Brad Hirschfield (born 1963)[1] is a rabbi, author, and president of the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership (CLAL). Hirschfield was ranked three years in a row in Newsweek as one of America's "50 Most Influential Rabbis"[2][3] and recognized as a leading “Preacher & Teacher” by Beliefnet.com.
Hirschfield was raised in a secular Jewish home but began to pursue a more traditionally observant life as a teenager thus becoming a baal teshuva. He moved to Israel and became involved with a settler group near Hebron. Becoming disenchanted with this approach, he returned to the United States, where he met and worked for Orthodox rabbi and CLAL founder Irving Greenberg. He went on to pursue his own rabbinical studies, and became a proponent of interfaith dialogue and pluralist attitudes.[1][8][9]
Hirschfield is the current president of Clal - The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, which describes itself as "A leadership training institute, think tank and resource center committed to religious pluralism and the healthier use of religion in American public life."[7]
Hirschfield is the editor of Remember for Life: Holocaust Survivors’ Stories of Faith and Hope[14] and a co-author of Embracing Life & Facing Death: A Jewish Guide to Palliative Care.[15] In 2008 he published You Don’t Have To Be Wrong For Me To Be Right: Finding Faith Without Fanaticism,[16] described by a reviewer in The Christian Century as "a breathtaking treatise on the perils of rigid religious behavior".[17]
Hirschfield conceived and hosted two series for Bridges TV, an American Muslim television network: Building Bridges: Abrahamic Perspectives on the World Today (three seasons)[18][19] and American Pilgrimage.[20] With his CLAL co-president Irwin Kula he co-hosts a weekly radio show called Hirschfield and Kula on KXL in Portland, Oregon.[21][22]
Hirschfield writes a column, "For God’s Sake," for The Washington Post’s On Faith section.[23] He writes the "Windows and Doors" blog for Beliefnet, where he is featured as a "Preacher and Teacher." He is a regular commentator on ethical issues for truTV.
He was featured, along with students and professors from the University of Oklahoma religious studies program, in a documentary entitled, Freaks Like Me, on the subject of religion in the age of terrorism.[24][25]
^ abAdam Phillips, "Brad Hirschfield Brings Style to Interfaith Activism: Influential New York rabbi hosts a weekly talk show on an American Muslim TV network to encourage religious inclusiveness, tolerance" Archived June 14, 2010, at the Wayback Machine, Voice of America, December 10, 2009.
^"50 Influential Rabbis", Newsweek, April 30, 2009.
^"The Top 50 Rabbis in America". Archived from the original on 2007-04-22. Retrieved 2010-06-17., Newsweek, April 2, 2007.
^Johanna Ginsberg, "A rabbi’s journey to tolerance" Archived 2010-09-10 at the Wayback Machine, New Jersey Jewish News, January 31, 2008.
^by Menachem Wecker, "A rabbi and an imam walked into a coffee shop ...Dialogue focuses on faith without fanaticism" Archived August 11, 2011, at the Wayback Machine, Washington Jewish Week, January 16, 2008.
^Brad Hirschfield official website Archived 2010-02-01 at the Wayback Machine (accessed June 17, 2010).
^Carla Hinton, "Noted rabbi’s book gets positive reaction from UCO", The Oklahoman, November 21, 2009.
^"Nightline UpClose: Brad Hirschfield"[permanent dead link], December 26, 2002 (accessed June 17, 2010).
^"Interview Rabbi Brad Hirschfield", interview for Frontline program Faith and Doubt at Ground Zero (2002), interview conducted winter 2002 (accessed June 19, 2010).
^"Rabbi Teaches Hope In Trying Times", Tell Me More, January 9, 2009 (accessed June 17, 2010).
^"You Don't Have To Be Wrong For Me To Be Right", The Spirit of Things (Australian Broadcasting Corporation), February 21, 2010 (accessed June 17, 2010).
^Remember for Life: Holocaust Survivors’ Stories of Faith and Hope (The Jewish Publication Society, 2007), ISBN 978-0-8276-0875-7. Excerpts available at Google Books.
^Embracing Life & Facing Death: a Jewish Guide to Palliative Care (CLAL, 1992), ISBN 978-0-9633329-0-5. Official book page Archived 2011-06-12 at the Wayback Machine at CLAL website.
^You Don't Have to Be Wrong for Me to Be Right: Finding Faith Without Fanaticism (Harmony Books, 2008; reprint ed., Random House, Inc., 2009), ISBN 978-0-307-38298-6. Excerpts available at Google Books.
^Peter W. Marty, "Big enough God", The Christian Century, January 13, 2009 (review of You Don't Have to Be Wrong for Me to Be Right).
^Steve Lipman, "'McLaughlin' Meets 'God Squad'" Archived 2011-06-15 at the Wayback Machine, The Jewish Week, November 10, 2006.