David Novak
Encyclopedia
David Novak is a Jewish
theologian
, ethicist
, and scholar of Jewish philosophy and law (Halakha
). He is an ordained Conservative
rabbi
and has also trained with Catholic moral theologians
. Since 1997 he has taught religion and philosophy at the University of Toronto
; his areas of interest are Jewish theology, ethics
and biomedical ethics, political theory
(with a special emphasis on natural law
theory) and Jewish-Christian relations.
Novak has authored 16 books and more than 200 articles in scholarly journals. His book Covenantal Rights: A Study in Jewish Political Theory (Princeton University Press, 2000) was named best book in constructive religious thought by the American Academy of Religion
in 2000. He is a regular contributor to ABC News'
Religion and Ethics Portal. He frequently addresses interfaith conferences and contributes to books and journals published by Christian theologians.
in 1961 and his master's degree in Hebrew literature
in 1964. He earned his Ph.D.
in philosophy at Georgetown University
, Washington, D.C., in 1971. (Later he remarked that he chose Georgetown in part because it was a Catholic university
.) He received rabbinical ordination in 1966 from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
, where he studied under Abraham Joshua Heschel
.
He married Melva Ziman in 1963. They have two children and four grandchildren.
, Washington, D.C., from 1966–1969.
as Edgar M. Bronfman Professor of Modern Judaic Studies, a position he held until 1997. Since 1997 he has held 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. He is also a member of the Joint Centre for Bioethics. From 1997–2002 he also directed the Jewish Studies Programme.
In 1992-93 he was a Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
, Washington, D.C. He also lectured at Oxford University
, Lancaster University
and Drew University
, and was a visiting scholar
at Princeton University
in 2004 and 2006.
by advocating a Jewish social ethics drawn from both the natural law
tradition and Halakha. To this end, he interprets the rabbinic approach to Noahide laws
as a useful grounding for cross-cultural moral reasoning. His expertise includes Maimonides
, John Courtney Murray
, and Paul Tillich
. In his theology, he combines Jewish rabbinical tradition and logic with Christian teachings.
Novak, together with Peter Ochs
, Tikva Frymer-Kensky
, and Michael Signer, drafted a full-page advertisement which appeared in the Sunday, 10 September 2000 edition of the The New York Times
under the title "Dabru Emet
(Speak Truth): A Jewish statement on Christians and Christianity". Among the eight theological statements which the advertisement briefly laid out were: "Nazism is not a Christian phenomenon"; "Humanly irreconcilable differences between Jews and Christians will not be settled until God redeems the entire world as promised in Scripture"; and the statement which generated the most controversy in Jewish circles, "Jews and Christians worship the same God". The advertisement was signed by 160 rabbis, including many leading Reform
, Reconstructionist
and Conservative thinkers and a handful of Orthodox
rabbis known for their interfaith
work. Explaining his rationale for publishing the document, Novak told Jweekly
: "I want Jewish readers to clearly realize that Christians are not necessarily our enemies. Quite the contrary, they can be very good friends to Jews and Judaism". The document was subsequently translated into eight languages.
His specific normative claims in Jewish ethics include a mix of liberal and right-wing positions. An ordained rabbi, Novak had been affiliated with the Conservative movement in Judaism and then shifted to the Union for Traditional Judaism
.
. He is a faculty member of the Department of Talmud and Halakha at the Canadian Yeshiva & Rabbinical School, Toronto.
In the mid-1980s he was invited to join the Institute on Religion and Public Life by its founder, Richard John Neuhaus
, and became a member of the editorial board of the institute's journal, First Things
. He is also a member of the advisory board of the The G.K. Chesterton Institute for Faith & Culture at Seton Hall University
, South Orange, New Jersey
.
In 2006 he was appointed as a board member of Assisted Human Reproduction Canada
.
Shorter articles in Sh'ma: A Journal of Jewish Responsibility include:
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
theologian
Theology
Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...
, ethicist
Ethicist
An ethicist is one whose judgment on ethics and ethical codes has come to be trusted by a specific community, and is expressed in some way that makes it possible for others to mimic or approximate that judgement...
, and scholar of Jewish philosophy and law (Halakha
Halakha
Halakha — also transliterated Halocho , or Halacha — is the collective body of Jewish law, including biblical law and later talmudic and rabbinic law, as well as customs and traditions.Judaism classically draws no distinction in its laws between religious and ostensibly non-religious life; Jewish...
). He is an ordained Conservative
Conservative Judaism
Conservative Judaism is a modern stream of Judaism that arose out of intellectual currents in Germany in the mid-19th century and took institutional form in the United States in the early 1900s.Conservative Judaism has its roots in the school of thought known as Positive-Historical Judaism,...
rabbi
Rabbi
In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...
and has also trained with Catholic moral theologians
Catholic moral theology
Catholic moral theology is a major category of doctrine in the Roman Catholic church, equivalent to a religious ethics. Moral theology encompasses Roman Catholic social teaching, Catholic medical ethics, sexual ethics, and various doctrines on individual moral virtue and moral theory...
. Since 1997 he has taught religion and philosophy at the University of Toronto
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
; his areas of interest are Jewish theology, ethics
Ethics
Ethics, also known as moral philosophy, is a branch of philosophy that addresses questions about morality—that is, concepts such as good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice, justice and crime, etc.Major branches of ethics include:...
and biomedical ethics, political theory
Political philosophy
Political philosophy is the study of such topics as liberty, justice, property, rights, law, and the enforcement of a legal code by authority: what they are, why they are needed, what, if anything, makes a government legitimate, what rights and freedoms it should protect and why, what form it...
(with a special emphasis on natural law
Natural law
Natural law, or the law of nature , is any system of law which is purportedly determined by nature, and thus universal. Classically, natural law refers to the use of reason to analyze human nature and deduce binding rules of moral behavior. Natural law is contrasted with the positive law Natural...
theory) and Jewish-Christian relations.
Novak has authored 16 books and more than 200 articles in scholarly journals. His book Covenantal Rights: A Study in Jewish Political Theory (Princeton University Press, 2000) was named best book in constructive religious thought by the American Academy of Religion
American Academy of Religion
The American Academy of Religion is the world's largest association of scholars in the field of religious studies and related topics. It is a nonprofit member association,...
in 2000. He is a regular contributor to ABC News'
ABC News (Australia)
ABC News is a national news service produced by the News and Current Affairs division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation - the division is responsible for all newsgathering and production of news output for ABC television, radio and online services...
Religion and Ethics Portal. He frequently addresses interfaith conferences and contributes to books and journals published by Christian theologians.
Early life and education
Novak was born in 1941 in Chicago, Illinois. He received his bachelor's degree from the University of ChicagoUniversity of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
in 1961 and his master's degree in Hebrew literature
Hebrew literature
Hebrew literature consists of ancient, medieval, and modern writings in the Hebrew language. It is one of the primary forms of Jewish literature, though there have been cases of literature written in Hebrew by non-Jews...
in 1964. He earned his Ph.D.
Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...
in philosophy at Georgetown University
Georgetown University
Georgetown University is a private, Jesuit, research university whose main campus is in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic university in the United States...
, Washington, D.C., in 1971. (Later he remarked that he chose Georgetown in part because it was a Catholic university
Catholic University
A Catholic University is a private university run by the Catholic Church or by Catholic organizations like religious institutes. Those with closer ties to the Holy See are called pontifical universities....
.) He received rabbinical ordination in 1966 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...
, where he studied under Abraham Joshua Heschel
Abraham Joshua Heschel
Abraham Joshua Heschel was a Polish-born American rabbi and one of the leading Jewish theologians and Jewish philosophers of the 20th century.-Biography:...
.
He married Melva Ziman in 1963. They have two children and four grandchildren.
Rabbinic career
Novak was a pulpit rabbi in several US communities from 1966–1989. He also served as a Jewish chaplain at St. Elizabeth's Hospital, National Institute of Mental HealthNational Institute of Mental Health
The National Institute of Mental Health is one of 27 institutes and centers that make up the National Institutes of Health...
, Washington, D.C., from 1966–1969.
Academic career
In 1989 he moved to the University of VirginiaUniversity of Virginia
The University of Virginia is a public research university located in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, founded by Thomas Jefferson...
as Edgar M. Bronfman Professor of Modern Judaic Studies, a position he held until 1997. Since 1997 he has held 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. He is also a member of the Joint Centre for Bioethics. From 1997–2002 he also directed the Jewish Studies Programme.
In 1992-93 he was a Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars , located in Washington, D.C., is a United States Presidential Memorial that was established as part of the Smithsonian Institution by an act of Congress in 1968...
, Washington, D.C. He also lectured at Oxford University
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
, Lancaster University
Lancaster University
Lancaster University, officially The University of Lancaster, is a leading research-intensive British university in Lancaster, Lancashire, England. The university was established by Royal Charter in 1964 and initially based in St Leonard's Gate until moving to a purpose-built 300 acre campus at...
and Drew University
Drew University
Drew University is a private university located in Madison, New Jersey.Originally established as the Drew Theological Seminary in 1867, the university later expanded to include an undergraduate liberal arts college in 1928 and commenced a program of graduate studies in 1955...
, and was a visiting scholar
Visiting scholar
In the world of academia, a visiting scholar or visiting academic is a scholar from an institution who visits a host university, where he or she is projected to teach , lecture , or perform research on a topic the visitor is valued for...
at Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
in 2004 and 2006.
Contribution
Novak has contributed to Jewish ethicsJewish ethics
Jewish ethics stands at the intersection of Judaism and the Western philosophical tradition of ethics. Like other types of religious ethics, the diverse literature of Jewish ethics primarily aims to answer a broad range of moral questions and, hence, may be classified as a normative ethics...
by advocating a Jewish social ethics drawn from both the natural law
Natural law
Natural law, or the law of nature , is any system of law which is purportedly determined by nature, and thus universal. Classically, natural law refers to the use of reason to analyze human nature and deduce binding rules of moral behavior. Natural law is contrasted with the positive law Natural...
tradition and Halakha. To this end, he interprets the rabbinic approach to Noahide laws
Noahide Laws
The Seven Laws of Noah form the major part of the Noachide Laws, or Noahide Code. This code is a set of moral imperatives that, according to the Talmud, were given by God as a binding set of laws for the "children of Noah" – that is, all of humankind...
as a useful grounding for cross-cultural moral reasoning. His expertise includes Maimonides
Maimonides
Moses ben-Maimon, called Maimonides and also known as Mūsā ibn Maymūn in Arabic, or Rambam , was a preeminent medieval Jewish philosopher and one of the greatest Torah scholars and physicians of the Middle Ages...
, John Courtney Murray
John Courtney Murray
John Courtney Murray, , was an American Jesuit priest and theologian, who was especially known for his efforts to reconcile Catholicism and religious pluralism, particularly focusing on the relationship between religious freedom and the institutions of a democratically structured modern...
, and Paul Tillich
Paul Tillich
Paul Johannes Tillich was a German-American theologian and Christian existentialist philosopher. Tillich was one of the most influential Protestant theologians of the 20th century...
. In his theology, he combines Jewish rabbinical tradition and logic with Christian teachings.
Novak, together with Peter Ochs
Peter Ochs
Peter W. Ochs is the Edgar M. Bronfman Professor of Modern Judaic Studies at the University of Virginia, where he has served since 1997. He is an influential thinker whose interests include Jewish philosophy and theology, modern and postmodern philosophic theology, pragmatism, and semiotics...
, Tikva Frymer-Kensky
Tikva Frymer-Kensky
Tikva Frymer-Kensky was a Professor at the University of Chicago Divinity School. She received her MA and PhD from Yale University...
, and Michael Signer, drafted a full-page advertisement which appeared in the Sunday, 10 September 2000 edition of the The New York Times
The 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...
under the title "Dabru Emet
Dabru Emet
The Dabru Emet is a document concerning the relationship between Christianity and Judaism. It was signed by over 220 rabbis and intellectuals from all branches of Judaism, as individuals and not as representing any organisation or stream of Judaism.The Dabru Emet was first published on September...
(Speak Truth): A Jewish statement on Christians and Christianity". Among the eight theological statements which the advertisement briefly laid out were: "Nazism is not a Christian phenomenon"; "Humanly irreconcilable differences between Jews and Christians will not be settled until God redeems the entire world as promised in Scripture"; and the statement which generated the most controversy in Jewish circles, "Jews and Christians worship the same God". The advertisement was signed by 160 rabbis, including many leading Reform
Reform Judaism
Reform Judaism refers to various beliefs, practices and organizations associated with the Reform Jewish movement in North America, the United Kingdom and elsewhere. In general, it maintains that Judaism and Jewish traditions should be modernized and should be compatible with participation in the...
, Reconstructionist
Reconstructionist Judaism
Reconstructionist Judaism is a modern American-based Jewish movement based on the ideas of Mordecai Kaplan . The movement views Judaism as a progressively evolving civilization. It originated as a branch of Conservative Judaism, before it splintered...
and Conservative thinkers and a handful of Orthodox
Orthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism , is the approach to Judaism which adheres to the traditional interpretation and application of the laws and ethics of the Torah as legislated in the Talmudic texts by the Sanhedrin and subsequently developed and applied by the later authorities known as the Gaonim, Rishonim, and...
rabbis known for their interfaith
Interfaith dialog
The term interfaith dialogue refers to cooperative, constructive and positive interaction between people of different religious traditions and/or spiritual or humanistic beliefs, at both the individual and institutional levels...
work. Explaining his rationale for publishing the document, Novak told Jweekly
J.
j., also known as Jweekly, is a Jewish website and weekly magazine in Northern California. It is owned and operated by "j. the Jewish news weekly of Northern California"...
: "I want Jewish readers to clearly realize that Christians are not necessarily our enemies. Quite the contrary, they can be very good friends to Jews and Judaism". The document was subsequently translated into eight languages.
His specific normative claims in Jewish ethics include a mix of liberal and right-wing positions. An ordained rabbi, Novak had been affiliated with the Conservative movement in Judaism and then shifted to the Union for Traditional Judaism
Union for Traditional Judaism
The Union for Traditional Judaism is an ostensibly non-denominational Jewish educational, outreach and communal service organization. The UTJ, as it is known, sees itself as trans-denominational, and works to encourage traditional observance among all Jews. The UTJ maintains various educational...
.
Other activities
He is a founder, vice-president, and coordinator of the Jewish Law Panel of the Union for Traditional Judaism, and a faculty member and vice-president of the Union for Traditional Judaism in Teaneck, New JerseyTeaneck, New Jersey
Teaneck is a township in Bergen County, New Jersey, and a suburb in the New York metropolitan area. As of the 2010 United States Census, the township population was 39,776, making it the second-most populous among the 70 municipalities in Bergen County....
. He is a faculty member of the Department of Talmud and Halakha at the Canadian Yeshiva & Rabbinical School, Toronto.
In the mid-1980s he was invited to join the Institute on Religion and Public Life by its founder, Richard John Neuhaus
Richard John Neuhaus
Richard John Neuhaus was a prominent Christian cleric and writer. Born in Canada, Neuhaus moved to the United States where he became a naturalized United States citizen...
, and became a member of the editorial board of the institute's journal, First Things
First Things
First Things is an ecumenical journal focused on creating a "religiously informed public philosophy for the ordering of society". The journal is inter-denominational and inter-religious, representing a broad intellectual tradition of Christian and Jewish critique of contemporary society...
. He is also a member of the advisory board of the The G.K. Chesterton Institute for Faith & Culture at Seton Hall University
Seton Hall University
Seton Hall University is a private Roman Catholic university in South Orange, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1856 by Archbishop James Roosevelt Bayley, Seton Hall is the oldest diocesan university in the United States. Seton Hall is also the oldest and largest Catholic university in the...
, South Orange, New Jersey
South Orange, New Jersey
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 16,964 people, 5,522 households, and 3,766 families residing in the township. The population density was 5,945.3 people per square mile . There were 5,671 housing units at an average density of 1,987.5 per square mile...
.
In 2006 he was appointed as a board member of Assisted Human Reproduction Canada
Assisted Human Reproduction Canada
Assisted Human Reproduction Canada is a federal regulatory agency that was established in 2006 to protect and promote the health, safety, dignity and rights of Canadians who use or are born of assisted human reproduction technologies...
.
Selected articles
(with John Pawlikowski and Paul Matthews Van Buren)- Homosexuality: A Case Study in Jewish Ethics (with Elliot N. Dorff and Aaron L. Mackler). Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics 28 (2008): 225-35.
Shorter articles in Sh'ma: A Journal of Jewish Responsibility include:
- Concerning Physician Assisted Suicide, Vol.21/no.420 1991
- Jew, Yes; Gentile, Yes; Quasi-Jew, No, Vol.18/no.346 1988
- Yes to Halakhah Means No to Women Rabbis, Vol.9/no.166 1979
- Full list