Rabbi Jacob J. Schacter | |
---|---|
Rabbi of Young Israel of Sharon | |
In office 1977–1981 | |
Rabbi of the Jewish Center (Manhattan) | |
In office 1981–2000 | |
Dean of the Rabbi Joseph B Soloveitchik Institute | |
In office 2000–2005 | |
Personal details | |
Born | 1950 |
Nationality | American |
Parent(s) | Rabbi Herschel Schacter,Pnina Gewirtz Schacter |
Alma mater | Harvard University,Yeshiva Torah Vodaas,Brooklyn College |
Occupation | University Professor of Jewish History and Jewish Thought,Senior Scholar |
Known for | A Modern Heretic and a Traditional Community:Mordecai M. Kaplan,Orthodoxy,and American Judaism |
Jacob J. Schacter (born 1950) is an American Orthodox rabbi. Schacter,a historian of intellectual trends in Orthodox Judaism,is University Professor of Jewish History and Jewish Thought and Senior Scholar at the Center for the Jewish Future at Yeshiva University.
Schacter,the son of Pnina Gewirtz Schacter and Rabbi Herschel Schacter,grew up in New York City's Bronx neighborhood. [1]
Schacter holds a Ph.D. in Near Eastern Languages from Harvard University and received rabbinic ordination from Yeshiva Torah Vodaas in 1973. He graduated from Brooklyn College in 1973. [2] He lives in Teaneck,New Jersey.
According to Jacob Katz,Schacter's thesis,"Rabbi Jacob Emden:Life and Major Works" (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation,Harvard University,1988),"supplanted" Mortimer J. Cohen's 1937 book Jacob Emden:A Man of Controversy, as the most authoritative source on Emden. [3]
Schacter is an historian of intellectual trends in Orthodox Judaism. [4] Schacter is regarded as following "the ideological tradition" of Joseph B. Soloveitchik. [5] His 1997 book,A Modern Heretic and a Traditional Community:Mordecai M. Kaplan,Orthodoxy and American Judaism,was about the "complicated relationship" between Mordecai Kaplan,an Orthodox rabbi who left that movement to found Reconstructionist Judaism. [4] Before leaving Orthodoxy,Kaplan had been Rabbi of the Jewish Center (Manhattan),the congregation that Schacter would later lead. [4]
While still a graduate student,Schacter became the first Rabbi of Young Israel of Sharon,in Sharon,Massachusetts. Serving in this capacity from 1977 - 1981,he created a new,vibrant,and committed community. [6] He became Rabbi of the prestigious Jewish Center in Manhattan in 1981. [2] Under his leadership,the congregation more than tripled in size,with new members attracted by "the intellectual seriousness of the rabbi's sermons and lectures. [4] [2]
In 2000,he moved to Massachusetts where he became dean of the Rabbi Joseph B Soloveitchik Institute in Brookline, [2] [7] [8] a position he held until 2005,when he left to become Senior Scholar and University Professor at Yeshiva University's new Center for the Jewish Future (initially called the Center for the Jewish People). [5] [9] [10]
Mordecai Menahem Kaplan was a Lithuanian-born American rabbi,writer,Jewish educator,professor,theologian,philosopher,activist,and religious leader who founded the Reconstructionist branch of Judaism along with his son-in-law Ira Eisenstein. He has been described as a "towering figure" in the recent history of Judaism for his influential work in adapting it to modern society,contending that Judaism should be a unifying and creative force by stressing the cultural and historical character of the religion as well as theological doctrine.
Orthodox Judaism is the collective term for the traditionalist branches of contemporary Judaism. Theologically,it is chiefly defined by regarding the Torah,both Written and Oral,as revealed by God to Moses on Mount Sinai and faithfully transmitted ever since.
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.
The relationships between the various denominations of Judaism are complex and include a range of trends from the conciliatory and welcoming to hostile and antagonistic.
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.
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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.
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David Berger is an American academic,dean of Yeshiva University's Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies,as well as chair of Yeshiva College's Jewish Studies department. He is the author of various books and essays on medieval Jewish apologetics and polemics,as well as having edited the modern critical edition of the medieval polemic text Nizzahon Vetus. Outside academic circles he is best known for The Rebbe,the Messiah,and the Scandal of Orthodox Indifference,a criticism of Chabad messianism.
Rabbi Leo Jung was one of the major architects of American Orthodox Judaism. He was the indirect progenitor of the religious day school system common throughout North American Jewish communities,He was also a major fundraiser and activist for many Jewish causes worldwide,in the periods before,during and after the Holocaust.
The Rebbe the Messiah,and the Scandal of Orthodox Indifference is a book by Rabbi Dr. David Berger on the topic of Chabad messianism and the mainstream orthodox Jewish reaction to that trend. Rabbi Berger addresses the Chabad-Messianic question,regarding a dead Messiah,from a halachic perspective. The book is written as a historical narrative of Berger's encounter with Chabad messianism from the time of the death of the Lubavitcher Rebbe,Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson in 1994 through the book's publication in 2001. The narrative is interlaced with Dr. Berger's published articles,written correspondences,and transcribed public lectures,in which he passionately appeals to both the leadership of the Orthodox and Chabad communities for an appropriate response to Chabad-Lubavitch messianism.
Haym Soloveitchik is an American Modern Orthodox rabbi and historian. He is the only son of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik. He graduated from the Maimonides School which his father founded in Brookline,Massachusetts and then received his B.A. degree from Harvard College in 1958 with a major in History. After two years of post-graduate study at Harvard,he moved to Israel and began his studies toward an M.A. and PhD at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem,under the historian Professor Jacob Katz. He wrote his Master's thesis on the Halakha of gentile wine in medieval Germany. His doctorate,which he received in 1972,concentrated on laws of pawnbroking and usury. He is known to many as Dr. Gra"ch,after his great-grandfather for whom he is named,Rabbi Chaim Soloveitchik,who was known as the Gra"ch.
The baal teshuva movement is a description of the return of secular Jews to religious Judaism. The term baal teshuva is from the Talmud,literally meaning "master of repentance". The term is used to refer to a worldwide phenomenon among the Jewish people.
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Jeffrey S. Gurock is Libby M. Klaperman Professor of Jewish History at Yeshiva University in New York City.
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Meir Yaakov Soloveichik is an American Orthodox rabbi and writer. He is the son of Rabbi Eliyahu Soloveichik,grandson of Rabbi Ahron Soloveichik,and a great nephew of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik,the leader of American Jewry who identified with what became known as Modern Orthodoxy.