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Noam

Zion

Senior Fellow Emeritus

Noam Zion is a Senior Fellow Emeritus of the Kogod Research Center at the Shalom Hartman Institute since 1978. He studied philosophy and holds degrees from Columbia University and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He studied bible and rabbinics at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America and the Hartman Beit Midrash.

In the past, he led the Tichon program for North American Jewish educators and he teaches in Hartman Institute rabbinic programs: the Be’eri program for Israeli high school teachers and Hillel courses for the Hartman Institute’s iEngage program.

In addition, he also works with the Muslim Leadership Institute, the Hevruta gap year program for Israeli and American Jews, and the Angelica Ecumenical Studies program in collaboration with the Vatican University Angelicum in Rome.

He has developed study guides on bible, holidays and rabbinic ethics. In the past, he participated on the research team for the iEngage project. He published an extensive study guide on ethics in war that was completed during the campaign in Gaza.

His publications and worldwide lectures have focused on “homemade Judaism” – empowering families to create their own pluralistic Judaism during home holidays, including Pesach, Hanukkah, and Shabbat. His most popular publications include:

His most recent academic research, published in 2013, was a trilogy on the intellectual history of philanthropy entitled Jewish Giving in Comparative Perspectives. The trilogy includes:

  • From Each According to One’s Ability: Duties to Poor People from the Bible to the Welfare State and Tikkun Olam
  • To Each According to One’s Social Needs: The Dignity of the Needy from Talmudic Tzedakah to Human Rights
  • For the Love of God: Comparative Religious Motivations for Giving

Using that research, he has been conducting seminars on Jewish, Christian, and Greek models of giving for fundraisers, educators, and donors in North America.

Noam’s next publication will be a seven-part series on The Spouse and the Other Woman: Talmudic Marital Dramas.

Noam Zion

AllArticlesVideosBooks

Jun 2, 2022

Steve was in the first cohort of Hartman’s Rabbinic Leadership Initiative and an invaluable member of the Hartman Beit Midrash for decades.

Feb 2, 2022

Elana Stein Hain in conversation with Noam Zion about his new book, Sanctified Sex: The Two-Thousand-Year Jewish Debate on Marital Intimacy.

Jul 14, 2021

Noam Zion explores advice from the Torah through the Talmud to the contemporary debate on sexual and emotional needs and the pursuit of spiritual fulfillment and sanctity.

Apr 4, 2020

To supplement ‘A Different Night’ or any other haggadah: tips to help you connect, while apart, for a socially distant meaningful, memorable Passover.

Nov 20, 2019

Jewish and Muslim feminist readers use midrash-style poetry to rewrite the ending of the story, in hope of reconciling the contemporary conflict between their putative descendants.

Nov 28, 2018

Noam Zion on Hanukkah 5779

Apr 4, 2017

Arthur Szyk believed artists could not escape to still lifes, abstractions, and experiments while Jewish life was involved in terrible tragedy.

Mar 30, 2017

The Four Questions should not be confined to teaching historical information to children; they are a characteristic of the adult intellectual culture during the time of the Rabbis

May 1, 2016

Noam Zion, Steve Israel

The problem of evil is a result of a discrepancy of expectations and experience, of ideals and reality, of what we believe and how we interpret what we encounter.

Feb 1, 2016

Sep 30, 2015

A medieval rabbi builds a 'city of justice and tzedakah' by rescuing the poor

Aug 31, 2015

To Hartman rabbis from the tales of the Talmudic rabbis, compiled and edited by Noam Zion

Sep 2, 2014

It is so hard to hold back the waves of radicalization and alienation

Sep 1, 2014

Halacha, or Jewish law, literally means the way of walking, and Rosh Hashana is about checking your bearings and taking new paths where necessary.

Jul 30, 2014

The Mystical Background of L’cha Dodi and Kabbalat Shabbat

Nov 17, 2013

Pre-Hanukkah webinar on one of David Hartman’s classic arguments about Maimonides’ integration of halacha and aggadah – the preference for Shabbat over Hanukkah candles.

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