Birth name Ammiel Hirsch Role Rabbi Name Ammiel Hirsch | Nationality United States Positions Rabbi | |
 | ||
Other Former Executive Director, Association of Reform Zionists of America/World Union for Progressive Judaism, North America Parents Rabbi Richard G. and Bella Hirsch Books One People, Two Worlds: A Reform Rabbi and an Orthodox Rabbi Explore the Issues That Divide Them | ||
Faith to faith rabbi ammiel hirsch
Ammiel Hirsch (Hebrew: עמיאל הירש, also spelled Amiel Hirsch) (born 1959) is a Reform Jewish rabbi and a bar-certified lawyer in New York. He is the senior rabbi of Stephen Wise Free Synagogue and former Executive Director of the Association of Reform Zionists of America/World Union for Progressive Judaism, North America. In 2016, City & State New York magazine praised him as "the borough's most influential voice" for Manhattan's more than 300,000 Jews, and in 2015, the New York Observer named him among “New York’s Most Influential Religious Leaders.”
Contents
- Faith to faith rabbi ammiel hirsch
- Rabbi ammiel hirsch
- Early life and education
- Reform leadership
- Book collaboration
- References
Rabbi ammiel hirsch
Early life and education
He was born in the United States to Rabbi Richard G. Hirsch (born 1926) a Reform rabbi who founded that movement's Religious Action Center in Washington, D.C. and is Executive Director Emeritus of the World Union for Progressive Judaism. His mother is Bella Hirsch; he has two brothers and a sister.
Hirsch spent his high school years in Israel, serving in the IDF as a tank commander. He speaks fluent Hebrew. He went on to earn an LL.B Honors law degree from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and became a member of the New York State Bar in 1985. He received rabbinical ordination from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, New York, in 1989.
Reform leadership
From 1992–2004 Hirsch served as executive director of the Association of Reform Zionists of America (ARZA), the Israel arm of the North American Reform movement. An ardent Zionist, he guided ARZA to accept a new platform embracing Zionism in 1997. He was also a leader in the struggle against Israel's Orthodox religious establishment – which he called "the monopoly" – to recognize the Reform movement in Israel, and was influential in the successful lobbying effort to change Israel's Conversion Law to recognize conversions performed by non-Orthodox rabbis in Israel.
In 2004 he joined Stephen Wise Free Synagogue as Senior Rabbi.
Hirsch is also an officer of the New York Board of Rabbis and a member of the Partnership of Faith, an interfaith body of New York religious leaders. He lives in New York City.
Book collaboration
In 2000 a literary agent introduced Hirsch to Rabbi Yaakov Yosef Reinman, an Orthodox rabbi and Talmudic scholar, with the idea of collaborating on a book airing the Reform and Orthodox viewpoints on various issues. Their email correspondence over the next 18 months resulted in the book One People, Two Worlds: A Reform rabbi and an Orthodox rabbi explore the issues that divide them. The book was hailed by the religious left as a breakthrough in Orthodox recognition of religious pluralism, while generating criticism in Orthodox circles for Rabbi Reinman's willingness to conduct an official rabbinic dialogue with Reform. The book was denounced by the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of Agudath Israel of America and the heads of Beth Medrash Govoha, Lakewood, New Jersey, where Reinman received his rabbinic ordination. Reinman subsequently pulled out of a 14-city promotional tour after two appearances, leaving Hirsch to continue the tour on his own.