Daniel Gordis
Encyclopedia
Daniel Gordis is President of the Shalem Foundation and Senior Vice President and Senior Fellow at the Shalem Center
in Israel
. Gordis was the founding dean of the Ziegler Rabbinical School, the first rabbinical college on the West Coast of the United States.
. Gordis received his B.A. from Columbia University
(magna cum laude), a master's degree and rabbinic ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
, and his Ph.D. from the University of Southern California
. He immigrated to Israel in 1998. From 1998-2007, he worked at the Mandel Foundation and the Mandel Leadership Institute in Jerusalem. He joined the Shalem Center in 2007 and was appointed President of the Shalem Foundation in 2011.
Jeffrey Goldberg of the Atlantic has written, "If you asked me, 'of all the people you know, who cares the most about the physical, moral and spiritual health of Israel?' I would put the commentator and scholar Daniel Gordis at the top of the list."
, The New Republic
, The New York Times Magazine, Moment, Tikkun
, and Conservative Judaism. His book, Saving Israel: How the Jewish State Can Win a War That May Never End was published by Wiley in March 2009 and won the 2009 National Jewish Book Award under the Contemporary Jewish Life and Practice category.
Gordis has recently completed a volume in 19th and 20th century Orthodox responsa on conversion, co-authored with Dr. David Ellenson of the Hebrew Union College, which will be published by Stanford University Press. Another book on how Israel is the model of the sort of ethnic nation-state that can preserve human freedom is now being written, and will be published by Wiley in 2012.
Shalem Center
The Shalem Center is a Jerusalem research institute that supports academic work in the fields of philosophy, political theory, Jewish and Zionist history, Bible and Talmud, Middle East Studies, archaeology, economics, and strategic studies...
in Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
. Gordis was the founding dean of the Ziegler Rabbinical School, the first rabbinical college on the West Coast of the United States.
Biography
Daniel Gordis was born on July 5, 1959, in New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. Gordis received his B.A. from Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
(magna cum laude), a master's degree and rabbinic ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
Jewish Theological Seminary of America
The Jewish Theological Seminary of America is one of the academic and spiritual centers of Conservative Judaism, and a major center for academic scholarship in Jewish studies.JTS operates five schools: Albert A...
, and his Ph.D. from the University of Southern California
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
. He immigrated to Israel in 1998. From 1998-2007, he worked at the Mandel Foundation and the Mandel Leadership Institute in Jerusalem. He joined the Shalem Center in 2007 and was appointed President of the Shalem Foundation in 2011.
Jeffrey Goldberg of the Atlantic has written, "If you asked me, 'of all the people you know, who cares the most about the physical, moral and spiritual health of Israel?' I would put the commentator and scholar Daniel Gordis at the top of the list."
Academic career
While living in Los Angeles, Gordis worked at the University of Judaism for almost fifteen years, and was the founding Dean of its Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies, the first rabbinical college on the West Coast of the United States. He and his family moved to Israel in 1998. In 2007, after nine years as vice president of the Mandel Foundation and director of its Leadership Institute, Gordis joined the Shalem Center to join the team founding Israel's first liberal arts college. He has written for The New York TimesThe New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, The New Republic
The New Republic
The magazine has also published two articles concerning income inequality, largely criticizing conservative economists for their attempts to deny the existence or negative effect increasing income inequality is having on the United States...
, The New York Times Magazine, Moment, Tikkun
Tikkun (magazine)
Tikkun is a quarterly English-language magazine, published in the United States, that analyzes American and Israeli culture, politics, religion and history from a leftist-progressive viewpoint, and provides commentary about Israeli politics and Jewish life in North America...
, and Conservative Judaism. His book, Saving Israel: How the Jewish State Can Win a War That May Never End was published by Wiley in March 2009 and won the 2009 National Jewish Book Award under the Contemporary Jewish Life and Practice category.
Books
- God Was Not in the Fire: The Search for a Spiritual Judaism (Scribner, 1995)
- Does the World Need the Jews: Rethinking Chosenness and American Jewish Identity (Scribner, 1997)
- Becoming a Jewish Parent: How to Explore Spirituality and Tradition with Your Children (Random House, 1999)
- If a Place Can Make You Cry (Crown, 2002)
- Home to Stay: One American Family’s Chronicle of Miracles and Struggles in Contemporary Israel (Random House, 2003)
- Coming Together, Coming Apart (Wiley, 2006)
- Saving Israel: How the Jewish People Can Win a War That May Never End (Wiley, 2009)
Gordis has recently completed a volume in 19th and 20th century Orthodox responsa on conversion, co-authored with Dr. David Ellenson of the Hebrew Union College, which will be published by Stanford University Press. Another book on how Israel is the model of the sort of ethnic nation-state that can preserve human freedom is now being written, and will be published by Wiley in 2012.
Articles
- 'E-mail from an Anxious State,' in The New York Times MagazineThe New York Times MagazineThe New York Times Magazine is a Sunday magazine supplement included with the Sunday edition of The New York Times. It is host to feature articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted many notable contributors...
, September 30, 2001, pp. 42–47. E-mail from an Anxious State - 'Needing Israel,' in The New York TimesThe New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, Op-Ed Page, April 13, 2002, page A17. Needing Israel Subsequently entered into the Congressional RecordCongressional RecordThe Congressional Record is the official record of the proceedings and debates of the United States Congress. It is published by the United States Government Printing Office, and is issued daily when the United States Congress is in session. Indexes are issued approximately every two weeks...
by Representative Anthony Weiner (D-NY) on April 17, 2002, Volume 148, No. 43, pp. H1401-1403. - 'Taking Risks After the Gaza War,' on the New York Times On-Line Opinion Section, January 12, 2009, Taking Risks After the Gaza War
- He's a Religious Leader, Not a Diplomat
- Forcing Clarity on Israel
- 'The Tower of Babel and the Birth of Nationhood,' in AzureAzure (journal)Azure: Ideas for the Jewish Nation is a quarterly journal published by the Shalem Center in Jerusalem, Israel. Azure publishes new writing on issues relating to Jewish thought and identity, Zionism, and the State of Israel. It is published in both Hebrew and English, allowing for the exchange of...
40 (Spring 2010)] - 'The Shape and Meaning of Biblical History,' in AzureAzure (journal)Azure: Ideas for the Jewish Nation is a quarterly journal published by the Shalem Center in Jerusalem, Israel. Azure publishes new writing on issues relating to Jewish thought and identity, Zionism, and the State of Israel. It is published in both Hebrew and English, allowing for the exchange of...
45 (Summer 2011)]