, rather than only traditional methods and sources, and lends great weight to its constituency, when determining its stance on matters of practice. The movement considers its approach as the authentic and most appropriate continuation of Halakhic discourse, maintaining both fealty to received forms and flexibility in their interpretation. It also eschews strict theological definitions, lacking a consensus in matters of faith and allowing great pluralism.
The Rabbinical Assembly (RA) is the international association of Conservative rabbis. The RA was founded in 1901 to shape the ideology, programs, and practices of the Conservative movement. It publishes prayerbooks and books of Jewish interest, and oversees the work of the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards for the Conservative movement. It organizes conferences and coordinates the Joint Placement Commission of the Conservative movement. Members of the RA serve as rabbis, educators, community workers and military and hospital chaplains around the world.
The Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) is a Conservative Jewish education organization in New York City, New York. It is one of the academic and spiritual centers of Conservative Judaism and a center for academic scholarship in Jewish studies. The Jewish Theological Seminary Library is one of the most significant collections of Judaica in the world.
Louis Finkelstein was a Talmud scholar, an expert in Jewish law, and a leader of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America (JTS) and Conservative Judaism.
Leo Baeck was a 20th-century German rabbi, scholar, and theologian. He served as leader of Reform Judaism in his native country and internationally, and later represented all German Jews during the Nazi era. After the Second World War, he settled in London, in the United Kingdom, where he served as the chairman of the World Union for Progressive Judaism. In 1955, the Leo Baeck Institute for the study of the history and culture of German-speaking Jewry was established, and Baeck was its first international president. The Leo Baeck Medal has been awarded since 1978 to those who have helped preserve the spirit of German-speaking Jewry in culture, academia, politics, and philanthropy.
Ismar Elbogen was a German rabbi, scholar and historian.
The Jewish Theological Seminary of Breslau was an institution in Breslau for the training of rabbis, founded under the will of Jonah Fränckel, and opened in 1854. It was the first modern rabbinical seminary in Central Europe, an academic precursor to today’s Conservative movement, and a center of Wissenschaft des Judentums. The seminary, at what is now an empty building plot in 14-18 Wlodkowica Street, was closed in 1938 by Nazi Party officials after the Kristallnacht.
Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums, or Higher Institute for Jewish Studies, was a rabbinical seminary established in Berlin in 1872 and closed down by the Nazi government of Germany in 1942. Upon the order of the government, the name was officially changed to Lehranstalt für die Wissenschaft des Judentums.
Gordon Tucker is a prominent rabbi, with a reputation as both a political and a theological liberal in Conservative Judaism. He is the former senior rabbi of Temple Israel Center in White Plains, New York. Since September 2020, he has served as the Vice Chancellor for Religious Life and Engagement at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America.
Arnold M. Eisen is an American Judaic scholar who was Chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York. He stepped down at the end of the 2019-2020 academic year. Prior to this appointment, he served as the Koshland Professor of Jewish Culture and Religion and chair of the Department of Religious Studies at Stanford University. Prior to joining the Stanford faculty in 1986, he taught at Tel Aviv University and Columbia University.
Criticism of Conservative Judaism is widespread in the Orthodox Jewish community, although the movement also has its critics in Reform Judaism and in other streams of Judaism. While the Conservative movement professes fidelity to Jewish tradition, it considers Halakha to be a dynamic process that needs reinterpreting in modern times. The criticism by Orthodox Jews and traditionalists within the movement itself revolves around the following:
Moritz Güdemann was an Austrian rabbi and historian. He served as chief rabbi of Vienna.
Simon Greenberg was a Russian-born American Conservative rabbi and scholar. Greenberg was part of the senior management of many Jewish organizations in America. He helped to found a number of institutions, including the American Jewish University, of which he was the first President. At the time of his death, he was vice chancellor emeritus of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. Greenberg has been called "one of the most important leaders of the Conservative movement".
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.
Shuly Rubin Schwartz is the Chancellor and Irving Lehrman Research Professor of American Jewish History and Sala and Walter Schlesinger Dean of the Gershon Kekst Graduate School at The Jewish Theological Seminary of America (JTS). As Chancellor, she is the first woman elected to this position in the history of JTS.
Gerson David Cohen was a Jewish historian, a Conservative rabbi, and the Chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America from 1972–86. He was born in New York in 1924 and graduated from City College of New York in 1944. Cohen received his bachelor's degree, master's degree, and rabbinic ordination (1948) from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. He received his Ph.D. in Semitic Languages at Columbia University in 1958.
Rabbi Michael B. Greenbaum was the Vice Chancellor and Chief operating officer of The Jewish Theological Seminary. He is also an assistant professor of Educational Administration, teaching courses in nonprofit management, leadership theory and practice, and the history of the Conservative Movement.
Emil Schorsch was a German rabbi.
Alexander J. Burnstein, a rabbinic ordinand of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, was a writer, editor and interfaith leader. Burnstein was born in Kiev, Ukraine and, after making his way to the United States, graduated from Northwestern University.