Providing powerful tools of learning and leadership to hundreds of community leaders, rabbis and educators each year, the Center for North American Leadership Initiatives is dedicated to strengthening Jewish communities in North America and enriching their experience and expressions of Jewish pluralism.
 
Through dynamic textual study, interdenominational dialogue and peer learning sessions, Jewish leaders examine the relevance and meaning of Judaism for contemporary life and are equipped with new thoughtful insights for enhancing Jewish life in their communities. Impacting educational, religious and community institutions throughout the U.S. and Canada, the Center for North American Leadership Initiatives is shaping a future for North American Jewry of intellectual renaissance and renewed inspiration.

The Center comprises:

Department of Rabbinic Enrichment
 
The Department of Rabbinic Enrichment provides hundreds of rabbis of all denominations with the tools to bring inspired, relevant and intellectually sophisticated messages and teaching to their communities. Countering the pressures of synagogue life and the lack of frameworks for ongoing study that often drain rabbis’ professional resources, the study seminars and yearlong programs of the Department provide rabbis with valuable opportunities for ongoing learning, intellectual and spiritual rejuvenation, and new ideas and resources for their rabbinates. Back to Top
 
 
 
The Department of Lay Leadership Education provides a wide range of thought-provoking text-based study programs and seminars for Jewish lay leaders of all denominations and ages across North America. The Department strengthens and expands the intellectual horizons of community leaders, enabling them to respond more meaningfully to the contemporary issues and challenges facing Jewish life. The Department also develops study curricula and web-based resources for lay leadership. Back to Top 
 
Global Beit Midrash
 
 
The Hartman North American Judaic Scholars Circle joins together a cadre of leading thinkers from across North America to provide sophisticated new responses to the particular moral and spiritual challenges facing contemporary North American Jewry. Representing a wide range of academic fields and Jewish denominations, the scholars constitute a unique new think tank on North American Jewish life. Back to Top
  
 
The Melamdim Graduate School for Teacher Education, generously supported by the Jim Joseph Foundation, trains an elite cadre of Jewish studies educators for North American community high schools, who are capable of delivering a compelling Jewish education to youth during their critical adolescent years. An MA program conducted in partnership with Tel Aviv University, Melamdim emphasizes Jewish philosophy, values and ideas alongside pedagogic practice, producing teachers with a deep grasp of the relevance of Judaism for contemporary life and the professional skills to effectively communicate such to their students. Back to Top

     
   
Hartman Institute Scholars Participate at LimmudLA Learning Festival
Shalom Hartman Institute scholars participated in the recent Limmud LA conference, a weekend-long "festival" of Jewish learning in Los Angeles. Participating Hartman scholars were Ariel Picard, Renana Ravitzky Pilzer, and Stuart Schoffman
Inaugural Conference of the Institute’s New ‘Scholars Circle’ Held in New York
Shalom Hartman Institute’s new initiative, the ‘North American Scholars Circle,’ held its inaugural meeting in New York, January 4-7, 2010. The scholars met in a formal setting for the first time, studying together and hearing from distinguished peers on the program’s inaugural theme this year: Ikarim: Foundations for Contemporary Judaism in North America
Summer 2010 hotel discounts for Hartman Institute program attendees
As you plan for your summertime 2010 visit to Jerusalem, here is information on where to stay while participating in Shalom Hartman Institute programs
Hartman Institute Annual Lay Leadership Study Retreat, Summer 2010: The Life & Language of the ‘Other’ in Judaism
Questions include: how views of the Other differ between Jews of the Diaspora and Jews in Israel; how the ideas of Jews as a Chosen People and Judaism as an ethnicity are regarded today; how these ideas influence relations between the Jewish people and other peoples
On Monday the rabbi went to the movies
Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Inglourious Basterds’ is a modern-day Midrash on the Purim story. I see the Biblical Book of Esther as an ancient Jewish fable of justice and revenge
Hartman Institute launches Hebrew website
Hartman Institute launches Hebrew website
Doing what we must to bring Gilad Shalit home
Our enemies may interpret the price we pay as weakness. We know it is not that we ignored the price but rather that it is our greatest strength
‘Language of the Other’ theme of Summer 2010 Rabbinic Torah Study Seminar
The 24th annual Shalom Hartman Institute Rabbinic Torah Seminar, July 5-15, 2010, will study ‘The Language of the Other,’ a theme that will resonate both with Jewish life in North America and with life in Israel
Hartman Institute announces reorganization for growth
The Shalom Hartman Institute is pleased to announce a new organizational structure built around three centers focusing on our core areas of advanced Judaic Studies research, educational initiatives in Israel, and North American leadership development.
Hartman rabbinical students seminar begins
The first cohort of 21 participants in the new Shalom Hartman Rabbinical Students Seminar began its yearlong study course Tuesday, October 27, 2009, with dinner, a getting-to-know-you session, and a discussion of the Zohar
Intimate relationships: Parents and children
All we really desire is to hear words that will validate us, that we will feel the embrace of someone who loves us, that we will hear in some way: My son, My daughter, My child, My grandchild, My love. What more do any of us desire? Unconditional love, from parents, lovers, spouses, children, and from God
NOW AVAILABLE! ‘Leadership and Crisis’: New lecture series for adult study and more on DVD
This new program offers study with leading scholars from Hartman Institute in Jerusalem at your convenience that will allow you to raise your community to a new level
Bloggers at Hartman Institute summer programs
Summertime programs at Shalom Hartman Institute are well under way. We have hundreds of rabbis, community leaders, and others here for seminars, havruta study, lectures, tours, and more. So, with visitors, we also have bloggers
New, returning programs in busy Hartman Institute summer (Video)
Shalom Hartman Institute is gearing up for a busy summer, with programs for rabbis, community leaders, Christians, philosophers from mid-June through July
Torah from heaven: Talmudic interpretations of Sinai
What makes the period from 200 BCE to 600 CE a coherent and revolutionary era in Judaism? Halbertal gives four reasons. Watch the video
New lodging specials now available for 2009 summer program participants
As you plan for your summertime 2009 sojourn in Jerusalem, here is information on where to stay while participating in Shalom Hartman Institute programs
Engage in Torah study to understand world around us
We must strive to establish the Torah for ourselves, our families and our communities as a vital, dynamic text, as relevant to our lives today as it was 2000 years ago
March 1, 2009, is final day for ‘Early Bird’ prices for Summer 2009 programs in Jerusalem
Rabbis looking to attend the Rabbinic Torah Study Seminar from July 6-16, and Jewish community leaders and professionals looking to attend the Lay Leaders Summer Retreat from July 1-8 must complete and pay for their registrations today to receive the special discount prices
Freedom in covenant: A celebration of Eugene Borowitz’s theological quest
Text of a video presentation by Rabbi Rachel Sabath Beit-Halachmi honoring Dr. Eugene Borowitz on his 85th birthday, February 17, 2009
The Modern Jew: Between Autonomy and Commitment
In this series of video lectures, Rabbi Rachel Sabath Beit-Halachmi discusses the tensions and challenges modern Jews face when balancing autonomy with commitment and community
Resilience and meaning in times of crisis set as theme of summer Lay Leadership Retreat
We will study the core values of our tradition regarding wealth, human need, and ultimate values in a time of unprecedented economic upheaval and uncertainty
Fighting a just war against Hamas justly
The war against Hamas is justifiable as long as the threat still exists, and only so long as further operations can have an effect on this threat
Hartman scholars participating in major Jewish education conference
Several Shalom Hartman Institute scholars will be participating in the international seminar of the Israel Association of Research in Jewish Education in Israel Jan. 7-9, 2009
Hartman Institute joins with Jewish leadership project
The Institute’s Lay Leadership Global Beit Midrash program now includes two sites where leadership group gathers, one in Los Angeles and one in Washington
2008-9 Lay Leadership Global Beit Midrash underway
Once a month, top lecturers from Shalom Hartman Institute, including Rabbi Prof. David Hartman, Rabbi Dr. Donniel Hartman, Micah Goodman and Rabbi Rachel Sabath Beit-Halachmi, transmit their knowledge to hundreds of lay leaders across North America by video conference
Shlomo Gronich concert video clip - exclusive
Israeli musician Shlomo Gronich performed a special concert at Shalom Hartman Institute on June 30,2008, for attendees of the Lay Leadership Summer Retreat program and others
Hartman Institute to host hundreds in busy summer
The impressive and challenging lineup of North American rabbis, educators, lay leaders and Christian scholars is sure to create the Institute`s most exciting summer. Find daily schedule here
Lay Leadership Summer Study Retreat: Sacred Jewish Narratives and Collective Memory
Through a close study of significant texts, major holidays, lifecycle rituals and historical events, we will explore the paradoxical role of Jewish narratives
Take Israel’s Declaration of Independence off the wall
Sixty years after Jews transcended their denominational divides to proclaim the establishment of a state “for the benefit of all its inhabitants,” have we succeeded in fulfilling their legacy of pluralism and tolerance?
Breaking the chain of terrorism
The army and Shin Bet, for all of their diligent work in preventing attacks, cannot put an end to terrorism; the true battlefield of terror is the human mind, and it is only there that it can be defeated
War and ethics in the IDF ethical code
The ethical code integrates proportionality and restriction into IDF operational policy, our attempt at maintaining moral integrity in way we handle conflict militarily
Summer plans under way at Hartman Institute
Full roster of programs for rabbis, community leaders, educators will fill summer calendar
Ongoing tasks of liberal Judaism
Rabbi Rachel Sabath Beit-Halachmi: Confronting these challenges is in fact deepening the interpretation of our tradition by ensuring that all Jews - regardless of family status - can be present at the ongoing revelation and interpretation of Torah
     
 
Kogod Research Center | Education | North American Leadership Initiatives Center | Boys High School | Girls High School
Melamdim | About Shalom Hartman Institute | Programs | Fellows | Calendar | Publications | Blog | Reshit | Havruta
Contact Us | Staff | Support Shalom Hartman Institute
Copyright ©2009 Shalom Hartman Institute - All rights reserved.