Reason Versus Faith

Oct 22, 2011 By Abigail Treu | Commentary | Text Study | Bereishit

If the ancients worried to prove God’s existence, the challenge of Darwinian evolution posed an even greater threat: counterevidence to the biblical account of Creation. In the postmodern era, we Jews-in-the-center find ourselves oddly caught in the middle of a debate portrayed in the news media as between those who insist literally on the biblical account and those who reject it altogether.

Can the Center Hold?

May 30, 2014 By Marc Gary | Commentary | Naso

“Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world”
—William Butler Yeats, “The Second Coming”

Last week, The Jewish Theological Seminary presented an honorary degree to Philip Roth, one of the greatest American writers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. The famous author must have received this recognition from an iconic Jewish institution with a certain measure of irony and satisfaction. After all, when his first book was published more than 50 years ago, an outraged American rabbi wrote to the Anti-Defamation League asking, “what is being done to silence that man?”

Walking Together with God

May 16, 2014 By Daniel Nevins | Commentary | Behukkotai

I saw a strange thing on my walk to minyan the other morning.

The Four Children

Apr 19, 2008 By Arnold M. Eisen | Commentary | Aharei Mot | Pesah

We are told to probe the narrative of the redemption from Egypt for insights about what is blocking redemption in our own day and how we can work to bring ultimate redemption into being. The question facing us as we approach the seder, then, is this: What shall we tell our children and grandchildren at Passover—particularly the teenagers, college students, and twenty-somethings who are gathered at the seder table?

Inauguration of Arnold M. Eisen As Chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary

Sep 5, 2007 By Arnold M. Eisen | Public Event video

Proclaiming that “we have important work to do,” Chancellor Arnold M. Eisen set forth his vision for the future of The Jewish Theological Seminary following his investiture as the seventh chancellor of JTS on September 5, 2007.

Abraham Joshua Heschel: The Call of Transcendence

Jan 23, 2014

Rabbi Shai Held discusses his book about Abraham Joshua Heschel with JTS Chancellor Arnold Eisen.

Heschel and Kaplan: Cross Sections and Intersections

Apr 18, 2013 By The Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event video

Dr. Susannah Heschel, as the devoted student of her father’s (Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel) life and thought, and Dr. Mel Scult, as biographer of Rabbi Morecai M. Kaplan and scholar of his voluminous diaries, discuss the private lives of Kaplan and Heschel, the relationship between them over many years of teaching at JTS, and their contributions as Jewish public intellectuals.

Empowered Judaism: What Independent Minyanim Can Teach Us about Building Vibrant Jewish Communities

Apr 27, 2010 By The Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event video

How will the independent minyan movement affect the traditional American Jewish community? What does this new movement imply for the future of synagogues and Jewish education?