Rabbi is the term in Judaism for a religious teacher. The word rabbi derives from the Hebrew root word , rav, which in biblical Hebrew means ‘great’ in many senses, including "revered." The word comes from the Semitic root R-B-B, and is cognate to Arabic ربّ rabb, meaning "lord" Rabbi ' onMouseout='HidePop("94410")' href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/YIVO">YIVO
YIVO, , established in 1925 in Wilno, Poland as the Yidisher Visnshaftlekher Institut , or Jewish Scientific Institute , is a source for orthography, lexicography, and other studies related to the Yiddish language...
Institute in
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
(1992-1999), which includes the world's largest Yiddish Archives and Library.
While at YIVO, Nadler led international Jewish efforts to repatriate libraries, archives and Torah scrolls in
LithuaniaLithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the southernmost of the three Baltic states. Situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, it shares borders with Latvia to the north, Belarus to the southeast, Poland, and the Russian exclave of...
that had been plundered and confiscated by the Nazis, and later held by
Soviet authoritiesThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
. His direct negotiations with then-President of Lithuania,
Algirdas BrazauskasAlgirdas Mykolas Brazauskas is a political figure in Lithuania. He was President of Lithuania from 1993 to 1998 and Prime Minister from 2001 to 2006...
, led to the release, to the
New YorkNew York is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous. The state is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
offices of YIVO for reproduction and cataloguing, of archives that had belonged to YIVO in pre-war Vilna (today,
VilniusVilnius Vilnius Vilnius as of 2008. It is the seat of the Vilnius city municipality and of the Vilnius district municipality. It is also the...
, Lithuania), after extensive international coverage of the story.
Nadler has been a public critic of the
ChabadChabad is an acronym for Chochmah, Binah, and Da'at, the three levels of Sefirot related to cognition according to the Kabbalah....
-Lubavitch movement, and of the late Lubavitcher Rebbe,
Menachem Mendel SchneersonMenachem Mendel Schneerson , known as the Lubavitcher Rebbe or just the Rebbe amongst his hasidim, was a prominent hasidic rabbi who was the seventh and last Rebbe of the Chabad Lubavitch movement...
. His criticisms of Schneerson in
The New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded in 1851 and published in New York City. The largest metropolitan newspaper in the United States, "The Gray Lady"—named for its staid appearance and style—is regarded as a national newspaper of record...
, and his subsequent negative assessment of Lubavitch Messianism in a series of articles for
The New RepublicThe New Republic is an American magazine of politics and the arts. It is published semimonthly and has a circulation of approximately 60,000. The editor-in-chief is Martin Peretz and the current editor is Franklin Foer...
, were denounced by many
OrthodoxOrthodox Judaism is a formulation of Judaism that adheres to a relatively strict interpretation and application of the laws and ethics first canonized in the Talmudic texts and as subsequently developed and applied by the later authorities known as the Gaonim, Rishonim, and Acharonim.Orthodox...
Canadian and American Rabbis and ultimately led to his decision to leave the Orthodox Rabbinate, and quit the
Rabbinical Council of AmericaThe Rabbinical Council of America is one of the world's largest organizations of Orthodox rabbis; it is affiliated with The Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, more commonly known as the Orthodox Union, or OU...
.
Prior to his appointment at Shaar Hashomayim, Nadler had been the Rabbi of The Charles River Park Synagogues in
BostonBoston is the capital and largest city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is considered the economic and cultural center of the region and is sometimes regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England"...
, at the time a so-called Orthodox congregation, with a mixed seating section, and was a member of the Boston Vaad HaRabonim, serving as a Dayyan, or judge, on its Rabbinical Court from 1980-1982. While at YIVO he also served as Rabbi of the Fort Tryon Jewish Center in New York City, a conservative synagogue. Nadler has been a frequent critic of Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) rabbis and institutions, including the Dean of one of America's most prominent
YeshivaYeshiva or yeshivah , or metivta or mesivta ) also frequently referred to as a Beth midrash, Talmudical Academy, Rabbinical Academy or Rabbinical School is an institution unique to classical Judaism for study of its traditional, central texts...
s (Rabbinical schools), Lakewood New Jersey's Beth Medrash Govoha, Rabbi Aryeh Malkiel Kotler, whom he accused, in
The ForwardThe Forward is a Jewish-American weekly newspaper published in New York City.As of 2008, the Forward is published as a weekly news magazine in separate Yiddish and English editions. Each is effectively an independent publication with its own contents. Jane Eisner became Editor in June, 2008. The...
, of approving a racist, anti-Gentile book, "Sefer Romemut Yisrael," written by one of the Yeshiva's students. At the same time, Nadler has published scholarly studies of some of the major sects of Hasidism, such as Satmar, Munkatch and
SlonimSlonim Slonim Slonim (Belarusian: Сло́нім is a city in Hrodna voblast, Belarus, capital of the Slonim District. It is located at the junction of the Shchara and Isa rivers, 143 km southeast of Hrodna. The population in 1995 was 53,100....
, in addition to a widely noted analysis of the culinary habits of the Hasidim on the
ShabbatShabbat is the seventh day of the Jewish week and a day of rest in Judaism. Shabbat is observed from sundown Friday until the appearance of three stars in the sky on Saturday night...
and Jewish holidays ("Holy Kugel") that has been widely mistaken for an anti-Hasidic satire. In 2007, however, Nadler published two articles that strongly defended the Orthodox Jewish community: one in response to
Noah FeldmanNoah Feldman is an American author and professor of law at Harvard Law School.-Education and career:Noah Feldman grew up in Boston, Massachusetts, where he attended the Maimonides School. He graduated from Harvard College in 1992 and earned a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University, where he...
's negative expose of Modern Orthodoxy in the New York Times magazine, and the other -- published in the Montreal English daily newspaper,
The GazetteThe Gazette is a title of several newspapers and magazines, including:-English newspapers:*The Gazette, Montreal, Quebec, Canada*The Gazette, Chicago, Illinois, United States*The Gazette, Colorado Springs, Colorado, United States...
, in defense of that city's large Hasidic community that has been frequently criticized for uncivil behavior towards their French neighbors.
Nadler's book,
The Faith of the Mithnagdim: Rabbinic Responses to Hasidic Rapture, which developed out of his Ph.D. thesis, "A Religion of Limits: The Religious Thought of Rabbi Pinchas of Polotsk" from
Harvard UniversityHarvard University is a private university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1636 by the colonial Massachusetts legislature, Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and currently comprises ten separate academic units...
under Rabbi
Isadore TwerskyIsadore Twersky was the Nathan Littauer Professor of Hebrew Literature and Philosophy at Harvard University, a chair previously held by Harry Austryn Wolfson. Twersky was an internationally recognized authority on Rabbinic literature and Jewish philosophy...
, the Talner Rebbe, is an investigation of the theology of the rabbis who opposed the Hasidic movement in late 18th-early 19th century
Eastern EuropeEastern Europe is a region lying in the Eastern part of Europe. The term is highly context-dependent and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
. Nadler is a regular book critic for the Forward, an American national Jewish newspaper, to which he has contributed more than fifty article, essays and reviews.
External links
- http://depts.drew.edu/rel/ANadler.html
- New York Times news about Allan Nadler
- http://www.forward.com/articles/charedi-rabbis-rush-to-disavow-anti-gentile-book/
- http://www.forward.com/articles/ultra-orthodox-officials-go-to-bat-for-anti-gentil/