Rabbi Prof. David Hartman, born in Brooklyn in 1931, became a passionately engaged leader of liberal Orthodox thought in Israel and around the world. Never fully accepted by mainstream Orthodoxy, especially in Israel, he nonetheless built up institutions of Jewish learning and leadership in Jerusalem and North America that championed pluralism and an avant-garde participation in current social and political issues.
He passed away in February 2013, and in his memory this e-book brings together articles written exclusively for Haaretz.com by Rabbi Hartman himself, analyses of his thought and controversies by Haaretz writers, and eulogies written by academic and rabbinic colleagues and students from all parts of the Jewish religious spectrum.
CONTENTS
Foreword: " Rabbi David Hartman: From a poor boy from Brooklyn to an inspiring dream-merchant of faith" By Rabbi Dr. Donniel Hartman, President of the Shalom Hartman Institute of Jerusalem
Articles by Haaretz journalists
"The passionate leader of Orthodox renewal" By Yair Ettinger
"Israel’s avant-garde thinker" By Anshel Pfeffer
"In Israel, hatred begins at home. So does hope." By Bradley Burston
"Not mainstream after all these years" By Yair Sheleg
From his students and colleagues
"Rabbi David Hartman’s Torah of pluralism" By Rabbi Rick Jacobs
"The living covenant of David Hartman" By Prof. Avi Sagi
"Studying Jewish texts, a secular student recovers from the trauma of the Yom Kippur War" By Elisha Porat
"An unorthodox embrace of Jewish thought" By Yehoshua Gurtler
In his own words: articles by Rabbi David Hartman
"No way to legislate belief or religious practice"
"A Jewish identity by choice"
"From Pharaoh to Fuehrer, but not to abandon hope"
"New Jews v. reactionary rabbis"
